HEADQUARTERS MIDDLE MILITARY DIVISION,
December 17, 1864.

General STEVENSON:

I want you to give General Thomas 100 guns for his second brilliant victory on the 16th instant.

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General.

HARPER'S FERRY, VA., December 17, 1864.

Major-General SHERIDAN:

General Seward reports 150 of Rosser's command in vicinity of Martinsburg, and that McNeill's command is in Back Creek Valley. Seward says for want of cavalry he is not able to strike them.

Respectfully,

JNO. D. STEVENSON,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, December 17, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have just received your letter of the 15th instant, advising me that the President does not approve that part of my General Order, No. 97, which instructs all military commanders on the frontier, in certain cases therein specified, to cross the boundary between the United States and Canada, and directs pursuit into neutral territory. I shall immediately revoke the portion of the order thus disapproved. I beg leave, most respectfully, to represent that the revocation of this direction to military commanders on the frontier removes all hope of capturing marauders who cross the boundary line for the purpose of committing depredations on our side. When Saint Albans was attacked, the banks robbed, and several of the citizens shot, one of them mortally, a telegraphic dispatch was immediately sent to me, and was promptly answered by me, and yet so rapid were the movements of the marauders that before my orders reached the pursuers the guilty parties had been arrested and delivered up, with the stolen property, amounting to several hundred thousand dollars, tot he Canadian authorities. When it is considered that Saind Albans is several miles within the boundary line, it will be perceived that the pursuit of marauders will be wholly unavailing from points directly on the frontier, if authority to pursue is to be waited for. When I issued Order No. 97, I has satisfactory information from Toronto that a predatory expedition had been organized against Ogdensburg, separated from Canada by the River Saint Lowrence, less than a mile in width. If the local commander, in case of an attack on the place, is required to telegraph for orders to me, it is quite manifest that the marauders will be beyond his reach before he will receive my answer. There are strong manifestions of a purpose on the part of our citizens on the frontier to take the pursuit and capture of marauders into their own hands; and a desire to prevent these unauthorized acts of individuals was one of my motives in giving the authority in question to the local commanders. I do not state these considerations with the expectation