[Inclosure No. 2.]

HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT NO.1, Tallahausee, March 28, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel CAPERS,
Commanding, &c., Taylor County:

COLONEL: Your report, the oath, and roster of the deserters, and Mr. W. W. Strickland's letter of the 27th instant, have been received and submitted to Brigadier-General Gardner. I am directed by him to say, in reply to Mr. Strickland's letter, that the terms of his proclamation of the 18th instant (copies of which are herein inclosed to Mr. Strickland, with request that the distribute them to his men) are very plain and very lenient. The general does not regard the oath to the United States referred to in Mr. Strickland's letter as binding upon him or his men unless administered by an officer or some delegated authority sent by that Government and voluntarily received by the men of Taylor County. Mr. Strickland's letter has been referred to General Anderson for his decision, with recommendation that those who have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States be received as we do deserters from that Government, provided they come in an consider themselves in good faith citizens of the United States. Those who have deserted from our Army and will come in by the 5th of April will be sent to their regiments and those subject to the military service who have never been in it are recommended to be employed to tend and drive beef, provided they come in and give themselves up. If Mr. Strickland will meet your under a flag of truce it is the opinion of the brigadier-general commanding that this whole matter can be settled without further difficulty. These people must know that they are doing wrong, and are acting in a way that will not be recognized by any civil government. They have no doubt been imposed upon by the shrewdness of Yankee speculators and advised to thus act against their own people and friends. The women and children will be sent to the rear and strictly guarded until until this difficulty is settled.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. L. CROSS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Sub-inclosure.]

CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT NO.1.

Moseley Hall, March 18, 1864.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

The commanding general is prepared with ample forces and means to enter the counties of Taylor and Lafayette and visit prompt punishment upon deserters and others who may be found offering resistance to the military authorities of the Confederate States or doing violence to persons or property of their loyal fellow-citizens. He feels assured that many soldiers have been pursuaded by the inducements and influences of designing men to absent themselves from their commands and even to band together with the ruffians who have by their misdeeds finally attracted the attention of the Government to them. To these a full pardon and restoration to their commands is extended, provided they voluntarily report at these headquarters or to the conscript camp at Madison, Fla., before the 5th day of April next. To those deserters or others who may be deaf to the clemency offered severe punishment will be administered. All those who may be found with arms in their hands will be shot without mercy. The families of deserters and the