HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, October 24, 1863.

Major-General HALLECK,

General-in-Chief U. S. Army:

The cases of Quakers who have conscientious scruples in regard to bearing arms or paying money as a commutation for military service may be provided for without injury to the public or objection on their part by assigning them to duty as nurses and attendants in hospitals.

They do not object to being employed in nursing the sick of bearing arms, without any sacrifice of principle on the part of the Government. Several cases have occurred in this department, and I take the liberty of suggesting the adoption of the above rule to meet them and all others of the same character.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General, Commanding.

NASHVILLE, TENN., October 25, 1863.

Major General U. S. GRANT,

Chattanooga:

GENERAL: I have come thus far on my way to have a personal conference with you, but here learn from an officer just from Bridgeport that you have gone forward to Chattanooga. It will take more time that I can possibly spare now to follow you to that place. I therefore write.

I received a copy of your letter of the 26th of September to the Secretary of the Treasury, and wrote to you upon its receipt, directing my letter to you at Vicksburg and sending with it a copy of the regulations of the Secretary.

I am fully satisfied that your conclusions as to trade in your department are correct, and they are in entire harmony with those of the Administration at Washington. I shall adopt them at once, and make such local rules for action in pursuance of them under the regulations of September 11, 1863, as may be necessary to conduct trade throughout your department in such manner as to prevent supplies from reaching the enemy, and also to prevent as far as possible any interference with your military operations.

I beg to refer you to Regulation IX. Under this I will regard the lines of the "trade district" in your department down the Mississippi, those indicated by you in an interview at Vicksburg, as your advance military lines. I will regard your advance lines in Eastern Tennessee, &c., as embracing the "trade district" in that section, thus regarding all that portion of the insurrectionary States within the lines of national military occupation throughout your department as "trade districts" within the definition of Regulation IX of the Secretary of the Treasury. Then, in pursuance of your suggestions and of Regulation XIV, I will authorize trade stores at military posts only, and at such posts only as shall be regarded safe and proper by the local military officers in command of districts. But whenever any trade at all is authorized at any post or place, it will be made as near a free trade to alter and give the requisite bonds, as can be done consistently with the condition of the country where it is to be carried on.