defended with a few pieces of artillery. The question is, how to determine before landing the character of the vessels and when to use the batteries. A small tug might be employed to speak vessels. I have here over 200 troops; 300 will be here to-morrow and four Napoleon guns.

W. T. H. BROOKS,

Major-General.

MILWAUKEE, WIS., November 13, 1863.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Your dispatch of the 11th instant in relation to the Canadian plot is received. I have taken the precautionary measures suggested by you and shall use due diligence in the matter. So far I have discovered nothing of a suspicious character. If anything should occur worthy of note I shall immediately communicate with your Department.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

EDWD. O"NEIL,

Mayor.

[NOVEMBER 13, 1863. - For Couch to Townsend, relating to difficulties in the mining district of Hazleton, Pa., in connection with the draft, see Series I, Vol. XXIX, Part II, p. 451.]

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Numbers 135.
Saint Louis, Mo., November 14, 1863.

Whereas the exigencies of the war require that colored troops should be recruited in the State of Missouri, the following regulations, having been approved and ordered by the President, will govern the recruiting service for colored troops in Missouri, viz:

I. All able-bodied colored men, whether free or slaves, will be received into the service, the loyal owners of slaves enlisted being entitled to receive compensation as hereinafter provided.

II. All persons enlisted into the service shall forever thereafter be free.

III. None but able-bodied persons shall be enlisted.

IV. The State and county in which the enlistments are made shall be credited with the recruits enlisted.

V. The owner of every slave recruited into the service shall receive from the recruiting officer a certificate to that effect, together witch a copy of the descriptive list of the person enlisted.

VI. A board of three persons is to be appointed by the President, to whom the rolls and recruiting lists shall be furnished, for public information, and on demand exhibited to any person claiming under oath that his or her slave has been enlisted, and that he or she has not received a certificate and descriptive list, as provided in paragraph V.

Any such person shall also be permitted to inspect the recruits at any recruiting station, or at the general rendezvous, for the purpose of identification.

VII. If any person shall, within ten days after the filing of said rolls, make a claim for the service of any person so enlisted, the