SPECIAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 186.
Washington, May 24, 1864.

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16. Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke, U. S. Army, is hereby assigned to duty as Superintendent of the General Recruiting Service of the U. S. Army. The superintendents of the regimental recruiting services will at once report by letter to him at New York City.

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By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPT., PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., May 24, 1864.

Major W. H. SIDELL,

Actg. Asst. Provost-Marshal-General, Louisville, Ky.:

Questions as to the payment of commutation by drafted slaves or their masters and the substitution of one slave for another in the draft have been the subject of correspondence with this office. When cases actually arise in the progress of the draft, let the facts of the names and the particulars be reported to me.

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Milwaukee, Wis., May 24, 1864.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to transmit inclosed an extract from a letter just received from General Sibley, commanding District of Minnesota.

You will perceive from this report that the Sioux Indians, who committed in 1862 the horrible and indiscriminate murder of men, women, and children in the frontier towns and settlements of Minnesota, are still harbored in the English settlements along the northern frontier of that State. Outlawed among the whites and driven from among the Indian tribes of the plains, these miscreants, unless subsisted and countenanced by the English settlers and traders, must long since have perished with want, or have surrendered unconditionally to the military authorities of the United States. As matters stand these Indians have found a refuge in sight of the frontier settlements of Minnesota, and, subsisted and supplied with ammunition by English subjects, they are lying in wait for an opportunity to renew the depredations and recommit the terrible massacre upon defenseless women and children at which humanity has stood aghast. Although repeated remonstrances have ben adressed to the British authorities, accompanied by urgent request that these outlaws be driven from the British settlements and refused provisions and ammunition, delivered up to the U. S. authorities, or that in case no sufficient force is available for this latter purpose, the military forces of the United States be permitted to pursue and destroy them