Edwin M. Stanton to Respectfully returned to the President, November 5, 1864

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War in accordance with ne suggestion, with the following draught of the proposed general order:

1. When free negroes are enrolled or slaves are hired or impressed under the act of February 17, 1864, and assigned to service with the bureaus of the War Department, each bureau will pay the negroes so assigned upon the forms and in the same manner as other employés are now paid. The negroes enrolled will be paid $11 a month, and slaves hired or impressed schedule rates, as prescribed by the State commissioners.

2. Each bureau will also provide such negroes and all other employés in its service with the necessary woolen shirts, jackets, and pants, and blankets, overcoats, and’ shoes. Cotton pants, shirts, drawers, socks, and caps will be provided by the Quartermaster’s Department on requisitions made quarterly, showing the number of the employés to be supplied, and submitted for the approval of the Quartermaster-General. In purchasing these supplies abroad any bureau may avail of the services of the purchasing quartermaster at Nassau or in England. A. R. LAWTON, Quartermaster-General.

Richmond, October 8, 1864.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DavVIs, President of the Confederate States :

DEAR S1R: Ido not feel comfortable at being idle in times like these, and yet am not able to shoulder a gun in field service, or I would ere this have been with the brave battalion of my Maryland boys, who have shown such devotion under General Lee. To attempt to carry out the contemplated organization of the Maryland troops in the Valley would now be attended with more labor and with less results than in the spring, and for that and other reasons I think it best for the public interest not to press the matter at this time. My attention has frequently been called to the probable intention of the Government to organize a secret-service corps in connection with or to embrace the Signal Corps. If such be the case, and the matter is open, and you feel at liberty to intrust me with the command, I feel confident that I can render efficient service quite commensurate with the expenditure to be incurred. Should I fail to do so, or to come fully up to your expectation, you may rely upon it that I will promptly and voluntarily surrender the trust without waiting to have my commission revoked. My view would be to organize a full regiment of Marylanders not owing service to the Confederacy, not in service, many of whom I feel confident I can bring over the border to organize a corps of heavy artillery to be available on the Potomac, and thus by the activity and energy of the material I should embody I think the navigation of the Potomac by transports could be materially embarrassed at important moments, if deemed necessary by General Lee, and the communication between Grant and Washington, and also between that officer and his troops in the Valley, carried on principally by telegrams along the Potomac country, severed and interfered with, so as to make it comparatively useless when most needed. My relations with men on the other side, their sons being with me, and my knowledge of men and things up to the Canada line, would very materially facilitate such operations.

I do not, of course, know if the plans I suggest are within your province to have executed, but I beg respectfully to suggest them for your consideration. If anything of the kind is to be done, it would, of course, be desirable to enter upon it as soon as practicable.

very respectfully, dear sir, your most obedient servant,