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Hoyt and Reynolds & Co., and send said Boynton and the books and papers to these headquarters under guard.

Respectfully yours,

Major PERKINS,

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United States Prorost Marshal, Hartford, Connecticut.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, January 12, 1865.

COLONEL: By General Dix's order, on your request, I return your account books. You will please draw off exact transcripts from your ledgers of all accounts relating to the Texas adventure, and every other adventure and business with which Harris Hoyt had any connection, and also exact transcripts from your journals and cash books of all entries thereon in relation to the above adventures and business, in the exact order in which they stand on your books.

These accounts, certified by you and accompanied by all the vouchers on which they rest, you will please send to these headquarters as soon as practicable to my address.

By command of Major General Dix:

Colonel WM. H. REYNOLDS,

JOHN A. BOLLES,

45 William Street, New York City.

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, January 19, 1865.

CAPTAIN: I understand that General Freyas, (I think that is the name,) to some extent represented Governor Sprague and acted for him in that Harris Hoyt Texas adventure, (September and November, 1862,) about which Colonel Ludlow, with your help, took some testimony in Providence. Please obtain from him, and transmit to me, his sworn statement of all he knows in regard to that adventure.

Respectfully yours,

Captain Wм. E. HAMLIN,

JOHN A. BOLLES,
Judge Advocate.

Provost Marshal, First District, Providence, R. I.

P. S.-Please obtain and forward a like statement from B. B. and R. Knight.

J. A. B.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, March 22, 1865.

GENERAL: In the investigation of the facts connected with the case of Harris Hoyt, now under charges for alleged violation of the blockade and kindred violation of the laws of war, the evidence disclosed tends to prove that Hoyt was a subordinate agent employed by other men who set on

of the Department of the East, June 9, 1865, directing, in the name of the Secretary of War, the release on parole of Harris Hoyt, the immediate manager of the Texas adventure, and the principal witness against the persons whose prosecution was then contemplated.

8. Letter from the department commander to the Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, New York, June 12, 1865, ordering the release of Harris Hoyt from the house of detention upon the execution of an accompanying parole.

9. Letter from the attorney of Byron Sprague, one of the accused persons, to the department commander, June 26, 1865, notifying him of the intention of the said Byron Sprague to contest in the civil courts his arrest and restraint by military authority, and demanding that he be released from further restraint and duress.

10. Letter from Harris Hoyt to his attorney, August 13, 1865, requesting, for reasons of business and convenience, that he be discharged from his parole, or that the same be extended.

11. Letter from Headquarters Department of the East to the attorney of Harris Hoyt, August 18, 1865, extending the parole of the latter person, as requested.

12. The other papers upon which the report of the Judge Advocate General, of June 15, 1865, was founded-though duly returned by him to the War Department-have disappeared from its files and cannot now be discovered.

WM. W. BELKNAP,
Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, December 13, 1864.

SIR: In consequence of disclosures made to me, I deem it my duty to advise you to prevent, for the present, the canceling of the bond given by Reynolds & Co. on the cargo of the Caraccas, from New York to Matamoras; and also, to notify you that on board the Warrior, daily expected in from Matamoras, there is a large amount of cotton that should be seized and held for forfeiture.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SIMON DRAPER, Esq.,

Collector, &c., New York City.

JOHN A. DIX,
Major General.

P.S.-McDennison, the naval officer, is aware of, and on the lookout for, the arrival of the Warrior.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, December 15, 1864.

SIR: You will please arrest J. W. Boynton, (of Boynton Machinery Agency, Hartford, Connecticut,) and take into your custody his books of account, letter-books, files of letters and accounts, and all books and papers exhibiting his correspondence since September, 1862, with Harris

Hoyt and Reynolds & Co., and send said Boynton and the books and papers to these headquarters under guard.

Respectfully yours,

Major PERKINS,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major General.

United States Provost Marshal, Hartford, Connecticut.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, January 12, 1865.

COLONEL: By General Dix's order, on your request, I return your account books. You will please draw off exact transcripts from your ledgers of all accounts relating to the Texas adventure, and every other adventure and business with which Harris Hoyt had any connection, and also exact transcripts from your journals and cash books of all entries thereon in relation to the above adventures and business, in the exact order in which they stand on your books.

These accounts, certified by you and accompanied by all the vouchers on which they rest, you will please send to these headquarters as soon as practicable to my address.

By command of Major General Dix:

Colonel WM. H. REYNOLDS,

JOHN A. BOLLES,

45 William Street, New York City.

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, January 19, 1865.

CAPTAIN: I understand that General Freyas, (I think that is the name,) to some extent represented Governor Sprague and acted for him in that Harris Hoyt Texas adventure, (September and November, 1862,) about which Colonel Ludlow, with your help, took some testimony in Providence. Please obtain from him, and transmit to me, his sworn statement of all he knows in regard to that adventure.

Respectfully yours,

Captain WM. E. HAMLIN,

JOHN A. BOLLES,
Judge Advocate.

Provost Marshal, First District, Providence, R. I. P. S.-Please obtain and forward a like statement from B. B. and R. Knight.

J. A. B.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, March 22, 1865. GENERAL: In the investigation of the facts connected with the case of Harris Hoyt, now under charges for alleged violation of the blockade and kindred violation of the laws of war, the evidence disclosed tends to prove that Hoyt was a subordinate agent employed by other men who set on

foot the enterprise, furnished the capital, vessels, and cargoes, and were the principals in a vast scheme of bringing cotton from Texas.

Those other and principal parties are American citizens of wealth and high social and political position. One of them is a United States Senator. It seems to be unjust that the subordinate Hoyt should be selected as the sole offender for prosecution and punishment.

But the question of proceeding against the other parties involved is one of such magnitude and delicacy that I most respectfully ask for your express instructions in regard thereto.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A BOLLES,

Major and Aide-de-Camp, Judge Advocate.

Major General JOHN A. DIX,
Commanding Department.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, March 23, 1865.

SIR: I inclose a letter from Major Bolles, judge advocate, in regard to a matter which I deem it proper to submit to you for instructions. Harris Hoyt, of Texas, was arrested by me several months ago for the violation of the laws of war, by running goods into, and cotton out of, that State, and is still in custody. One of the vessels concerned in thus giving aid and comfort to the enemy was captured by a United States cruiser, and confiscated. The parties who furnished the capital, knowing how it was to be employed, were Messrs. William Sprague, United States Senator, Byron Sprague, his brother, and William H. Reynolds & Co. These gentlemen are all engaged in business in Providence, Rhode Island, where the enterprises were fitted out. Messrs. B. B. & R. Knight, and Messrs. Orange, Taft & Co., of Providence, also furnished a part of the capital, but it is not clear that they were fully advised of the manner in which it was to be used.

The high social standing of these gentlemen makes the case one of great delicacy, and I regard it also as a question of importance whether the proceedings against them should be by a military commission or in a civil court; whether the facts charged, if proved, constitute a mere violation of the laws of war, or a higher crime under the Constitution of the United States.

There are at least two witnesses to the fact of illicit trade, and ample written proof.

Harris Hoyt and Charles L. Prescott, who were parties in interest, are willing to testify to all the facts in the case, provided their doing so shall not inure to their own conviction.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

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SIR: The Secretary of War directs the release of Mr. Harris Hoyt, (now confined in the house of detention for witnesses, in New York

City, charged with being engaged in blockade-running,) upon his giving his parole to appear when called for.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Major General JOHN A. DIX,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant General.

Commanding Department of the East, New York City.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, June 12, 1865.

SIR: Conformably to orders from the War Department, you will please discharge Harris Hoyt, upon his signing the inclosed parole. Please return the parole, when signed and witnessed, to these headquarters.

Respectfully yours,

Hon. JOHN A. KENNEDY,

Superintendent Metropolitan Police.

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PROVIDENCE, R. I., June 26, 1865.

DEAR SIR: Mr. Byron Sprague, of this city, proposes to test, upon a judicial inquiry in the courts of common law, the question of the legality of the arrest of his person which was made by your order, upon the 8th day of December, 1864, and also the legality of the restraint which, by the exaction of his parole, has been imposed upon him since that time.

Mr. Sprague is not actuated to this course by any desire to retaliate upon any officer of the Government for the great injury which he has sustained in consequence of the proceedings which have been taken, but to vindicate, before an impartial jury and a court where the forms of law are observed, his reputation from the odium of the charge which has been made against him, and which the long-continued refusal to discharge his parole gives strength to.

Before taking, however, the steps which he meditates, I have advised him that it is proper to make another request that he be discharged from his parole, in order that it may not be truly said that through any inadvertence this act of justice to him has been omitted.

I have, therefore, in his behalf and by his direction, to respectfully demand that he be honorably discharged from all further restraint and daress on account of the matters for which he was arrested and is now held upon parole.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
BENJ. F. THURSTON,
Attorney for Byron Sprague.

Major General JOHN A. DIX.

CHICAGO, August 13, 1865.

DEAR SIR: I have written to my wife, some time since, requesting her to see you and ask you to do me the favor to call at the headquar ters of General Hooker and get a further extension of my parole.

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