Mrs. Hoyt writes me that she had not seen you up to the 8th instant. I therefore address this to you, and would be obliged if you will take the trouble to call and see the proper parties, and in case you cannot procure my discharge please get an extension of thirty days, on the ground that I have important business to attend to in Chicago, and cannot get through so as to be in New York by the 25th, the time my parole expires, without great inconvenience and expense. Please write me and let me know the result of your call at headquarters. Direct to me at No. 39 Meigs Street, Rochester, New York.

Yours truly,

J. D. TOWNSEND, Esq.,

54 Wall Street, New York.

HARRIS HOYT.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, August 18, 1865.

Mr. Harris Hoyt, who was released from confinement at New York City by orders from the War Department, on his parole to appear when called for, is permitted to remain in Chicago, Illinois, until September 30, 1865, reporting his address to these headquarters (No. 49 Bleecker Street, New York City) every seven days, by letter; at the expiration of which time he will report in person to these headquarters. By command of Major General Hooker.

D. T. VAN BUREN,

Brevet Brigadier General and Assistant Adjutant General.

J. D. TOWNSEND,

Attorney for Mr. Hoyt, 54 Wall Street, New York.

In further compliance with the resolution of the Senate of December 14, 1870, additional information in relation to the traffic with rebels during the war, alleged to have been entered into on the part of Hoyt, Sprague, and others.

JANUARY 17, 1871.—Referred to the Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Traffic with Rebels in the State of Texas During the Late War, and ordered to be printed.

WAR DEPARTMENT,
January 17, 1871.

The Secretary of War has the honor to submit to the Senate of the United States, in further compliance with the resolution of December 14. 1870, additional papers pertaining to the so-called Texas adventure, alleged to have been entered into during the late war by William Sprague, a Senator of the United States, and other citizens of Rhode Island.

WM. W. BELKNAP,
Secretary of War.

John A. Bolles to Major General Dix.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,

New York City, May 5, 1865.

GENERAL: I submit herewith the following papers, containing the evidence in regard to various parties concerned with Harris Hoyt in bringing cotton from Texas, viz:

1. Memorandum of Hoyt's examination.

2. Hoyt's first and second voluntary statements.

3. Hoyt's confidential statement:

4. Memorandum of Prescott's examination.

5. Prescott's written statement.

6. Byron Sprague's two examinations.

7. Memorandum of Reynolds' examination. 8. Reynolds' written statement.

9. Knight's written statement. 10. Taft's written statement. 11. Frieze's written statement. 12. Compton's statement.

13. Copies of papers found on Hoyt, and referred to in his statement.

14. Copies of letters of Senator Sprague to Major General Dix, dated December 10, 1864, and January 23 and February 10, 1865.

These documents furnish a history of the so-called "Texas adventure,” first brought to your knowledge by the voluntary communication of Charles L. Prescott. There were found in Hoyt's possession, and have been furnished by Prescott, or obtained from the books and files of Reynolds & Company, many papers, accounts, &c., which substantiate the statement of Prescott, and show the magnitude and character of this "adventure."

From the inclosed, however, the Judge Advocate General will obtain all the information needful to enable him to judge what steps shall be taken, if any, against the various parties implicated.

My time has been so engrossed by the active duties of judge advocate that I have been unable to prepare such a summary of this evidence as was asked for by the Judge Advocate General's letter to you, dated April 6, and alluded to in your answer of April 8.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Major General JOHN A. DIX,

Commanding Department of the East.

JOHN A. BOLLES,

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

In July, 1863, I was in Houston, Brenham, or somewhere in the interior of Texas. Up to that time I had not seen Mr. Brastow after leaving New York, nor had I received any letter from him. I cannot tell whether the letter from him reached me in Matamoras or in New York, after my return. Before I went from New York to Matamoras, I first met Mr. Brastow at the Metropolitan Hotel, or at William H. Reynolds's counting-room. He seemed to be employed in the supervision of the purchases or of the accounts of goods by the Snow Drift.

A*. Martin, whose name is on this paper, is a man reported to me at Matamoras as having teams, by which I hoped to get my carding machines carried into Texas. This paper, A*, is one I found on board the Snow Drift, with the regular manifest, in Havana. I don't know in whose writing it is. I cannot say why the goods therein named were not put on the manifest. They were not on board the Snow Drift when she arrived at Havana. They were not put on board the Cora to my knowledge. I have no knowledge that they came out in the Ella Warley. They were not purchased by my suggestion.

B*. I think the whole cost of Snow Drift and cargo was about $17,000. This paper I found with the one I just spoke of, (A*.)

C*. Hale & Company (of which Maloney was the head) was a Spanish mercantile house in Matamoras, so called, though the partners were mostly Irish or English. I consigned the whole cargo of the Cora to them.

First. I do not know what the first item, (register,) means.

Second. The second item, " cartage," is, I suppose, for the carting of the cargo of the Cora from the lighter to their warehouse.

Third. The third item, "labor," the same.

Fourth. The fourth item must be a charge on cotton that Hale & Company (Maloney) were to have purchased and shipped on joint ac

count—160 bales-on joint account with me, to have been shipped on the Cora, but which was not bought or shipped to my knowledge. I paid this item because they had the money, and I could not help myself. Fifth. The fifth item is a charge on my two carding machines-freight from the mouth of the river to Matamoras-eighty miles by the river. Sixth. The sixth item is a charge on the freight of the cargo of the Cora from the mouth of the river.

Seventh. The seventh item is a draft for a pair of horses with which bought of Hicks) I went into Texas.

Eighth. The eighth item is part of the freight on goods that I sent into Texas.

Ninth. This item is for cotton bought at my request, of Moses, by
Maloney, (Hale & Company,) which was delivered to my brother Horace
Hoyt, who was then running a cotton-press at the mouth of the river Rio
Grande. It was sent to New York, cannot say in what vessel or when,
and sold here, as my brother said. He is now in Morris, Illinois.
Tenth. Can't explain item ten.

Eleventh. Nor this.

Twelfth. This is the freight on the twenty bales spoken of in item No. 9, as bought of Moses.

Thirteenth. Lighterage of the Cora's cargo over the bar in.

Fourteenth. Ferrying my machines across to Brownsville, Texas. The Confederate general then in command at Brownsville was General Bee. Seventeenth. The cotton here charged for was some that I had agreed to take on freight on the Cora to New York or Havana, for Bochart & Co., commission for obtaining the freight. The cotton was not sent becausé the vessel could not cross the bar with the cotton on board. The reason why I did not send the cotton outside the bar in lighters was that it would have cost me five dollars a bale. There were one hundred and eighty bales.

I had found that the Cora drew too much water when she went in. She arrived January, 1863. My contract with Bochart was made after the Cora had come in. I think the current rate of freight from Matamoras to Havana was $10 or $12 a bale from inside the bar. Nineteenth. That was their estimate of the whole value of ship and cargo of the Cora, consigned to them.

Twenty-second. A rifle, I took out and sold.

Twenty-third. Rifles owned by parties on board the Snow Drift.
Twenty-fourth. I don't know who Gallagher is, nor what was his

account.

I paid this bill though I deemed it wrong, because I should have had to go to law about.

I borrowed money to pay the cash charges, (credits 25, 29.)

D. This is an account of goods that went to Brownsville-part of the quantity which I took into Texas.

I found the patent medicines on board the Snow Drift at Havana; don't know where they came from.

Balli

was a custom-house broker.

E. I received this from Reynolds & Co., last January.

F. Labatt & Joseph rendered me the F* account in December, 1863. I never paid any duty to the confederate government on ten bales which I brought away in May, 1862; there was a duty paid by others of 3 of 1 per cent. I do not know who transacted the business; of 1 per cent. on the specie valuation of the cotton on those ten bales; the duty was about $250 in gold.

About the first item of this account: It was for the purchase of a

sloop at Matagorda, to transport cotton from there to Flour Bluff, in Corpus Christi Bay, both in Texas-thirty-four bales, which I intended should go into the hands of the United States troops at Corpus Christi, and it did. It belonged to me; I don't know what became it, though I understood that it was taken by the United States troops. It was purchased with my own funds, not those of Reynolds & Co., but after I had made my arrangement with Reynolds & Co.

Second item. A draft I gave on Labatt & Joseph, to a man whose name was Alberts, to enable him to escape.

Third item. I suppose this is what it purports to be; can't say what cotton it was. The bagging for a bale would cost about $2 50 per bale, and the rope about $250.

Can't say where the cotton mentioned in this account, items 4 and 5, came from, nor where from or where to the freight was paid; don't know anything about the charge of confederate government-charge of 20 per cent. on item 4. I disputed this account with Labatt & Joseph, and the result was that in settlement, instead of a balance of $133 02 against me, as per this bill, they gave me the due bill of $1,097 28, mentioned in Reynolds's receipt of 23d January, 1864, (E*.)

G*. This paper came into my possession at Havana. The supercargo, a Mr. Brastow, gave it to me as a list of the goods on board of the Snow Drift. There was never any manifest of the cargo of the Cora.

H*. J. M. Clark undertook to get his family and some other Union families out from Corpus Christi in a vessel that he professed to ownthe schooner America, from Corpus Christi, Mexico-by running the blockade. On the vessel was fifty bales of cotton, of which I had the sole control put into my hands in Matagorda Bay, to do with what I pleased. It was put on board the America by my direction, to be taken to the nearest blockading vessel, and to deliver it to her. H* is a letter I received from Clark. He was last summer at Bagdad, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The cotton may have been consigned to Labatt & Joseph at Matamoras.

(January 21.)

Paper I*. Ulrici & Barroso, of Havana, paid for me the bills and expenses of the Snow Drift alias Cora. They cleared the Cora, and I think furnished me this paper, (I*.)

Paper J*. This is a barrel of hot-drops; I took the 'drops to Mr. Jackson, at Houston.

Paper K is signed by me.

Paper L. A certificate of the alcalde, exempting me from a claim on me for loss of goods shipped by the Caraccas, from New York to Mata

moras.

M* is signed by A. G. Compton, the father of William Compton. William had no business in Matamoras. This letter was handed to me by the writer in Matamoras.

M** is in my handwriting.

N*. These I received from Mr. Boynton, of Hartford, Conn. don't remember what I said to him about my Texas project.

I

I did not

pay for the two carding machines; I think I told him they would be paid for on demand at Reynolds & Co., 85 Beaver street.

O* is a letter of Theo. Morris, written, I think, at my house in Chicago. P* is in Mr. Morris's handwriting; the same Mr. Morris. He had no interest with me, except as supercargo of the Caraccas when she first went out; never any other.