to make the experiment elsewhere. Missouri successful, and the problem of reestablishing civil government in the States further south is far advanced towards solution. Only earnestness and resolution are required. Can these qualities be wanting in your people? Your State convention has emancipated the negroesa great work, well and bravely done. Cannot the people of Missouri now emancipate themselves? Can they not free themselves from the necessity of martial law? Can they not resume the performance of their duty as citizens, and execute as well as make their own laws?

With great respect, governor, your obedient servant,

Hon. THOMAS C. FLETCHER,

Governor of Missouri.

JNO. POPE,

Major General Commanding.

At this date, November 15, 1865, treaties of peace have been made with nearly all the hostile tribes of Indians, and it is hoped that, through proper acts of Congress at this session, such change in our Indian system will be made as will enable the government to complete and perpetuate peace with all of the Indian tribes. Respectfully submitted:

REPORT

OF

MAJOR GENERAL J. G. FOSTER,

TO THE

COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

REPORT

OF

MAJOR GENERAL J. G. FOSTER,

TO THE

COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF FLORIDA,

November 2, 1865.

HONORED SIR: Upon the receipt of your letter of the 22d May, 1865, requesting to be furnished with a reliable account of the military operations under my command since the beginning of the rebellion, and to reply in full to the written interrogatories of the committee, which were enclosed, I had the honor to reply at once that it would require considerable time for me to get together the requisite copies of orders, instructions, and reports from the records of the several department headquarters, where at different times I had commanded, and where, as was my invariable custom in active campaigns, I had left all the official documents of my operations while in command. I have now to report that I wrote to the headquarters of the department of North Carolina, Virginia, and of the Ohio, but have failed to obtain the requisite copies. Brigadier General I. N. Palmer replied from Newbern, North Carolina, that the records of the department of North Carolina had been removed by Major General B. F. Butler to Fort Monroe, Virginia, when he was in command; and upon application to the headquarters at Fort Monroe I was informed that the records could not be found. Application to the headquarters of the department of the Ohio also failed to obtain the papers that I required. The reports in the possession of the Adjutant General United States army were about being placed in the hands of the printer for publication. I am therefore unable to furnish copies of many of my reports, and of the written instructions received. Under ordinary circumstances I should have retained with my personal baggage copies. of all official papers, but in the active operations in which I was constantly engaged this could not be done, and I was forced to leave them where I supposed they would be preserved. I will, however, furnish as complete a statement as possible, from my note-books and from memory, as follows:

To the first interrogatory

"Please state what positions you have held and what commands you have exercised since the commencement of the rebellion, giving the periods during which those respective commands have been exercised by you"

I have to reply that at the outbreak of the rebellion I was on duty in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, as captain of engineers in charge of the construction and repairs of the forts in that harbor, together with the forts in North Carolina, (Fort Caswell, at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, and Fort Macon, in Beaufort harbor.)

From August, 1860, to December of that year, I was actively employed with a large force in strengthening the defences of Fort Moultrie. In November and December of that year I also set at work a large force upon the completion of Fort Sumter, and a smaller force upon the repairs of Castle Pinckney.