l, that no orders of yours can save from punishment
spies, marauders, robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands,
etc., who violate the laws of war. You cannot give immunity
to crime. But let us fully understand each other on this
point. If you send armed forces wearing the garb of soldiers
and duly organized and enrolled as legitimate belligerents
to destroy railroads, bridges, etc., as a military act, we
shall kill them, if possible, in open warfare, or, if we
capture them, we shall treat them as prisoners of war.

But it is well understood that you have sent numbers of your
adherents in the garb of peaceful citizens, and under false
pretenses, through our lines into northern Missouri, to rob
and destroy the property of Union men and to burn and
destroy railroad bridges, thus endangering the lives of
thousands, and this, too, without any military necessity or
possible military advantage. Moreover, peaceful citizens of
Missouri, quietly working on their farms, have been
instigated by your emissaries to take up arms as insurgents,
to rob and plunder and to commit arson and murder. They do
not even act under the garb of soldiers, but in false
pretenses and in the guise of peaceful citizens. You
certainly will not pretend that men guilty of such crimes,
although "specially appointed and instructed by you," are
entitled to the rights and immunities of ordinary prisoners
of war. If you do, will you refer me to a single authority
on the laws of war which recognizes such a claim?

You may rest assured, General, that all prisoners of war not
guilty of crime will be treated with all proper
consideration and kindness. With the exception of being
properly confined, they will be lodged and fed, and where
necessary clothed, the same as our own troops. I am sorry to
say that our prisoners who have come from your camps do not
report such treatment on your part. They say that you gave
them no rations, no clothing, no blankets, but left them to
perish with want and cold. Moreover, It is believed that you
subsist your troops by robbing and plundering the non-
combatant Union inhabitants of the southwestern Counties of
this State. Thousands of poor families have fled to us for
protection and support They say that your troops robbed them
of their