Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-03-16
BY TELEGRAPH.
For --latest Dispatches see Second Page.

Gen. Ha!Ieck to Gen. ROsecrams
WASHINGTON, March l5.-The following
letter, dated at headquarters of the army,
Washington, d. c., March 9TH, 1868, has
been addressed by Mai. Gen. Halleck to
Maj. Gen. w. S. Rosecrans, Murfreesboro,
Tenn:
"General-I have just received Mai Gen.
Reynolds letter of Feb. 10, with your indorse-
ments ofFeb. 18th. The suggestions of Gen.
Reynolds and Gen. Thomas, with regard to
more rigid treatment of disloyal persons with
IN the lines OF your army, are approved. No
additional instructions from these headquar-
tiers are deemed necessary. You have
already been urged to procure your
subsistence, forage, and means of trans
portation, so far as possible, in the
country occupied. This you had right TO
do without any instructions, as the command
ing general in the field. You have the right
to enforce all the laws and usages of war.
however rigid and severe these may be, unless
there be some act Of congress, or regulation,
order or instruction, forbidding or restricting
such enforcement.
As general rule, you must always be the
Judge where it is best to .rigidly apply those
laws and where more lenent course would
be of greater advantage to our cause Dis
tinctions, however, should always be made in
regard to the character of the people in the
district of country which is militarily occupied
or passed over, and the people of the coun-
try in which you are likely to operate may be
divided into two classes.
First. The truly loyal, who neither aid nor
assist the rebels except under compulsivu,
but who favor or assist the Union troops where
it can possibly be avoided. This class of
persons should not be subjected to military
acquisitions, but should receive the protection
of our armies. 1t may, however, be necessa-
ry some time to take their property, either for
our own use or to prevent its falling into the
hands of the enemy. They will be paid at the
time the value of such property, or, if that be
impracticable, they will hereafter be fully in
Identified. Receipts should be given for all
property so taken without being paid for
Second. Those who take no part in the war
but belong to the class known as military nom
combatants. In civil war like that now
waged this class is supposed to sympathize
with the rebellion rather than the government.
There can be no such thing as neutrality in
rebellion This term is applied only to for
eign powers. Such persons, as long as they
commit no hostile act and confine themselves
to their private avocatlons, are not to be mo-
Tested by the military forces, nor is their pro-
perty to be seized except as a military neces-
sity. They, however, are subject to forced
loans and military acquisitions, and their
houses to billets for soldiers headquarters, and
to appropriation for other temporary military
uses to their impositiOns.
The non-combatant inhabitants of district
militarily occupied by one OF the belligerents
are entered to the military protection of the
occupying forces but while entitled to such
protection they incur very serious obligations
obligations differing in some respects from
those of civil allegiance, but equally binding.
For instance, those who rise in arms against
the occupying army or against the au-
thority established by the same, are
war rebels or military traitors, and
incur the penalty of death. They are not en-
titled to be considered as prisoners of war
when captured. Their property is subject to
military seizure and military confscation.
Military treason of this kind is broadly dis
tinguished from the treason defined in consti-
tutional and statutory laws and made punish
able by the civil courts. Military treason is
military offence, punishable by the common
law of war.
Again, persons belonging to such occupied
territory, and within the military lines of the
occupying forces, can give no information to
the enemy of the occupying power without
the proper authority. To do SO the party for
jects himself or herself to be punished either
as a spy or military traitor, according to the
nature of the particular offence. Our treat
ment of such offences and such offenders has
hitherto been altogether too lenient. A more
strict enforcement of the laws of war IN this
respect is recommended. Such offenders
should be made to understand the penalties
they incur. and to know that these penalties
will be rigidly enforced.
Third. Those who are openly and avowedly
hostile to the occupying army, but who do not
bear arms against such forces; in other words,
while claiming to be non-combatants, they re-
pudiate, tacity or implicitly, the obligations
incurred by the other Inhabitants of the occu-
pied territory. Such persons not only incur
all the obligations imposed upon the other
non-combatant inhabitants Of the same terri
tory, and are liable to the same punishments
for offences committed, but they may also
be treated as prisoners of war, and may
be subjected to the rigOrs of confinement,
or to expulsion as combatant enemies. / am
of the opinion that such persons should not,
as a general rule, be permitted to go at large
within our lines To force those capable of
bearing arms to go within the lines of
the enemy adds to his effective forces.
To place them in confinement will re-
uuire guards, and necessarily diminish
ours. You will determine in each particular
case which course will be most advantageous
We have suffered very severely from this
class, and it is time the laws of war should be
more vigorously enforced against them. A
broad line of distinction must be drawn between
friends and enemy, and loyal and disloyal
The foregoing remarks have reserence only
to the military status and to military offences
under the laws of war. They are not appli-
cable to civil offences under the constitution
and general laws of the land. The laws and
usages of civilized war must be your guide
in the treatment of all classes of persons in
the country in which your army may operate,
or which it may occupy, and you will be per-
mitted to decide for yourself, when it is best