[Cipher.]
WASHINGTON, November 30, 1862.
MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS, Saint Louis, Missouri:
Frank Blair wants Manter's Thirty-second, Curly's Twenty seventh, Boyd's Twenty-fourth and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry to go with him down the river. I understand it is with you to decide whether he shall have them and if so, and if also it is consistent with the public service, you will oblige me a good deal by letting him have them.
A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
ON EXECUTING 300 INDIANS
LETTER TO JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 1, 1862.
JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.
SIR:—Three hundred Indians have been sentenced to death in Minnesota by a military commission, and execution only awaits my action. I wish your legal opinion whether if I should conclude to execute only a part of them, I must myself designate which, or could I leave the designation to some officer on the ground?