[770] Letter to F. P. Blair, in Sen. Rept., No. 41, Pt. I, p. 445, 42d Cong., 2d Sess.
[771] Under the reconstruction government Dustin held the office of major-general of militia.
[772] See Ku Klux Rept., pp. 444-446. Letter of F. S. Lyon to General Blair. Also Ku Klux Rept., Ala. Test., pp. 1410-1426, 1661.
Lyon had been agent for the Confederate Produce Loan, and consequently knew what was government cotton and what was not. After the war he acted as attorney for those whose cotton was unlawfully seized. The general officers commanding in his district approved his conduct, but he was hated by the cotton agents, who frequently complained of his “rebellious conduct.” Lyon tried to save even the cotton pledged to the Confederacy, on the ground that the promise or sale had not been completed and that the transaction was void from the beginning, and that the right of capture did not exist after the close of the war.
[773] Ho. Mis. Doc., No. 190, 44th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 146.
[774] Calculation based on subscriptions to Produce Loan. Most of it had been destroyed.
[775] N. Y. Times, June 2, 1865; Huntsville Advocate, May 26, 1866. Report of Grand Jury.
[776] N. Y. Times, June 2, 1866.
[777] Worth $500,000, at the lowest price.
[778] G. O., No. 55, Department of Ala., Oct. 30, 1865; G. O., No. 8, Department of Ala., Feb. 14, 1866; Ms. records in War Department archives. For years these men were in prison while their friends were working to secure their release. The principal arguments for Dexter’s release were the virtue of his wife’s relations in New England and the illegality of the trial before the military commission in time of peace. Judging from the tone of the indorsements he was probably released, though there is no record of the fact in the archives. The manuscript proceedings of the trial show that thousands of bales of cotton had been “spirited away,” but everything was in such a state of confusion that little could be plainly proven against the agents. Only one thing was certain, “that much more cotton was seized for the government than was received by the government.” The investigation was hushed up as soon as possible; too many were implicated.