I had been absent from Charleston when the incidents occurred, but made careful inquiry satisfying myself of the truth, and perhaps cannot give an intelligent explanation better than by quoting the report itself, for its tone shows the sort of annoyance I felt, and it exhibits some of the conditions of an army command involving administrative duties that were far from pleasant.
I said: "The document is in the handwriting of B.F.Smith, Esq., U.
S.District Attorney, residing here, though signed only by John Slack, Jr., and William Kelly; the former an acting deputy U.S.
marshal, the latter the jailer at the county jail.

Its composition is so peculiar that it is difficult to tell what part of the statement is Slack's or Kelly's and what is Colonel Smith's, and therefore I do not know whom to hold responsible for the misstatements contained in it.
"Mr.Slack is a respectable young man, who I believe would do his duty as far as he understands it, but who has not energy enough to keep him from being the tool of others.

Mr.Kelly, the jailer, is sufficiently described when I state the fact that he has attempted to add to his profits as turnkey by selling bad whisky to soldiers put in his calaboose, at the rate of five dollars per pint bottle.
Mr.Smith, the District Attorney, has lost no opportunity of being annoying to the military officers here, since the controversy about the negro man captured from his son, Major Isaac Smith of the rebel army.

This reference to the parties concerned is necessary to enable the commanding general to understand the _animus_ of their complaints.
"The facts are substantially as follows: Henry H.Hopkins is a notorious Secessionist living near Coal River, and a man of considerable property.

Some time before his arrest he sent the negro man mentioned in the complaint _South_, in charge of some Logan County 'bushwhackers.' On his way and in McDowell County the man managed to escape and returned into Hopkins's neighborhood, near Boone C.H., where he took his wife and three children alleged to have been the property of a woman named Smoot, and brought them to this post.