had no orders for him, and knew nothing about his arrest.
He then applied to General McClellan, on the eve of the Antietam
campaign, for permission to serve with the army. General McClellan
on the 7th of September wrote to Secretary Stanton that he would
be glad to avail himself of General Stone's services and that he
had "no doubt as to his loyalty and devotion." No answer was
returned by the War Department. On the 25th of September General
Stone, still eager to confront his accusers, applied to General-in-
Chief Halleck for a copy of any charges or allegations against him,
and the opportunity of promptly meeting them. He reminded the
general that two hundred and twenty-eight days had elapsed since
his arrest, and that if he were to be tried for any offense those
who had served under him must be the witnesses of his conduct, and
that from battle and disease these witnesses were falling by hundreds
and thousands; the casualties were so great indeed that his command
was already reduced one-half. General Halleck replied that he had
no official information of the cause of General Stone's arrest,
and that so far as he could ascertain no charges or specifications
were on file against him.

Several weeks later, on the 1st of December, 1862, General Stone
applied to General McClellan, calling his attention to the Act of
July 17, under which any officer arrested had the right to "a copy
of the charges against him within eight days." He therefore
respectfully requested General McClellan, as the officer who ordered
the arrest, to furnish him a copy of the charges. General McClellan
replied on the 5th of December that the order for arrest had been
given him by the Secretary of War, who told him it was at the
solicitation of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and based
on testimony taken by them. He further informed General Stone that
he had the order, in the handwriting of Secretary Stanton, several
days before it was carried into effect, and added the following
somewhat remarkable statement: "On the evening when you were
arrested I submitted to the Secretary of War the written result of
the examination of a refugee from Leesburg. This information to
a certain extent agreed with the evidence stated to have been taken
by the Committee, and upon its being imparted to the Secretary he
again instructed me to cause you to be arrested, which I at once
did." This discloses the fact that General McClellan was cognizant