Annotation
[1] ALS, DNA WR RG 107, Presidential Telegrams, I, 364-66. On March 8, Grant telegraphed Stanton at 11:30 A.M.:
``We have got supplies going out by Norfolk to the rebel army stopped, but information received shows that large amounts still go by way of the Black-water. They no doubt go on the Treasury permits heretofore given under Act of Congress regulating trade with states in insurrection
``I would respectfully recommend that orders be sent to the Army and Navy everywhere, to stop supplies going to the interior and annulling all permits for such trade heretofore given'' (DLC-RTL).
A second telegram from Grant to Stanton is as follows:
``I believe Genl [James W.] Singleton should be ordered to return from Richmond and all permits he may have should be revoked. Our friends in Richmond . . . send word that Tobacco is being exchanged on the Potomac for Bacon, and they believe Singleton to be at the bottom of it.
``I am also of the opinion that all permits issued to Judge [James] Hughes should be cancelled. I think the same of all other permits heretofore granted, but in the case of Singleton and Judge Hughes, I believe there is a deep laid plan for making millions and they will sacrifice every interest of the country to succeed. I do not know Hughes personally never having seen him but once, but the conviction here expressed is forced upon me'' (ibid.).
On March 10, Grant issued his Special Orders No. 48:
``The operations on all Treasury Trade Permits, and all other trade permits and licenses to trade, by whomsoever granted, within the State of Virginia, except that portion known as the Eastern Shore, and the States of North Carolina and South Carolina, and that portion of the State of Georgia immediately bordering on the Atlantic, including the city of Savannah, are hereby suspended until further orders. All contracts and agreements made under or by virtue of any trade permit or license within any of said States or parts of States, during the existence of this order, will be deemed void, and the subject of such contracts or agreements will be seized by the military authorities for the benefit of the