WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
IVashington, October 30, 1862. 
GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 174. 
I..By a Military Commission which convened in Sante Fe, New 
Mexico, on the 14th day of July, 1862, pursuant to Special Oiders, 
No. 119, dated Headquarters Department of New Mexico, Saute Fe, 
N. M., July 8, 1862, and of which Major Henry D. Wallen, 7th 
Infantry, was President, was arraigned and tried— 
Jos6 Maria Rivas. 
Charge.—“ Lurking or acting as a Spy." 
Specification—“In this; that the said JosS Maria Rivas did, during 
the winter of 1861—’62 and the spring of 1862, act as a Spy 
against the Federal troops in New Mexico, first for Colonel 
Baylor, then for General Sibley, and, until caught, as a Spy and 
Guide for Captain Coopwood, all of the Confederate forces; and 
the said Rivas did, during the greater part of the time above 
mentioned, continue to act, as a Spy and Guide, adversely to the 
Federal Government, to •which he owed allegiance.’ 
To which the prisoner pleaded as follows: 
To the Specification, “Not Guilty.” 
To the Charge, “Not Guilty.” 
Findings of the Commission. 
The Commission, after mature deliberation upon the testimony ad- 
duced, found the prisoner as follows: 
Of so much of the Specification as sets forth that he acted as a Spy 
for the Confederate forces and against the Government ot the United 
States, in the winter of 1861—’62, “Guilty.” 
And of the Charge, “ Guilty.” 
Sentence. 
And the Commission does therefore sentence him, Jos6 Maria Rivas, 
liTo be shot to death by a detachment of New Mexican Volunteers, at such 
time and place as the Department Commander may designate: two-thirds 
of the members concurring therein." 2 
II..In accordance with the 5th section of the act approved July 17, 
1862, the proceedings of the Military Commission in the case of Jos6 
Maria Rivas, have been submitted to the President of the United 
States. The following is the order in the case: 
October 25,1862. 
Waiving the question of jurisdiction in the case, the sentence is not 
approved, because the accused is not shown to have been within our 
lines in disguise, or by false pretense, except by hearsay testimony; 
and because in his admission that he was a “Spy,” he may not have 
understood the technical term, and may have meant no more than that 
he was a scout of the enemy. He clearly is a prisoner of war. 
A. LINCOLN. 
By order of the Secretary of War: 
L. THOMAS, 
Adjutant General. 
Official : 
Assistant Adjutant General.