SERIES II.-VOL. V.
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC.,
RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE
FROM DECEMBER 1, 1862, TO JUNE 10, 1863.
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CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.

{p.773}

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JACKSON, Miss., December 1, 1862.

Maj. Gen. M. L. SMITH, Vicksburg:

Measures will be taken to take care of the sick prisoners when forwarded here. Please state whether contagious disease exists among them and also at what time they will be forwarded.

DANIEL RUGGLES, Brigadier-General.

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ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, December 1, 1862.

Lieut. Col. F. L. HUBBELL, Third Missouri Infantry. (Through Lieut. Gen. J. C. Pemberton.)

COLONEL: In reply to your communication of 9th ultimo I am directed by the Adjutant and Inspector General to say that the Confederate Government does not recognize the right of the United States Government to capture unarmed citizens not connected with any military organization. Any oaths or bonds entered into by such persons will not be respected by the Confederate Government.

Very respectfully, &c.,

J. S. WHITING, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

{p.774}

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QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, December 1, 1862.

Maj. JOHN AMBLER, Quartermaster, Richmond, Va.

MAJOR: The Secretary of War has decided the officers and men taken prisoners of war by the enemy at Rich Mountain are entitled to pay to the date they were exchanged; that the disbandment of a portion of the Twentieth Virginia Regiment was without authority of law, and therefore the companies disbanded as well as those retained in service are to be allowed pay to date of exchange.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

RICH’D S. COX, Major and Quartermaster. (For Quartermaster-General.)

[Indorsement.]

The Rich Mountain paroled prisoners were exchanged on the 12th of August, 1862.

WM. ROBINSON.

(For R. Ould, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.)

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VICKSBURG, December 1, 1862.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, Oxford:

Nine hundred prisoners just arrived. Shall I return the Yankee prisoners on hand? I do not mean those held as hostages.

N. G. WATTS, Major and Agent.

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CASTLE THUNDER, December 1, 1862.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I am a private in the First Battalion Connecticut Cavalry. On the 7th of October last I was with my battalion encamped near Centerville. Pickets at night patrolled within two miles and a half of Gainesville. Twice a day a patrol was sent to Thoroughfare Gap to reconnoiter. On the 7th of October in the afternoon I was sent there. I was returning and when near Haymarket I was surprised by a party of the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry and taken prisoner. When taken I was within the Federal lines and as near as I can judge forty miles-at least that was the distance I had to travel before I reached the Confederate lines. I have been held since the 12th of October in this prison. Am I not a prisoner of war? And if so why should I not be exchanged? Does my case not come under the cartel? I am here without friends or money. True I am a poor private and that must be the reason I am overlooked. I am confined with all classes of criminals. I respectfully solicit an inquiry into my case.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. H. MARSH, First Battalion Connecticut Cavalry.

[First indorsement.]

General WINDER:

I would suggest the propriety of inquiring into this case. The writer is evidently of some intelligence and tells a plausible tale. He may be really a mere prisoner of war entitled to exchange.

J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

{p.775}

[Second indorsement.]

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, December 20, 1862.

Respectfully referred to the Secretary of War with the inclosed letter* of the prisoner. He was charged with being a spy and his statement in that letter tended to confirm the suspicion.

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

* Omitted here; see Marsh to Wood (inclosure), p. 777.

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Richmond, December 2, 1862.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I inclose a copy of a letter to this Department dated 27th ultimo from Mr. Robert Bunch, consul of Her Britannic Majesty at Charleston, S. C. It will be seen that Mr. Bunch states that one Gabriel Cueto, claiming to be a British subject, has informed him that he has been arrested and confined nine months at Salisbury, N. C., without trial or charges, and that another British subject named John Carfoot has also been confined for several months without being made acquainted with the accusation against him. I respectfully request that you will direct an immediate and careful investigation to be made of the truth of these allegations and especially whether the parties named are British subjects and that the result may be communicated to this Department.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

[Inclosure.]

BRITISH CONSULATE FOR NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA, Charleston, November 27, 1862.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I have just received a letter from a person named Gabriel Cueto who describes himself as a British subject born at Edinburg who has never relinquished his allegiance to the Queen. He writes from Salisbury Political Prison, N. C., in which he states that he has been imprisoned for nine months without any charges having been brought against him and consequently without trial. He adds that he came to America as the correspondent of a Scotch newspaper. He gives me no clue to his alleged offense and professes entire ignorance respecting it. Mr. Cueto mentions that there is another British subject named John Carfoot who has been likewise confined in the same prison for several months and who is equally ignorant of the reasons for his detention. It is stated by my correspondent that both he and Mr. Carfoot have been debarred from writing to me and I am led to infer that their present application is made surreptitiously. Under these circumstances I have the honor to request that you will he so good as to inform me as speedily as may be practicable why these arrests have been made and also why these British subjects have been detained in confinement for so long a period without a trial. I feel assured that such abuses of authority if they have really occurred will meet with the prompt reprobation of your Government and that they will be at once redressed.

I beg leave to remain, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

ROBERT BUNCH, Her Majesty’s Consul.

{p.776}

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RICHMOND, VA., December 2, 1862.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the inclosed papers* indorsed with a request for my opinion and report.

The prisoners who are held by the Federal authorities are citizens of one of the Confederate States. So also are those who are held by us. The proposition made is to release one set on condition of the discharge of the other. In other words it is a proposal to exchange our own citizens who have been arrested for disloyalty to our Government for other citizens of the Confederate States who in defiance of the usages of civilized warfare have been arrested by the enemy.

I am well satisfied from the course of the Federal authorities that it is their anxious desire to consummate just such a system as is contained in this proposal. It is a deeply laid design to interfere with the administration of justice in the Confederate States and to give practical immunity to such of their friends and partisans in the Confederate States as may preach and practice disloyalty.

There is no sort of reciprocity in the proposed arrangement. We are asked to exchange our own people for our own people. One or more of these parties is subject to the conscript act. In a military point of view what real equivalent do we get for him? Moreover would not the acceptance of a proposal like this be a practical invitation to every man who was inclined to be disloyal to proclaim his hostility to our Government in order that by arrest and subsequent exchange he might relieve himself from conscription? If this request is granted other parties in similar circumstances will claim the benefit of the precedent and demand the exchange of such loyal citizens as the enemy may have wrongfully captured for our own disloyal people.

Our Government has already formally protested against the arrest of such of our people as are not connected with military organizations. We have officially declared to the enemy that persons so taken will not be recognized as lawful captures and therefore not subject to exchange. We have further declared that if persisted in such a course will be met by retaliation.

An acquiescence in the present proposal is substantially an invitation to a future arrest of our non-combatant citizens. Even if the exchange were made there is no guaranty that the same persons would not be arrested again within a week. My own course heretofore has been to refuse any such negotiation as the one proposed.

I shall not consummate any such arrangement unless I am specifically instructed to do so.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.

* Not found.

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CASTLE THUNDER, December 2, 1862.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Richmond, Va.

DEAR SIR: I am a prisoner of war belonging to the First Battalion of Connecticut Cavalry and have been confined here since the 12th of October, and I beg that you will please investigate the matter as there have been several exchanges since I have been here.

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. H. MARSH, First Battalion Connecticut Cavalry.

{p.777}

[First indorsement.]

I find from our books that the within-named prisoner was received here and delivered to Captain Alexander on 24th of October charged with being a spy.

TH. P. TURNER, Captain, &c.

[Second indorsement.]

CASTLE THUNDER, December 8, 1862.

The record against Charles H. Marsh, who is here, is that he was taken at Bull Run August 9 as a Yankee spy. Papers with General Winder. Brought here October 24, 1862.

G. W. ALEXANDER, Assistant Provost-Marshal.

[Third indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, December 10, 1862.

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War inclosing letter from the prisoner, which was deemed of itself sufficient to establish a grave suspicion and to warrant his detention.

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure.]

CASTLE THUNDER, Richmond, October 25, 1862.

Mr. WOOD, Commissioner of the United States.

SIR: I am a private of Company D, First Battalion Connecticut Cavalry. On Tuesday, the 6th day of October, 1862, I was detailed by Capt. L. N. Middlebrook, who was stationed with his company at Fairfax Court-House and Centerville, Va., to go to Thoroughfare Gap of Bull Run Mountain for the purpose of watching the enemy. One man was detailed each day for that purpose. After I had passed Haymarket I was captured by eleven members of the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry who got into my rear. I was mounted upon a gray horse with my military saddle and armed with my revolver. My company are without sabers. I was clothed in my uniform. As I was coming up to Haymarket I found on the road a gray jacket which I put on over my blouse as it was a very cool morning. I have been informed that I am charged with being a spy. I claim the protection of the United States.

Yours, truly,

C. H. MARSH, Private, Company D, First Battalion Connecticut Cavalry.

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VICKSBURG, December 3, 1862.

General PEMBERTON:

The flag-of-truce officer is instructed by General Grant to retain four of the returned prisoners in place of the four held in custody here, subject to the same treatment and fate. Do you wish any reply sent?

M. L. SMITH.

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HEADQUARTERS MILITARY POST, Atlanta. Ga., December 3, 1862.

Brigadier-General WINDER, Commanding, Richmond.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose list of prisoners herewith sent by an order from General Beauregard, commanding Department of South {p.778} Carolina and Georgia. They have been confined here some time and are many of them a desperate, bad set of men. You will please send by return guard a receipt for them, and also order the guard furnished with rations for their return to this post.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. W. LEE, Commanding Post.

[Inclosure.]

List of Federal prisoners in barracks.

Name.	Company and regiment.	Date of capture.	Charge.
		1862.
P. Pierce	company B, 1st Tennessee	Apr. 25	Bridge burning.
J. J. Barker.	Company E, 2d Tennessee	May 3	Do.
T. McCoy	company G, 2d Tennessee	Mar. 28	Do.
W. Bensinger	company G, 21st Ohio	Apr. 13	Engine thief.
G. Smith	Company H, 2d U. S. Artillery.	May 20	Prisoner of war.
H. Hebling	company G, 10th Wisconsin	July 3	Do.
G. W. Walton	company H, 2d U. S. Artillery	May 20	Do.
T. W. Coleman	Company G, 10th Wisconsin	July 3	Do.
B. Powers	Company G, 19th Kentucky	May 5	Do.
Jacob Parrott	Company K, 33d Ohio	Apr. 3	Engine thief.
William Pittenger	Company G, 2d Ohio	Apr. 14	Do.
Robert Buffum	Company H, 21st Ohio	Apr. 13	Do.
Elihu H. Mason	Company K, 21st Ohio	Apr. 14	Do.
William H. Reddick	Company B, 33d Ohio	Apr. 18	Do.
John Walls	Citizen, East Tennessee	Mar. 25	Disloyalty.
H. Mills	do	Mar. 12	Do.
R. White	do	Mar. 21	Do.
John Green	do	Mar. 24	Do.
G. W. Barlow	do	Mar. 11	Do.
J. Tompkins	do	May 11	Do.

All except the five prisoners of war were delivered to Captain Alexander December, 1862.

ATLANTA, Ga., December 3, 1862.

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GRENADA, December 4, 1862.

Maj. J. R. WADDY:

Bragg’s prisoners can go if there is an officer of his to take charge of them.

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General, Commanding

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VICKSBURG, December 4, 1862.

Major WADDY, Assist ant Adjutant-General:

The prisoners were guarded on board the train and sent to Jackson, General Ruggles being notified by telegraph of their departure. The prisoners sent over are exchanged and not paroled.

M. L. SMITH.

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HEADQUARTERS FIRST MILITARY DISTRICT, DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA, Jackson, Miss., December 4, 1862.

Maj. J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt to day of Special Orders, No. 43, of November 29, assigning to me the duty in charge of exchanged and paroled prisoners. I am desirous of information as to the authority invested in me from the lieutenant-general commanding.

{p.779}

First. Is there any established hospital to which I have authority to send the sick and wounded; and if not have I authority to establish one for that purpose?

Second. Have I authority to order supplies from the quartermaster’s, subsistence, ordnance and medical departments for the use and benefit of these prisoners?

Third. Have I authority to employ any of the exchanged prisoners as guards in the absence of other good and sufficient guards?

Fourth. In the absence of supplies of clothing for the exchanged prisoners am I authorized to apply to the War Department at Richmond for supplies?

Fifth. My quartermaster and commissary having been assigned to other duties am I entitled to their official services or not?

I shall hope to receive information at an early moment on this subject.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

DANIEL RUGGLES, Brigadier-General, Commanding District.

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VICKSBURG, December 5, 1862.

Major WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General:

Four transports with prisoners instead of two have arrived. Having no place for them here will send forward as rapidly as possible.

M. L. SMITH.

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INSPECTOR-GENERAL’S OFFICE, Murfreesborough, December 6, 1862.

INSPECTOR-GENERAL, Lieutenant-General Polk’s Corps.

SIR: Accompanying you will find a list* of 179 paroled prisoners belonging to Lieutenant-General Polk’s command. These men are at Chattanooga and in want of pay, &c., to obtain which their descriptive lists are necessary. You will please have them made out and sent to this office as soon as possible.

By order:

A. J. HAYS, Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Inspector-General.

* Omitted.

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VICKSBURG, December 6, 1862.

Maj. J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General:

Five hundred political prisoners. None landed and will not be landed until definite instructions are received regarding them.

D. BELTZHOOVER.

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IUKA HOSPITAL, Iuka, Miss., December 7, 1862.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, Commanding C. S. Army of the West.

SIR: Occupying the position that I do I feel impelled from a sense of duty to report to you the conduct of Colonel Roddey and officers and men under his command. They have not only violated the condition {p.780} upon which the Federal authorities established this hospital but have insulted Surg. A. B. Stewart whom it was the pleasure of the Federal authorities to place here in charge in a manner which in my opinion demands that a just Government should no less than ask for an explanation and redress. About two weeks ago Capt. Richard W. Johnson entered Iuka in violation of the agreement upon which the Federal lines were extended thus far, and embracing this village and the line of railroad between here and Corinth, and when politely requested to withdraw from the town in reply cast an ungentlemanly reflection upon Surgeon Stewart. And yesterday during the absence of Surgeon Stewart on business for the hospital Major Johnson, accompanied by his brother, Captain Johnson, and about 300 armed men passed through this town, Captain Johnson and one man entering the room where Surgeon Stewart’s wife lay sick and under pretense of searching for a contraband (a body servant of Surgeon Stewart’s from Northern Kentucky) made a complete search of the room even to the bed upon which Mrs. Stewart was lying, from which she has suffered greatly. General, permit me to say that such conduct must be punished or this hospital located here by the special request of your surgeons will be closed, although many of the wounded of your command are pronounced by the surgeons in charge not in a condition to be safely moved. It has been our pleasure to treat with the most circumspect deference the wounded who have fallen into our hands and the Confederate surgeons in charge of them, and we look for an honorable and speedy redress of those outrages.

I am, general, very respectfully,

J. C. CAMERON, Capt., U. S. Army, and Provost-Marshal-General, Dist. of Corinth.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 100.}

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, December 8, 1862.

...

XIII. Commanding officers may order necessary issues of clothing to prisoners and convicts, taking deserters’ or other damaged clothing when there is such in store.

...

By order:

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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HDQRS. C. S. TROOPS ON SHENANDOAH MOUNTAIN, VA., December 9, 1862.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT.

SIR: Day before yesterday Mr. Job Parsons, a citizen of Tucker County in this State, personally well known to me as a man of the highest respectability, came to this camp to enlist under my command. He was pursued by eight of the enemy’s cavalry for many miles, but his superior knowledge of the mountains enabled him to elude his pursuers and escape. He handed me the inclosed original papers* which had been served upon him by the military authorities at Saint George. A similar assessment was made upon Mr. Parsons’ father for $300 and {p.781} on another relative for $700, and payment coerced under the same diabolical threats. The pretext of robberies of Union men by bands of guerrillas is a falsehood. The fact is that Union men have conspired to run off each other’s horses to Pennsylvania where they are secretly sold, the owners afterwards setting up a claim for reparation on the false ground that guerrillas have robbed them. I inclose this evidence of the atrocity of General Milroy for such action as Your Excellency may deem expedient in retaliation, either as a restraint upon this savage or a punishment should his horrible threat ever be carried into execution. This is only one of a thousand barbarities practiced here in these distant mountains of which I have almost daily heard for the last four mouths. Oh, for a day of retribution!

With the highest respect, your obedient servant,

JOHN D. IMBODEN, Colonel, Commanding.

* See Exhibits A and B, p. 510.

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Medical director’s remarks in reference to statements made by Brig. Gen. D. Ruggles in a communication to department commander of December 6, 1862. Referred to medical director by assistant adjutant-general December 8, 1862.

MEDICAL DIRECTOR’S OFFICE, Jackson, Miss., December 9, 1862.

Maj. J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General, Jackson, Miss.:

The statement of General Ruggles that I was in any way the cause of much exposure to the sick of exchanged prisoners is unjust in the extreme as will at once be seen from the following facts:

On the morning after the arrival of the prisoners I was informed (not officially or by General Ruggles) that the piazza at the Bowman House was crowded with paroled prisoners seeking shelter from the rain. I at once sent for the surgeon whose duty it is to attend the prisoners arriving here and directed him to notify General Ruggles of the above fact. He told me he had been to see General Ruggles but was unable to obtain an audience with him. I directed him to go again and to say his business was urgent. I believe that he then succeeded. General Ruggles soon afterwards requested me to call at his office, which I did. I met Major Waddy, the assistant adjutant-general, there and the propriety of sending the sick to Brandon or to any other of the general hospitals was then discussed. I advised against it as I thought there was danger of spreading smallpox over the department. It was then understood between General Ruggles, Major Waddy and myself that the surgeon in charge of the prisoners was to treat all ordinary diseases among them in camp, and if any cases of smallpox occurred they were to be sent to the Deaf and Dumb Institute Hospital where some eighteen cases were already under treatment. I have approved for the surgeon a number of requisitions for hospital tents and other camp equipage, and supposed that all necessary arrangements had been or were being made for the comfort of the prisoners.

It was about 9 or 10 o’clock on the morning referred to that I sent to notify General Ruggles of the prisoners being at the Bowman House. I had heard nothing from him on the subject and did not know whether any of the prisoners were sick or not. I was actuated by sentiments of humanity in sending to notify him. It is I believe General Ruggles’ {p.782} duty to provide for paroled prisoners arriving here and not that of the medical department except as far as relates to those that are sick, and I will do what I can to provide hospital accommodations for such when due notice of their arrival is given me by him. To avoid the risk of spreading smallpox I recommended in my letter of November 29 to the department commander to keep the prisoners in camp for twenty days after their arrival. I have had no reasons to change my views on that subject and I believe that the wisdom of that measure is concurred in by a majority if not all of the medical officers at this post. My prohibitions to sending prisoners to Brandon or to any other general hospital amounted to advice only as it would have been presumptuous in me to have prohibited it while the assistant adjutant-general, the representative of the department commander, was present and could have ordered the sick sent there had General Ruggles convinced him of the policy of doing so notwithstanding my prohibition. I expected no credit from General Ruggles for anything I did but had still less reasons to expect censure from him for not attending to his duties. I was credibly informed yesterday that the night previous the proprietors of the Bowman House had lodged and fed free of charge 200 paroled prisoners who it appears from this up to that time had not been provided for. Will General Ruggles reproach me with that also? Or rather will he not give said proprietors credit for their hospitality and thank them for their kindness in thus relieving him from what might have appeared a neglect of duty on his part had the prisoners been compelled to sleep out of doors.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. S. CROWELL, Surgeon, C. S. Army, Medical Director.

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RICHMOND, December 10, 1862.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

SIR: Orders were given some time ago for the release of Cueto whenever the British consul in this city should require him for removal beyond the limits of the Confederacy. An order has been issued to-day to General Winder to hold John Carfoot subject to your orders.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. CAMPBELL.

(For Secretary of War.)

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HDQRS. DIST. OF TEXAS, NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA, Houston, Tex., December 10, 1862.

Colonel REILY, Comdg. Sibley’s Brigade, Millican, Tex.

SIR: I am instructed by Major-General Magruder to communicate to you the existence of the following order from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office at Richmond, November 12, 1862, for the information of all concerned:

{p.783}

I am further instructed by the major-general commanding to say that all officers and men of your command who have been delivered at the above place will be ordered at once by you to join their respective regiments and companies without the least delay. None of your command except those delivered in conformity with the above order have been exchanged.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. P. TURNER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 26.}

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, Murfreesborough, December 10, 1862.

...

II. All paroled prisoners who have been or who hereafter may be delivered at Vicksburg are declared by the agent at that point as exchanged. They will therefore report for duty with their respective regiments.

By command of General Bragg:

GEORGE G. GARNER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., December 11, 1862.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, Commanding, Jackson, Miss.

GENERAL: Your letter* of the 19th ultimo containing the correspondence between yourself and Generals Butler and Rosecrans, of the Army of the United States, has been received. The papers will be referred to Major Ould, commissioner of the Confederate States to arrange the exchange of prisoners with the United States.

Your own correspondence is approved by the President.

By order of the Secretary of War:

Very respectfully,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

* See Vol. IV, this Series, p. 948.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, December 11, 1862.

Captain TURNER.

SIR: You will parole all the prisoners of war now in your custody to be sent by flag of truce to-morrow.

By order of General Winder:

W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 11.}

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF TEXAS, NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA, Houston, Tex., December 11, 1862.

...

V. Brig. Gen. H. P. Bee, commanding Sub-Military District of the Rio Grande, will at once cause the officers and men of the U. S. Army who were captured early last year in this State, including the Eighth {p.784} U. S. Infantry, to be sent under a guard of cavalry to Vicksburg, Miss., there to be delivered to the commanding officer at that point to be placed by him at some convenient point in possession of the enemy. General Bee will direct the necessary transportation and subsistence arrangements to be made for the above purpose.

By command of Major-General Magruder:

A. G. DICKINSON, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

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BRITISH CONSULATE, Charleston, December 12, 1862.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State, Richmond.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant with which you have been so good as to convey to me certain information which has been furnished to you by the War Department on the subject of the imprisonment at Salisbury, N. C., of Gabriel Cueto. I observe also that the Secretary of War promises to acquaint you with the reasons for the detention at the same place of John Carfoot, who as well as Mr. Cueto is a subject of the Queen. I beg leave to return my thanks to you for your compliance with my request for information respecting these men. As regards the first of them I shall reserve any further action until I can consult with Her Majesty’s consul at Richmond, by whom the investigation into his case has been commenced. With reference to the other I must await the report to you of the War Department.

I have the honor to remain, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

ROBERT BUNCH, Ker Majesty’s Consul.

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STEVENSON, JACKSON COUNTY, ALA., December 12, 1862.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR, Richmond, Va.

DEAR SIR: I have belonged to the Confederate Army almost since the commencement of the war until a few months since, when I was taken prisoner by the Abolitionists. After being confined in the cells of a loathsome jail and other prisons and told I would not be exchanged I was induced to accept their terms by which I could be released which was taking the oath and giving a heavy bond, which I complied with. These being the facts of the case I wish to know if our Government forces me by conscription back into the service, not allowing me even the privilege of other soldiers who have been taken and released by parole or exchanged. If such is the case I submit as it is our law, but at the same time do not believe it is religiously or morally right. Besides which death is my penalty should I ever again fall into their hands for the violation of this oath or parole. I simply ask for the same as other prisoners-an exchange; but if it is not granted I am willing to do my country all the good I can. Without troubling you more upon this subject I close, hoping to hear from you soon.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN T. FITZPATRICK.

[Indorsement.]

Answer that if the writer of this letter was in the Confederate service and while so was taken a prisoner until his exchange is made he is {p.785} not liable to conscription; but if he was not in the Confederate service but a citizen peaceably employed the Department does not acknowledge the authority of the United States to take him a prisoner or to exact from him an oath and will defend him against the consequences of re-entry into service.

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HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY, La Vergne, Tenn., December 13, 1862.

Col. GEORGE WILLIAM BRENT, Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff.

COLONEL: I have the honor to forward you per courier three letters addressed to General Braxton Bragg which have this day been brought in with flag of truce. I inclose note* of Major Prentice which explains circumstances of the capture of three men from the Fifth Kentucky Cavalry. They were vedettes on the enemy’s outpost and were captured by Criswell and a party of six others-a party of six scouts authorized to act by Colonel [General] Wheeler. At the time of the capture a Federal flag of truce under command of Captain Buford was in front at our picket-lines covering the dispatches herewith sent. The Federal flag-officer entered his protest against the capture under the circumstances. I have the honor to inquire what disposition shall be made of the prisoners, their arms and equipments.

Respectfully, colonel, your obedient servant,

JNO. T. MORGAN, Colonel, Commanding Outpost.

* Not found.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF MISSISSIPPI, Grenada, December 14, 1862.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.

GENERAL: I had the honor to forward to the War Department sometime since a letter from Major-General Butler, commanding U. S. forces, New Orleans, in which he said he would hold Brigadier-General Clark and fourteen other prisoners subject to retaliation for the pretended murder of certain parties in Louisiana, also my reply stating that I would consequently retain all U. S. prisoners until I received instructions from my Government.

I would respectfully ask directions from the honorable Secretary of War for action in the premises.

Very respectfully, &c., your obedient servant,

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Murfreesborough, December 14, 1862.

Brig. Gen. JOSEPH WHEELER, Chief of Cavalry, La Vergne.

GENERAL: The general commanding directs me to inclose you the accompanying communications* from Colonel Allen and Major Prentice {p.786} in relation to certain Federal vedettes captured on yesterday whilst a flag of truce from the enemy was within our lines.

The general desires you will investigate fully and report all the facts in the case, especially the localities and relative position of the flag and the parties captured.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. WM. BRENT, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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HEADQUARTERS, Ponchatoula., La., December 14, 1862.

General PEMBERTON:

...

I have the farther honor to inform you that I this day send to the provost-marshal at Jackson five Federal prisoners captured by one of my scouting parties. Some three months ago a picket of four men belonging to Rhodes’ Partisan Rangers were captured by the enemy and taken to New Orleans. I have been informed that their exchange has been refused by the commanding Federal officer. I therefore respectfully request your permission to order a flag of truce with instructions to ascertain whether General Butler will exchange them or the reasons for his refusal.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. R. WITT, Colonel, Commanding Post.

[Indorsement.]

Say to Colonel Witt that the case of the four men referred to will be brought to the notice of General Butler by first flag of truce.

J. C. P., Lieutenant-General.

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HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, Macon, Ga., December 14, 1862.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War, Richmond.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit the following copy of a letter received on yesterday from Lieut. J. M. Brittian, enrolling officer of the Sixth Congressional District in this State. I telegraphed the Attorney-General upon the subject immediately upon receipt of the information.

The circuit judge alluded to was the first judicial officer in this State who pronounced the conscript act to be unconstitutional.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. B. WEEMS, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding, &c.

[Inclosure.]

DECATUR, GA., December 10, 1862.

Maj. CHARLES S. HARDEE, Commanding Conscript Camp No. 2:

Judge Thomas W. Thomas of the northern circuit is releasing men again on writ of habeas corpus. He ordered J. M. N. Glenn, sub-enrolling officer of Oglethorpe County, to be confined in jail because he did {p.787} not bring the person of R. S. Freeman before his honor to be tried on the writ. The sub-enrolling officer informed me of Freeman’s refusal to go to camp at the appointed time whereupon I ordered the squad to proceed to the residence of Freeman and arrest him and put him under guard to be forwarded to camp the next morning with the squad. It seems that Glenn had been warned to bring Freeman before his honor for trial, but I had no evidence of it before I issued the order for the arrest of Freeman. I sent him to camp previous to the trial ordered by Judge Thomas because he had refused to go. Glenn proceeded to Judge Thomas’ quarters at the time specified whereupon his honor ordered him to be put in jail until the person of Freeman was brought before him.

JABEZ M. BRITTIAN, Enrolling Officer Sixth Congressional District of Georgia.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 15, 1862.

Brig. Gen. J. H. WINDER.

GENERAL: The Secretary of State desires to have a report of the time when Carfoot was arrested and the exact circumstances of his arrest and the facts elicited at his examination.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 15, 1862.

Col. B. S. EWELL, Assistant Adjutant-General, Chattanooga.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose for the information of the general commanding the following papers:*

Field return of the Army of Tennessee; tabular form of the organization of same; copies of general orders in same; copy of correspondence with Major-General Rosecrans, commanding enemy’s forces in my front; a map of the country in my front and flanks.

I invite your special attention to the correspondence with General Rosecrans. With that as a basis I have refused to exchange political prisoners; have discharged the only one in my command and have demanded a like discharge on his part.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BRAXTON BRAGG, General, Commanding.

* Not found.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 16, 1862.

Brig. Gen. J. H. WINDER.

GENERAL: You will discharge from arrest and confinement J. G. Anderson, confined at Castle Thunder as a political prisoner.

By order of the Secretary of War:

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

{p.788}

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HEADQUARTERS, Jackson, Miss., December 16, 1862.

Maj. J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: I have the honor to state for the information of the lieutenant-general commanding that it is apparently important to send a flag of truce to Major-General Butler in relation to the release or exchange of Brigadier-General Clark who was captured after having been severely wounded at the battle of Baton Rouge, and some other prisoners. If this meets with the approval of the lieutenant-general I shall cause preparations to be made accordingly.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

DANIEL RUGGLES, Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Commanding District.

[Indorsement.]

Inform Brigadier-General Ruggles that the matter of communication with the enemy is exclusively under the control of department headquarters.

J. C. P., Lieutenant-General.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 16, 1862.

Brig. Gen. JOSEPH WHEELER, Chief of Cavalry, La Vergne, Tenn.

GENERAL: I am directed by the general commanding to instruct you to return to their lines the three vedettes captured on the 13th together with their entire equipments-arms. The passing of the flag implied protection to all in its rear. He exonerates the officers and men of your command involved in the matter from all intention to violate the flag and has so explained to General Rosecrans.

Respectfully, &c.,

J. STODDARD JOHNSTON, Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide to General Bragg.

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RICHMOND, VA., December 17, 1862.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON.

SIR: Several communications of yours to the War Department have been referred to me. One of them refers to the case of Captain Murphy. On the 21st September last Captain Murphy was exchanged for Maj. Charles E. Livingston, Seventy-sixth New York Volunteers. General Butler has therefore no claim for any further equivalent for Captain Murphy. The exchange was a special one and was made by me in consequence of an urgent letter from Governor Moore, of Louisiana, in whose service Captain Murphy had been acting. I informed Governor Moore of the consummation of the exchange nearly three months ago. If General Butler will refer to General Orders, No. 147, issued by time United States Government, September 30, 1862, he will see the above exchange therein published. The same communication refers to Partisan Rangers.

The following agreement has been made between the respective commissioners of exchange, to wit:

{p.789}

The Federal Government has recently professed to carry out the above agreement to its full extent. I am inclined to believe it has done so in the East. Perhaps General Butler has not as yet been notified of the action of his Government. The agreement above quoted comes from the War Department at Washington and is signed by their agent of exchange.

It is yet an open question as to what action the Federal Government will take as to Partisan Rangers whose officers are not commissioned by the Confederate Government. We demand also their exchange as prisoners of war. To this the Federal Government has not formally acceded, though many such have been delivered for exchange by the Federals. I am in hopes they will soon embrace them as proper subjects of exchange.

Some time ago I informed Major Watts at Vicksburg that all Confederate officers and men who had been delivered at Vicksburg on or before November 1, 1862, and all officers and men who should after that date be delivered there until I informed him to the contrary were duly exchanged. Has he not so informed you? I presume you have not been so informed as the Secretary of War to-day refers a letter of Capt. James Clark, Company A, Seventh Missouri Cavalry, forwarded by you under date of November 29, 1862, inquiring as to his exchange. Captain Clark and all officers and men, Partisan Rangers of all classes included, who have been delivered at Vicksburg up to this present date have been exchanged. This arrangement will continue until you are notified to the contrary. I will be obliged to you if you will let me hear from you on the receipt of this letter.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Murfreesborough, December 18, 1862.

Brigadier-General WHEELER, Chief of Cavalry.

GENERAL: In reply to your communication* of this date on the subject of the three Federal vedettes captured on the 12th instant the general commanding directs me to say that you will destroy the paroles of these men and discharge them from the obligation.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. WM. BRENT, Assistant Adjutant-General.

* Not found.

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PROVOST-MARSHAL’S OFFICE, Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 18, 1862.

General JOSEPH WHEELER, La Vergne.

GENERAL: I herewith send under guard the following-named Federal prisoners: Benjamin Leach, private, Company I, Fifth Kentucky Regiment; Thomas Leach, private, Company I, Fifth Kentucky Regiment; John Williams, private, Company I, Fifth Kentucky Regiment.

The prisoners have been paroled and are sent in obedience to your order of the 17th instant.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. W. PEDEN, Captain and Provost-Marshal.

{p.790}

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 66.}

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 18, 1862.

...

II. All paroled prisoners who have been or may hereafter be delivered at Vicksburg are declared by the agent at that place as exchanged. They will therefore promptly report for duty with their respective regiments.

...

By command of General Bragg:

[GEO. WM. BRENT,] Assistant Adjutant-General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 19, 1862.

THOMAS W. WHITE, Esq., White’s Battalion.

SIR: You are respectfully informed in reply to your letter of the 24th ultimo that this Government does not recognize the paroles that were extorted from prisoners who were not engaged in hostilities between the Confederate States and the United States.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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RICHMOND, VA., December 20, 1862.

Hon. JOHN LETCHER, Governor of Virginia.

SIR: I have the honor to report the results of my mission to Fincastle at your instance for the trial of Dr. William P. Rucker on various charges. The first indictment found against him was for the murder of one Michael Joyce in July, 1861. Before the death of the party he was examined by a justice for feloniously stabbing with intent to kill and was committed to answer to that charge before an examining court. At the regular term next thereafter he appeared and was examined after the death of Joyce for the charge of feloniously stabbing, &c., and was discharged.

The grand jury indicted him after an examination for the murder for that crime at the special term of the circuit court of Alleghany held in November. To that charge the prisoner pleaded autrefois acquit and relied upon his discharge by the examining court upon the charge of feloniously stabbing, &c. To the filing of that plea the Commonwealth objected and moved its rejection for insufficiency. Upon full argument the court overruled the Commonwealth’s motion, and adjudging the discharge to be a bar to the prosecution for murder allowed the plea to be filed. The Commonwealth then tendered a replication to the plea averring the examination and judgment to have been procured by the prisoner’s fraud in the absence of the attorney for the Commonwealth. To this replication the prisoner’s counsel objected for insufficiency and the court adjourned it for argument at the next term.

The prisoner was then arraigned upon a charge of larceny of a horse of Joseph H. Persinger in January, 1862. To this he pleaded not guilty, and the Commonwealth not being ready to try it owing to the absence of a material witness it was continued to the next term.

Then came on the case of treason with those of arson of the Cow-Pasture bridge on the Central Railroad and a number of other cases therewith connected, all of which were committed in the month of May, {p.791} 1862. To these charges the prisoner pleaded to the jurisdiction of the court on the ground that he was at the time of the commission of the several offenses charged a citizen and subject of the United States and in their military service, and that he was while so in their military service taken a prisoner of war by the Confederate States and that as such prisoner of war he is not liable to indictment and prosecution by a State court for any of the said offenses. To this plea the Commonwealth objected and after a very elaborate argument the court rejected the said plea as insufficient. A further plea in abatement was tendered and rejected and then the prisoner pleaded not guilty to all the indictments except in the case of treason. In the case of treason the prisoner, his pleas to jurisdiction and in abatement having been overruled, demurred to the indictment. His demurrer was in some respects to matters of form which were unimportant and of no consequence to the main question. But he demurred principally upon the ground that the war in which we are engaged is a war between the United States and the Confederate States, and that the act of the prisoner in levying war in combination with the Army of the United States and in adhering to the public enemy, giving them aid and comfort, was treason against the Confederate States and not against the State of Virginia. This ground of demurrer goes not to the form of the proceeding but is of the gist of the prosecution.

One count is not liable to the objection. Some of the overt acts of levying war and adhering to the enemy in other counts are not open to the objection but many of them are so liable. I desire to argue the point with due care and after ample preparation.

The cases will continue over until the spring term when I hope to be able to dispose of them.

I have the honor to be, with high respect, your obedient servant,

J. R. TUCKER.

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PETERSBURG, VA., December 22, 1862.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War C. S. A., Richmond, Va.

SIR: I represent to you the case of Charles A. J. Collins. He was a citizen of Prince George County, Va., and a constituent of mine as State senator. He was arrested by military orders on or about the 10th of July, 1862. He was put in the jail of this city shortly after his arrest. He was kept in jail until about the 1st instant when he was sent a prisoner to Salisbury, N. C., where he is still confined. I do not know why he was arrested, but have reason to believe that he is not guilty of any act of disloyalty. But this I can knowingly represent, to wit, that he was a civilian at the time of his arrest and so remains of course, in no way attached to the army, and is denied not only a speedy trial but any trial at all, for the authorities are ordered not to subject civilians to trial by courts-martial (see General Cooper’s letter to General French under date November 21,* 1862), and he is not delivered over to the civil authority to be tried. I do therefore most respectfully and with the solemn earnestness which it seems to me every lover of civil liberty should, nay must, participate in and affectionately appreciate apply to you or to the President, if he alone is competent, to order the military commanders in whose custody the said Collins is to deliver him over to the civil magistracy of Prince George County where he was arrested.

{p.792}

I write you this letter at the instance of the wife of Collins, my sense of public duty as a citizen and my opinions as counsel concurring in the application. She has three small children, poor and a refugee from her humble home. She is now with her mother in this city, who is also a poor woman.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

ROBT. R. COLLIER, Senator of Virginia.

[Indorsement.]

Answer that an examination of the political prisoners at Salisbury has been made to a great extent and it was supposed that all had been examined who had been arrested so long ago as July. Directions will be given for the examination of Collins.

J. A. S.

* See Vol. IV, this Series, p. 950.

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Statements of Messrs. Mulford, Florance, Giffin (December 23) and Borland (December 26.)

James H. Mulford, a citizen of New Orleans, having been required by the undersigned, Secretary of State, to make a statement of the facts connected with the gathering of the crops from the plantations in Lower Louisiana by the U. S. forces, declares the following facts to be within his knowledge: Andrew J. Butler, the brother of the commanding general, bought from Mr. Zunts, a planter below the city, his sugar crop as it stood in the field for the sum of $25,000 and informed this witness that he had gotten back his money in the first twelve days of grinding the cane; that he, Butler, took off the crop; that the plantation yielded a crop of about 1,200 hogsheads of sugar; that Butler said he had bought and was taking off the crops from several other plantations. Witness also saw the agent of the commercial house of Brown, Johnstone & Co.; the name of the agent is Tucker, and he was accompanied by 120 white laborers. The said Tucker was then on his way, as he informed witness, to take off the crops from the plantations of said Brown, Johnstone & Co., and Frank Webb, on joint account with the Yankees. This was done after the plantation of Mr. Webb had been stripped of everything, even to his wife’s wardrobe and jewels, and the negroes driven off. It was well understood in New Orleans that no planter was allowed to take off his crop for himself. If he did his sugar was seized by order of General Butler as fast as it reached New Orleans.

JAMES H. MULFORD.

Signed in my presence.

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

DECEMBER 23, 1862.

Henry Florance, a citizen of New Orleans, states that it is to his knowledge that all the slaves were taken away from the plantation of Mr. Zunts, a planter below New Orleans, who being thus left without means to gather his growing crop was applied to by Col. Andrew J. Butler, who offered to buy his crop as it stood for $25,000. The crop under ordinary circumstances is one of the largest in the State, worth perhaps five times that amount if taken off. The witness left New {p.793} Orleans before the season for grinding cane and has no knowledge how the crop was taken off, but it was sold as above to Colonel Butler. An arrangement was also made, as witness was informed by Clement Story, who is a sugar planter below New Orleans, to take off his crop on joint account with some of the U. S. officers in New Orleans. It was a well understood fact in New Orleans that no planter could obtain permission to gather his crop unless he would agree to share it with Colonel Butler or some of the Yankee officers.

HENRY FLORANCE.

Signed in my presence.

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

DECEMBER 23, 1862.

Adam Giffin, a citizen of New Orleans, states that he knows Mr. Zunts, a sugar planter, who lives below New Orleans; that many of the negroes having been abducted from said plantation said Zunts informed witness that Andrew J. Butler, the brother of General Butler, had made him a proposition to buy his crop as it stood in the field; that Zunts being without any means of gathering his crop was forced to accept the offer, and that a bargain was made that Butler should restore the negroes to the plantation, or at least an equal number; that the crop should be taken off under the supervision of Zunts for account of Butler, and that the plantation should be restored to Zunts in the spring in full and complete order with all the slaves, and Zunts received in payment for his crop $25,000. Zunts told witness he had cane enough to make 700 hogsheads of sugar. A hogshead of sugar made by the process used on the plantation of Zunts is worth over $100, in addition to which is the molasses. It was well understood in New Orleans that no planter could take off his crop without some arrangement being made for the profit of the Yankee officials.

ADAM GIFFIN.

Signed in my presence.

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

DECEMBER 26, 1862.

Dr. Euclid Borland says he is the owner of a plantation on the Mississippi River below New Orleans; that he was on a visit to the plantation of Mr. Zunts when he was introduced to a person by the name of Weed, and was informed by Zunts that he had made a bargain with Colonel Butler and Weed and another person connected with the quartermaster’s or commissary department of General Butler’s army. Witness cannot recollect the name of this last-mentioned person, although it was stated to him. The bargain was that the slaves which had left the plantation were to be brought back and that the crop of Zunts was to be made for account of Colonel Butler and his associates who had paid $25,000 for it; that the purchasers were to pay the overseer’s wages and pay for some hogsheads that Zunts had bought, and were to pay for all expenses of taking off the crop, except such supplies as were then on time plantation. The purchasers agreed to bring back the negroes by aid of U. S. soldiers, and witness learned that a portion of the slaves were brought back to the place under a guard of soldiers. Zunts suggested to witness to make a similar bargain, as {p.794} many of the slaves of witness had left his plantation, and witness then had a conversation with Weed who stated that he was trying to make bargains with numbers of the planters below the city; that he would not make with others the same bargain as he had made with Zunts; that he could not undertake to restore to each planter the identical slaves that he had lost but that he would furnish a number sufficient to take off the crop and share the proceeds with the owner; that if a sufficient number of planters would make this agreement he would station guards above and below the plantations so as to prevent any escape of the negroes. The witness told Weed that his mind was made up to hold on to his own property unless it was taken from him by force; that he would not share his property with the enemies of his country, but that if the Federal authority thought proper to place guards of soldiers to keep the negroes in order witness was willing to pay his share of the expense of so doing. During the conversation Weed said that the negroes would be forced to come down and work the plantations by guards of U. S. soldiers in all cases where the bargain was made with him. When Zunts’ negroes were returned to his plantation under guard, as he understood, there were some negroes of Mr. Baylie, a neighboring planter, mixed with them. Baylie’s negroes escaped from Zunts’ plantation and went back to their owner. Witness was present in the office of Mr. Judson, a broker in New Orleans, when the written contract between Zunts and Colonel Butler was read in presence of witness. The contract had been drawn up by Isaac E. Morse, esq., as attorney for Zunts, and witness heard the contract read and remembers it well. Witness understood that the Saint Anne and the Concession Plantations, in the parish of Plaquemine, were to be worked in the manner above mentioned, in partnership with Weed and his associates, and that a portion of the negroes had been carried back to the Concession place. Weed was in treaty with Mr. E. Lawrence for the same purpose with respect to his plantation, but witness does not know whether Lawrence accepted the offer. Zunts told witness that he, Zunts, had been formerly in partnership with Colonel Butler as negro traders.

EUCLID BORLAND.

Signed in my presence. The erasures* were made on a second reading of the statement, witness requiring the modifications to be made as more accurate.

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

DECEMBER 26, 1862.

* In the original on file.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Raleigh, December 24, 1862.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS.

DEAR SIR: In accordance with the request of the General Assembly of this State I have the honor to send you herewith by the hands of A. C. Cowles, esq., a joint resolution of that body in relation to the seizure of one R. J. Graves, a citizen of North Carolina, and his transportation beyond the limits of the State. An answer to the demand therein contained at your earliest convenience will oblige,

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

Z. B. VANCE.

{p.795}

[Inclosure.]

Whereas, the General Assembly of North Carolina is informed that one R. J. Graves, a citizen of the county of Orange, hath been seized at his residence in said county by a person professing to be a police officer from Richmond, in Virginia, and hath been transported to and is now detained as a prisoner in the said city of Richmond; and whereas the said Graves nor any other citizen of this State is liable thus to be seized and transported beyond the limits thereof without the order and approbation of the proper authority of this State, but on the contrary he and they are not liable to arrest except only on the warrant of a proper judicial officer; and if crime be imputed they are by the express provisions of the Confederate and the State constitutions amenable only to the civil tribunals and have a right to a hearing and trial before the courts of the Confederacy or of the State, according to the nature of the offense with which they stand charged, such trial to be had in open court according to due course of law; and whereas it is the duty of the government of North Carolina to protect from unlawful violence as far as possible every one of her citizens and to insure to each a fair trial in a lawful court having jurisdiction of his case: Therefore,

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be requested immediately to demand of the authorities at Richmond by whose order the said R. J. Graves was seized and transported and is now detained that he be immediately returned to this State to the end that he may be delivered over to the civil authorities here either of this State or of the Confederate States for examination and if sufficient cause appear for commitment and trial, so that if innocent of the matter laid to his charge he may be acquitted, or if guilty be convicted and punished by due course of law.

R. S. DONNELL, Speaker of the House of Commons.

GILES MEBANE, Speaker of the Senate.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 111.}

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, December 24, 1862.

I. The following proclamation of the President is published for the information and guidance of all concerned therein:

II. Officers of the Army are charged with the observance and enforcement of the foregoing orders of the President. Where the evidence is hot full or the case is for any reason of a doubtful character it will be referred through this office for the decision of the War Department.

By order:

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

{p.798}

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NEW MARKET, December 26, 1862.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General:

Please retain Major Withers, Tenth [West] Virginia (Federal) Regiment, until I can send you copies of orders recently issued by General Milroy.

W. E. JONES, Brigadier-General, Commanding.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 27, 1862.

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, Governor of North Carolina.

SIR: In the absence of the President now on a visit to the armies of the West and South your letter of the 24th instant communicating a preamble and resolution of the General Assembly of North Carolina relative to the seizure and transportation from the State of R. J. Graves, a citizen of Orange County, and making in conformity with the resolution a demand for the return of the said R. J. Graves to the State and his delivery to the authorities there for examination and if sufficient cause appear for commitment and trial, has been handed by A C. Cowles, esq., to me as Secretary of War for my action thereon. It will doubtless be matter of regret to you and the General Assembly of your State as it certainly is to me that the matter cannot receive the more satisfactory consideration and determination of the President, and as the subject shall on his return be promptly submitted to his revision it is not improbable that he may deem it worthy of further special communication from himself.

Still the imposing source of the application and the gravity of the subject demanding from its nature prompt action in my estimation impose on me the responsibility of exercising my imperfect judgment in rendering a decision. Some brief statement of the connection of the department with the detention of Mr. Graves and of the circumstances of his case will naturally and appropriately precede and explain both the action heretofore taken and the conclusion arrived at in his case.

Only some few days since was I informed as head of this Department of the detention of Mr. Graves in one of the military prisons of the city to which he had been consigned by the order of Brigadier-General Winder, military commandant of the district and acting provost-marshal of the city. When apprised of the fact I inquired briefly as to the ground of charge and was assured by General Winder that he was charged and held as a spy and that he did not consider it safe that he should be dismissed. I then directed that he should be examined by the commissioner. Mr. Sydney S. Baxter, a lawyer of high repute, charged with the duty of inquiring into the cases of prisoners in the military prison and of either discharging them or handing them over to their proper tribunals for trial. A day or two afterwards on the application of the Reverend Mr. Brown, of North Carolina, learning that the examination had not been had I reiterated the order, and being informed that the cause of delay had been the absence of a soldier and officer in the army who were wanted as witnesses I immediately directed that they should be ordered from the field here. Thus the matter stood to-day on the delivery of your letter.

On the fuller investigation immediately made of the circumstances of the arrest and of the grounds on which it was based I learn from General Winder that on the 6th of November last there appeared in the Richmond Enquirer a long letter written by the Rev. R. J. Graves proffered {p.799} as giving to our people just views of the purposes of our enemies. A number of the paper containing the letter will be submitted to you with this. Without pretending to judge the real intent or probable effect of this letter it is sufficient to say it seemed to many well calculated to cause distrust and discouragement among our people as to the result of the war and that the loyalty of the writer was greatly doubted.

Not very long after the publication of this article two letters addressed to the editor of the Enquirer elicited by the distrust which this letter had aroused as to the character and purposes of the writer were submitted by that editor to General Winder. Copies* of these two letters are transmitted herewith. One was from Capt. T. E. Upshaw, a gallant officer of the army, giving the intelligence derived from one of his soldiers, a returned prisoner vouched as entirely truthful, that this reverend gentleman (Mr. Graves) who had come down with the flag of truce to Harrison’s Landing while there was heard by him giving information to the enemy of all he knew “about our matters at Richmond and especially about the gun-boat Richmond,” in respect to which “so elaborate were the discussion and explanation that the drawings and plans of the Monitor were brought and shown to him.” Other particulars tending to strengthen suspicion and identify the Reverend Mr. Graves are given on which as you will have the letter it is needless to dwell.

In this connection it may be added that subsequently it has been ascertained that after his return from the North the Reverend Mr. Graves voluntarily stated to a leading clergyman of this city (Mr. Norwood) that finding difficulty interposed to his going North he had obtained his permit to proceed by affecting to give information which he believed would be of no avail to the enemy and had among other topics made statements respecting the gun-boat Richmond. This attitude, confessed by himself, of a minister of the gospel for an end of private advantage affecting to act the spy is certainly not calculated to diminish the suspicion of his conduct while it identifies him with the person charged by the soldier and confirms the general accuracy of his statement.

The other letter laid before General Winder signed “An old citizen,” but submitted by Mr. George B. Miles, appears to have been written by a zealous citizen of North Carolina fully acquainted with the origin and antecedents of the Reverend Mr. Graves and characterizes him as a Northern man, a Yankee undeserving of trust and more than doubtful loyalty having neither home nor people in North Carolina. On applying to General Winder for a passport at the time of his trip to Harrison’s Landing Mr. Graves had represented himself as a New Yorker desirous of returning to the North. Other oral suggestions General Winder informs me were made from various sources against this man, but the letters constituted the main grounds for his actions. He sent an officer under his command to North Carolina, had him arrested and brought to this city.

You will observe his information was that the reverend gentleman had acted the spy and might naturally be expected to continue the same line of conduct. He did not know him to be a North Carolinian, but believed him an alien enemy (being described as a Yankee without home in the State), and as such being charged with giving information to the enemy he considered him as a spy, to be arrested anywhere in the Confederacy and brought for examination and trial to the military district within Which his alleged offense had been committed. General Winder in the judgment of the Department acted with over-zeal in not {p.800} first fully satisfying himself that the party charged was not a citizen of North Carolina. As such while amenable to arrest on sufficient grounds as a spy or even as a traitor he could with no propriety or legality be removed from the State but should have been handed over to the appropriate authorities, military or civil, in that State to be dealt with according to the law. While doubt on the subject of the citizenship of this party may have been on the information possessed pardonable heretofore, now that the assurance of this citizenship is afforded by the deliberate act of the General Assembly of North Carolina, there can be neither pretense nor justification for not promptly admitting the error committed by his removal and rectifying it by his immediate return and delivery under Your Excellency’s demand. He will accordingly be cheerfully and at once placed at the disposition of Mr. Cowles or at his option sent under the escort of an officer to be delivered in Raleigh to such authority as you may direct. Should any proceedings be instituted against him requiring the presence of witnesses I need not add that all facilities will be afforded by the Department here to secure their due attendance.

While regretting the mistake committed in this case I find compensative satisfaction in evincing the sincere respect entertained by the Department for the rights of citizenship and sovereignty of the States, and avail myself of the opportunity to assure Your Excellency and through you the General Assembly of North Carolina that the Department so far from countenancing infringement on either regards it as its highest privilege as well as plainest duty by the utmost effort of its powers to preserve them both inviolate against all enemies.

I have the honor to be, with high consideration and esteem, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

* Not found.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 27, 1862.

Brig. Gen. J. H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I have concluded to surrender the Rev. R. J. Graves to the authorities of the State of North Carolina. You will therefore hold the prisoner in readiness to be delivered to the agent of the Governor or to be sent to that State in charge of your officers as may be preferred by the agent.

Respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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INSPECTOR-GENERAL’S OFFICE, Murfreesborough, December 27, 1862.

Col. B. S. EWELL, Assistant Adjutant-General, Chattanooga.

COLONEL: In the absence of General Bragg who has gone to the front and the matter not admitting of delay I send you some Federal prisoners for your disposal, General Rosecrans having declined to receive them through his lines. The officer in charge, Captain Cunningham, is instructed to report the enlisted men to you and to convey the officers to Atlanta to be held as hostages until farther orders. Colonel Moore and his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Dewald, having been {p.801} paroled and receipted for by General Rosecrans I respectfully ask that they be sent to Richmond to be forwarded through our lines.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. K. BEARD, Inspector-General.

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BRITISH CONSULATE, Charleston, December 28, 1862.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State, Richmond.

SIR: It is now nearly a month since you were so good as to promise to procure from the War Department some information respecting the reasons which may have led to the imprisonment at Salisbury, N. C., of John Carfoot, a subject of Her Majesty. As this person is still so far as I know held in confinement I beg leave to again direct your attention to the matter in order that he may be either brought at once to trial or speedily released.

I have the honor to be, sir, your very faithful and obedient servant,

ROBERT BUNCH.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 30, 1862.

Hon. R. R. COLLIER, Petersburg, Va.

SIR In the absence of the President your letter to him of the 23d instant has been referred to this Department for answer and you are respectfully informed that an additional person has been appointed to examine all prisoners and has instructions to discharge all those who are illegally detained.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 30, 1862.

BEVERLY R. WELLFORD, Jr., Esq.

SIR: You have been selected by this Department to proceed to Petersburg, Va., and Salisbury, N. C., for the purpose of making an examination of the entire body of prisoners who are detained in prison in either of those places under the military authority of the Confederate States and where the persons do not belong to the army of the Confederacy. You are authorized to call upon the provost-marshals and the officers having charge of the prisons in either of those places for the books and papers kept by them and for all the information they have respecting the cause of arrest and detention of any person held in confinement. You may examine any witnesses they have or can produce against them and may hear the statement of the prisoners themselves. You will make a record of all your proceedings under this commission and a report of your judgment in each particular case.

You are authorized to set at liberty all those against whom no well-grounded cause of suspicion exists of having violated any law or done any act hostile or injurious to the Confederate States. And as to those against whom suspicion is found properly to exist you will make a report of the facts and of your opinion and recommendation concerning them. You will notify the commanding officers of this commission and of the time you will commence your investigation and they will {p.802} be ordered to grant you every facility and to carry into effect all your recommendations.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., December 31, 1862.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON, General Commanding, &c.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 14th instant which has just reached me through the Adjutant-General. Your determination to retain the U. S. prisoners under your control until General Clark and the fourteen other officers held by General Butler contrary to good faith and the obligation of the cartel for the exchange of prisoners between the United States and the Confederate Government are returned is fully approved. The pretense on which General Clark and the other officers are withheld is wholly unjustifiable and untenable. In the first place the evidence which is offered of the alleged ground of action, being the mutilated fragment of the supposed proceedings of a court-martial, is too imperfect and unsatisfactory to be the basis of such action, but giving full credence to it and viewing it as conclusive it would still only show the action of an officer of the State of Louisiana and of a court-martial held under his authority upon a man subject to the militia service of the State.

Now, the Government of the United States has explicitly refused to recognize the applicability of the cartel to officers or soldiers merely in State service and it is consequently precluded from avoiding the obligation of that cartel by reference to the action of such State officers, but the most conclusive reason against their pretense is that the exchange of General Clark and his companions in confinement seems to have been actually arranged and on our part carried out by the delivery of the Federal officers agreed on. A grosser breach of faith than the retention of those officers and the refusal to deliver these for whom they were returned could not well be exhibited. You will therefore continue the course you have adopted until adequate redress is obtained.

With high consideration and esteem, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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HEADQUARTERS WESTERN SUB-DISTRICT OF TEXAS, San Antonio, January 2, 1863.

Maj. A. G. DICKINSON, Assistant Adjutant-General, Houston, Tex.

SIR: I have the honor to report that the U. S. prisoners of war under the escort of Capt. F. V. D. Stucken’s company of cavalry, Taylor’s battalion, have taken up the line of march for Vicksburg via Shreveport, and would request that the necessary orders may be sent on to meet them.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. P. BEE, Brigadier-General, Provisional Army.

{p.803}

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DEER CREEK, January 2, 1863.

GENERAL COMMANDING, Grenada, Miss.

GENERAL: I have the honor to hand inclosed list* of prisoners, C. S. Army, left at Greenville, Miss., this county, by the steamer Minnehaha on the 31st ultimo. These prisoners were sick and were put off without any provision being made for their well-being and comfort. Without bedding, rations or medicines, these disabled soldiers are roughly thrown into a deserted hotel in a small village on the river, whose inhabitants may be numbered by the half dozen, beyond the reach of everything like material comfort. The citizens in the neighborhood have already given away all their surplus bedding, have no medicines and can barely supply the poor soldiers with enough to eat; and besides the recent raids and destruction of property along the river-bank will deter the people from sending that aid which they otherwise would.

These soldiers are a portion of the prisoners brought down for exchange and ordered back by the Federal commander at Vicksburg. Eight hundred and fifty remained on the boat and were to be carried to Memphis or Helena. I understand the Minnehaha put off a case of smallpox below Greenville. The obvious effect if not intent of this policy will be to scatter a violent plague throughout the whole country. Escaped prisoners report that Grant’s army from above and Banks’ army from below are ordered to co-operate in the attack upon Vicksburg. Whether this be true or not I cannot say.

I cannot close without calling the attention of the general commanding to the iniquity of the course thus pursued by the Yankees in attempting to scatter through this whole country and that too without warning the most violent epidemic disease known.

I have the honor, general, to be, your obedient servant,

W. L. NUGENT, Lieutenant, &c.

[Indorsements.]

Respectfully referred to Doctor Moses for his consideration. I should like to see him to converse with him on the subject. Return this. I wish to reply and send it to General Pemberton.

W. W. LORING, Major-General.

I have ordered Doctor Moses to send a surgeon with medicines and comforts for the sick.

Respectfully forwarded.

W. W. LORING, Major-General, Commanding.

* Omitted.

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OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, Knoxville, Tenn., January 3, 1863.

Maj. H. L. CLAY, Assist ant Adjutant-General.

SIR: Below you will please find a list of free negroes confined in jail: Moses Sliger, Knoxville, confined by order of Brigadier-General Davis, commanding post, December 8, 1862; Jesse Malone, Campbell County, Tenn., committed December 5, 1862; Simon Malone, Campbell County, Tenn., committed December 5, 1862; Manuel Cox, Campbell County, Tenn., committed December 5, 1862.

{p.804}

The first-named negro was arrested by order of Brigadier-General Davis, commanding post, on account of a riot at his house. The other three, from Campbell County, Tenn., ran away to Powell’s Valley some time since and perhaps have been to Kentucky. They were captured by a scouting party from Big Creek Gap and sent to this place by Colonel Palmer, Fifty-eighth North Carolina Regiment.

I respectfully recommend that the first-named negro be turned over to Messrs. McGee & Co. What disposition shall be made of the others?

Respectfully,

JOHN E. TOOLE, Colonel and Provost-Marshal.

[Indorsement.]

Turn them all over to McGee & Co.

By command of Lieut. Gen. E. Kirby Smith:

H. L. CLAY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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HEADQUARTERS SECOND CORPS, Grenada, January 4, 1863.

Hon. G. G. VEST, Member of Congress.

SIR: General Price directs me to acknowledge the reception of your communication* of the 30th ultimo in relation to the murder of Col. Frisby H. McCullough by the Federal authorities in Northern Missouri, and to state in reply that the general is under the impression that Colonel McCullough obtained recruiting authority from him at Springfield last winter. He does not know whether Colonel McCullough organized troops under this authority or not. Your communication has been referred to Adjutant-General Hough, to whom all the books, &c., pertaining to the Missouri State Guard were delivered with the request that he will furnish to you a copy of the recruiting authority given to Colonel McCullough.

The general further directs me to say that he will cordially co-operate with you in any endeavor that you may make to prevent the murder of citizens and soldiers of Missouri.

I am, sir, &c.,

JAMES M. LOUGHBOROUGH.

* Not found.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, January 6, 1863.

Hon. JOHN B. BALDWIN, Staunton, Va.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose to you a copy* of the report of S. S. Baxter, esq., who was charged with the investigation anew of the case of Samuel Simmons. It appears from this report and the accompanying certificates that Simmons was received at the C. S. Military Prison in this city on the evening of the 7th of September last, was transferred to the hospital on the 12th and died there on the 18th or 19th of the same month. The seeming loss of all trace of this unfortunate man while in the custody of the military authorities presented a case sufficiently startling to arouse the anxious attention of the Department. The illness of Mr. Simmons unhappily occurring so speedily after he was brought to Richmond issuing in his death in the brief space of six days doubtless prevented his case being the subject of examination {p.805} while fresh in the memory of those in whose custody he had been placed. Changes in the officers at the prisons, the large number of prisoners of war as well as others in confinement there and the clerical error in the name as explained by Mr. Baxter account for the difficulty which has existed in tracing him. While sparing no effort to guard the interests of the Confederacy in the life struggle in which we are engaged it is my earnest desire and purpose that the personal rights of the citizen shall be as jealousy observed as in time of peace so far as is consistent with the safety of the State.

Respectfully, yours,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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JASPER, TENN., January 6, 1863.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Confederate States of America.

SIR: I take the liberty to inform you how I have been treated by the Federal forces for my opinions’ sake. On the 1st of last May eighty-three men belonging to General O. M. Mitchel’s division came from Bridgeport, Ala., and pillaged my store of every article of any worth, and on the 5th of June last General Negley sent ten soldiers (Federal) piloted by one of our tories and demanded $500 in cash and my person. The captain said he was directed by General Negley if I did not pay the $500 to take property to that amount. Not getting the cash they took $900 or $1,000 of property, some the relics of my deceased wife to her little son. They took me from a sick bed and made me march with troops trained without anything to eat except crackers and bacon; no tents to lie in or blankets to cover with, but was compelled to lie on the cold ground without any covering whatever. From our homes we were marched near Chattanooga, Tenn., and put in a filthy stable; from thence to Shelbyville, Tenn., and put in a slaughter-house, 140 feet deep without ventilation and a hospital abovehead with large cracks in the floor and nothing to eat but crackers and hot water which they termed coffee. General Negley issued an order prohibiting the ladies or citizens of Shelbyville from furnishing us with any article of diet whatever saying we were furnished with the same rations that the Federal soldiers were, which was false. From thence we were taken to the State Penitentiary and incarcerated with thieves, murderers and assassins and such men as do God and man’s laws at defiance set (for no crime save my love and devotion to my home and native South and her constitutional rights), where I remained near four months, while my little children were robbed of everything they had to eat and scared and insulted by a brutal soldiery, they having come twelve miles to do it. I never lived in their lines. General Negley sent his cavalry six miles from his road of travel to rob and arrest me. He killed one of our citizens by marching him while sick for no cause except his opinions’ sake, and other citizens of our county have been sent to Camp Chase, and are there now, if alive. Their names are William H. Ballard and Claiborn Gott. Neither of us was ever connected with politics or the army. I understand that General Negley was taken prisoner at Murfreesborough. If so, please give orders concerning his case.

With sentiments of high regard, I am, President, yours, devotedly,

WASHINGTON TURNER.

P. S.-For my veracity I refer you to Generals John B. Floyd and John B. Gordon; Col. P. Turney, First Tennessee Regiment; Dr. J. G. {p.806} Barksdale, Shelbyville, Tenn.; Revs. E. W. Sehon, Atlanta, Ga., and William T. Smithson, formerly of Washington, D. C.

W. T.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., January 8, 1863.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

SIR: Instructions have been again addressed to Brigadier-General Winder to procure the testimony you have asked for in your letter of yesterday relative to John Carfoot, a prisoner lately confined at Salisbury, N. C. As soon as he makes his report of the cause of the arrest of Carfoot and the proof that was produced against him it will be communicated to you.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, January 8, 1863.

Hon. ROBERT OULD, Agent of Exchange.

SIR: Although you desired that no citizens be sent by flag of truce to-morrow yet General Winder wishes that exceptions be made in the cases of three men, viz: D. C. Bull, citizen of New York; William Bull, his son, and Wm. J. Peters, citizen of Delaware. Mr. John O. E. Sowers, citizen of Virginia, arrived yesterday on parole to obtain the release of Mr. Bull and his son. The Secretary of War is only willing that D. C. Bull be returned for Mr. Sowers.

William Bull is on parole for thirty days to obtain permission for the release of Charles Henry Smith, son of Col. Larkin Smith. The other, Wm. J. Peters, paroled for thirty days to effect exchange of any citizen of the Confederate States who may be confined in prison at the North.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

THOS. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding Prison.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, January 8, 1863.

Captain MULFORD.

SIR: I send by Lieutenant Bossieux, C. S. Army, seven rolls of money belonging to the above-named* persons, late prisoners here. Owing to some haste and confusion at the time of the departure of the prisoners last Tuesday we unavoidably failed to remit to them all their dues. Please receipt to Lieutenant Bossieux for the same.

Respectfully,

THOS. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding Prison.

* Omitted.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, January 10, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: In view of the atrocious orders issued by the Federal General Milroy with regard to citizens of the Valley District I would respectfully {p.807} recommend that prisoners from his command captured by our forces be not exchanged but that they be held as hostages for the protection of our people against the outrages which he is reported to be committing.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE, General.

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VICKSBURG, January 10, 1863.

Colonel WADDY:

Under date of 6th instant I was informed by Assistant Adjutant-General B. S. Ewell, from Chattanooga, that 3,500 Federal prisoners are on their way here. Instructions regarding them are asked for.

M. L. SMITH, Major-General.

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JACKSON, MISS., January 10, 1863.

General J. C. PEMBERTON:

Thirty-five hundred Federal prisoners are on their way here from Bragg’s army. What shall I do with them?

J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 2.}

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DISTRICT, DEPT. OF MISS. AND EAST LA., Jackson, Miss., January 11, 1863.

...

II. The command of that portion of the district recently embraced within and now separated from the First Military District, as well as the city of Jackson, is hereby relinquished to Brigadier-General Adams, who has been appointed to the command.

III. The office of commissioner of exchanged and paroled prisoners is also turned over to Brigadier-General Adams.

By order of Brigadier-General Ruggles:

R. M. HOOE, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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Extract from President’s Message, January 12, 1863.

To the SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES:

...

The public journals of the North have been received containing a proclamation dated on the first day of the present month signed by the President of the United States in which he orders and declares all slaves within ten States of the Confederacy to be free, except such as are found in certain districts now occupied in part by the armed forces of the enemy.

We may well leave it to the instincts of that common humanity which a beneficent Creator has implanted in the breasts of our fellowmen of all countries to pass judgment on a measure by which several millions of human beings of an inferior race, peaceful and contented {p.808} laborers in their sphere, are doomed to extermination, while at the same time they are encouraged to a general assassination of their masters by the insidious recommendation “to abstain from violence unless in necessary self-defense.” Our own detestation of those who have attempted the most execrable measure recorded in the history of guilty man is tempered by profound contempt for the impotent rage which it discloses. So far as regards the action of this Government on such criminals as may attempt its execution I confine myself to informing you that I shall unless in your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient deliver to the several State authorities all commissioned officers of the United States that may hereafter be captured by our forces in any of the States embraced in the proclamation that they may be dealt with in accordance with the laws of those States providing for the punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection. The enlisted soldiers I shall continue to treat as unwilling instruments in the commission of these crimes and shall direct their discharge and return to their homes on the proper and usual parole.

...

JEFF’N DAVIS.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, January 12, 1863.

Hon. GEORGE MOORE, Her British Majesty’s Consul.

SIR: ... John Carfoot has been released. The charges against him are at Salisbury, N. C., and have been telegraphed for. They will be communicated to you upon their arrival.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

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VICKSBURG, January 13, 1863.

Colonel WADDY:

If prisoners arrive locate them in most convenient place for encampment, and employ the whole of Taylor’s brigade to guard them.

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General.

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HDQRS. C. S. FORCES ON SHENANDOAH MOUNTAIN, January 13, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: In reply to a letter from Robert Ould, esq., agent of exchange, to H. B. Davidson, of date January 2, 1863, which was referred to me, I have the honor to transmit herewith proof of the authenticity of certain orders of Brig. Gen. R. H. Milroy, U. S. Army, which were forwarded by me to the President some weeks ago. In addition to the deposition of Job Parsons and myself I furnish you as cumulative evidence a copy of The Crisis, of date December 24, 1862, a newspaper published at Columbus, Ohio, in which the orders of Milroy are published as part of the history of the times. I have not seen Adam Harper, who is the subject of this published order, but two of his sons, one of whom is my scout, have stated to me that their father was compelled to pay the assessment of $285 to save his life. The whole amount {p.809} of money raised by these illegal assessments in the small county of Tucker as near as I can ascertain it is about $6,000. Were I to report every case of outrage of this character which has come to my knowledge it would astound all Christian people who read it. Permit me, sir, to express the opinion that we have an effectual remedy for these crimes by the adoption of an inexorable rule of retaliation. The oppressions of our people cannot be increased but I believe will be mitigated by the enforcement of the fullest measure of retaliation on these bloodthirsty savages.*

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. D. IMBODEN, Colonel, Commanding.

* For other correspondence, etc., relating to Milroy’s orders, see Series III.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

VIRGINIA, Augusta County, to wit:

This day Job Parsons (son of Abraham Parsons), a citizen of Tucker County, Va., personally appeared before the undersigned justice of the peace in and for the county aforesaid and being by me duly sworn deposes and says that on the 27th day of November, 1862, being at his father’s house on Cheat River, in Tucker County, eight miles above Saint George, the county seat of said county, a Federal lieutenant with five men came there and handed to deponent a paper of which Exhibit A hereto attached is a literal and exact copy. That at the same time and place a similar paper was handed to Abraham Parsons, deponent’s father, and on the same day similar notices were served on from thirty to forty citizens of Tucker County by the same authority. On the next day, November 28, 1862, deponent repaired to Saint George where he found a company of the One hundred and twenty-third Ohio Regiment stationed in the court-house under command of Capt. Horace Kellogg. As soon as deponent arrived Captain Kellogg in person handed him a paper of which Exhibit B, herewith filed, is an exact and literal copy. On reading this paper deponent remarked to Captain Kellogg that it was a very rigid and unreasonable order and he thought it very unjust to hold private citizens responsible for the acts of the military authorities, to which Captain Kellogg replied that he thought not, that the old man (General Milroy) was in earnest. Deponent further says that on the same day (November 28) he saw a similar order, exactly, served upon his father, Abraham Parsons, who was assessed with the sum of $340 and that fifteen or twenty other citizens received the same orders at the same time who were assessed with various sums. Deponent did not pay his assessment but made his escape from the county and came through the mountains to the camp of Col. John D. Imboden at Shenandoah Mountain and delivered to him the papers of which Exhibits A and B are true copies. And further saith not.

JOB PARSONS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of January, 1863.

WM. W. MONTGOMERY, Justice of the Peace.

[First indorsement.]

VIRGINIA, Augusta County Court, Clerk’s Office:

I, William A. Burnett, deputy clerk of said court, certify that on this the 12th of January, 1863, Col. John D. Imboden personally appeared before me in my office aforesaid, and being by me duly sworn deposes and says that he is personally acquainted with Job Parsons, whose deposition {p.810} is above taken, and that he knows the general reputation and character of said Job Parsons and does not hesitate to say that said Parsons is a man of excellent moral character and worthy of full credit as a truthful man and witness. Deponent further states that he forwarded to Richmond the originals of Exhibits A and B, which were furnished to him early in December last by said Parsons, and that he has no doubt of the genuineness of said orders nor of the fact that a large number of the loyal citizens of Tucker County have had similar orders served upon them by Captain Kellogg and that large sums of money have by this means been extorted from them. And further saith not.

JOHN D. IMBODEN.

[Second indorsement.]

I further certify that William W. Montgomery, whose name is signed to the foregoing deposition of Job Parsons, was at the date of said deposition and now is a justice of the peace in and for the county aforesaid. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of my court the day and year above written.

WM. A. BURNETT, Deputy Clerk.

[Exhibit A.]

SAINT GEORGE, TUCKER COUNTY, VA., November 27, 1862.

Mr. JOB PARSONS: (Son of Abraham Parsons.)

You are hereby ordered to report in person or by your representative at my headquarters in Saint George Court-House on the 28th of November, 1862, to attend to business of vital importance to yourself, and in case of your failure to comply with the above order you must suffer the penalty.

By order of Brig. Gen. R. H. Milroy:

HORACE KELLOGG, Captain and Post Commandant.

[Exhibit B.]

SAINT GEORGE, TUCKER COUNTY, VA., November 28, 1862.

Mr. JOE PARSONS: (Son of Abraham Parsons.)

SIR: In consequence of certain robberies which have been perpetrated upon Union citizens of Tucker County, Va., by bands of guerrillas you are hereby assessed to the amount of $14.25 to make good their losses, and upon your failure to comply with the above assessment by paying the money over to me by the 1st day of December, 1862, the following order will be executed, viz:

By order of Brig. Gen. R. H. Milroy:

HORACE KELLOGG, Captain, Commanding Post.

{p.811}

[Inclosure No. 2.]

[Extract from The Crisis newspaper, December 24, 1862.]

ANOTHER MILROY ORDER.

The following letter comprising an order from General Milroy belongs to the history of the times:

The above Adam Harper the subject of this order is an old Dutchman over eighty-two years of age, a cripple and infirm, and can neither read nor write.

The above is a little ahead of anything that has yet met our eye. Because Adam Harper could neither read nor write, eighty-two years old and a cripple General Milroy to the disgrace of the nation orders a tax of $285 levied on him, and the whole country for ten or fifteen miles round is to be laid waste! “You are to burn their houses, seize all their property and shoot them. You will be sure that you strictly carry out this order.”

And what did those people do? Nothing! But a band of guerrillas is charged with robbing Union citizens. That is all. Can we be surprised to hear of fist fights in the councils of a Cabinet guilty of carrying on such a war? We are not surprised after the above that The Crisis was prohibited circulation through the mails in Western Virginia by military order if such conduct as this is the order of the day.

The bogus government at Wheeling of course comes into existence with a very excellent record of civil and modest pretensions.

–––

VICKSBURG, January 13, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

I have been informed by Major Fairbanks that General Bragg’s prisoners are all paroled.

N. G. WATTS, Major and Agent.

–––

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 5.}

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, January 13, 1863.

I. The following order is published for the information of all concerned:

EXCHANGE NOTICE, No. 4.]

RICHMOND, January 10, 1863.

The following officers and men have been duly exchanged and are hereby so declared:

By order:

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., January 14, 1863.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON.

SIR: Yours of the 1st instant has been received. It is entirely irregular for the enemy to send either paroles or copies of them to Vicksburg. They ought not to be in any way regarded and I shall so instruct Major Watts. There is no guaranty that the paroles of the same parties will not be sent here to me again for double exchange. To prevent inextricable confusion and vast cheating it is absolutely necessary that there should be but one place of exchange, and but one official to make and declare the exchange. The War Department accordingly has made such an order. There is only one exception to this rule and that is where the commanders of two opposing armies exchange and deliver prisoners captured from each other.

I have already specifically instructed Major Watts that he cannot make any exchange at all.

You will perceive in a moment that if any person other than myself were permitted to make exchanges parties might and probably would be exchanged more than once. The exchange of prisoners is only consummated when after conference with the Federal commissioner and after the giving and receiving of equivalents a publication of exchange is made. The proper course in the case put by you would be for the Federal officer who made the captures to transmit to his Government the paroles given by our men. The United States Government would then deliver those paroles (or a list of them) to their commissioner of exchange who in his turn would present them to me as the evidence of capture. It would then be my duty to give an equivalent for them and to declare them exchanged.

If this plan is not strictly pursued untold difficulties will surround the matter and every avenue of fraud will be opened. How otherwise can we prevent the enemy from claiming that our men shall be {p.813} exchanged over and over again? Under this plan as I record every man who is exchanged I can soon see if they are playing false.

You will perceive by my published notice and general order issued under it that all officers and men of our army captured in your department before December 10, 1862, are fully exchanged.

If at any time you wish any special exchange made sooner than would likely be the case in the ordinary routine notify me by letter or telegraph and I will see that it is done. I most heartily congratulate you on your brilliant and successful defense of Vicksburg. I perceive that all Yankeedom is howling, and I am happy to know that “your praise is in all our cities.”

Yours, very truly,

RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.

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HEADQUARTERS MORGAN’S DIVISION, McMinnville, January 15, 1863.

Col. G. W. BRENT, Asst. Adjt. Gen. and Chief of Staff, Army of Tennessee.

SIR: I forward you for the consideration of the general commanding the inclosed communication* from Captain Thruston, additional aide-de-camp to Major-General Rosecrans, to Lieut. F. Brady, an officer of my command now in confinement within the Federal lines, and beg leave to make the following statements in regard to the matter:

1. On the morning of the 10th instant two ladies came to my headquarters at Smithville and stated that they had received information that a brother of one of the ladies was lying mortally wounded at Murfreesborough. They desired to gain access to him as speedily as possible. In order to effect this it was decided to send them under a flag of truce to the Federal lines and an order was issued to Captain Quirk, commanding a company stationed at Liberty, to furnish them with a suitable escort. This escort is now held in confinement by Major-General Rosecrans.

2. The road pursued by the escort was the public turnpike road between Liberty and Murfreesborough.

3. I was not aware of the agreement entered into between General Bragg and Major-General Rosecrans, spoken of in Captain Thruston’s communication, and we have never been informed either officially or privately of any such agreement.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. H. MORGAN, Brigadier-General.

* Omitted here; see p. 170.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, Va., January 16, 1863.

Brig. Gen. JOHN H. WINDER, Commanding, &c.

GENERAL: Having occupied the Mayo Factory as a prison I necessarily require an additional number of men for guard duty. The least number I can do with in addition to what has heretofore been furnished me is 1 commissioned officer, 3 non-commissioned officers and 32 privates. These I would wish to report regularly at this (the Libby) prison at 9 o’clock a.m.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

TH. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

{p.814}

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 12.}

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, Va., January 16, 1863.

I. It appearing from the report of the board of officers appointed to inquire into the cause of the escape of certain prisoners from the military prison in the western district in this city that it was caused by the negligence of the officer of the guard at that post, the general commanding the department takes this occasion to remind the officers in charge of the military prisons in this city of the great responsibility of their position and to warn them that too much vigilance on their part cannot be observed. They having complete control of the guards at their respective posts will be held responsible for their discipline, and for the further maintenance of the same the following order is issued:

At the respective military prisons in this city there will be detailed daily an officer of the guard who must be a commissioned officer. He will serve his regular tour of twenty-four hours and will not be allowed to absent himself from his post during that time under any consideration whatever except in case of sickness, and then only when regularly relieved by another officer.

II. The officers in charge of the military prisons in this city will furnish a morning report to these headquarters.

By order of Brig. Gen. John H. Winder, commanding department:

J. W. PEGRAM, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON HOSPITAL, Richmond, January 18, 1863.

General JOHN H. WINDER.

DEAR SIR: Allow me to bring to your notice the fact that there is an assistant surgeon belonging to the U. S. Army here in prison, and I am informed that surgeons and assistant surgeons are not considered as prisoners of war by either party. I hope he may be allowed to accompany the wounded that go by the first flag of truce; in case there should be no further exchange of prisoners that he be sent across the lines according to his request as soon as possible. His name is George F. Mish, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. There are two wounded lieutenants here wounded in such a way that they will never be fit to enter service again, one having (as he says) been exchanged, taken prisoner on the 8th of June last; his thigh is amputated high up. The other has his right arm amputated at the shoulder joint.

There are other officers here who from the nature of their wounds may be able to enter service again, for which reason I did not think of asking for their exchange. I ask that these two lieutenants be exchanged for the reason that they have been treated in a ward in which the hospital gangrene has made its appearance. There are many reasons for asking particularly for their exchange and I address you this letter at your own suggestion. Judge Ould seems to have misunderstood me in speaking of them as officers though his clerk so understood me. Had the flag of truce gone this morning the ward in which the gangrene is would have been empty of wounded except one captain.

From the number here, if they are not exchanged, I cannot empty this ward. I therefore ask that there may be some place temporarily assigned in which these men may be placed until this ward is thoroughly cleaned and ventilated. This need not be for a longer time than a {p.815} week when I think they may be safely brought back, in case the place in which they are removed is wanted.

A. W. THOMSON, Surgeon in Charge.

[Indorsement.]

Captain TURNER.

SIR: You will call the attention of Surgeon Thomson to the fact that all communications must be sent through the proper channel. You will call his attention to the Army Regulations on the subject of correspondence. Also the orders of the Adjutant-General upon the same subject.

By order of Brigadier-General Winder:

W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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HDQRS. PAROLED AND EXCHANGED PRISONERS, Jackson, Miss., January 19, 1863.

Lieut. Col. J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General, Jackson, Miss.

COLONEL: In answer to your inquiry to what date the paroled prisoners have been undoubtedly exchanged I have the honor to state that there is no record in this office specifying any general exchange except proclamation marked A, issued by Brig. Gen. John Gregg, declaring the prisoners brought by Federal transports under flag of truce and delivered to Maj. N. G. Watts, agent paroled and exchanged prisoners, at Vicksburg. The Federal prisoners coming by railroads from enemy’s lines reporting themselves in person at these headquarters are sent to camp and their names forwarded to Major Watts, agent for paroled and exchanged prisoners, for exchange, and when that is accomplished I am notified, and they are forwarded in squads under proper officers to their commands; but lately under instructions from the lieutenant-general commanding this department and in accordance with telegram from Robert Ould to Major Fairbanks, marked B, all the prisoners paroled previous to the 10th December have been forwarded to their respective commands, and the assistant adjutant-general of the corps to which each squad was ordered is notified by a letter with muster-roll attached of officers, non-commissioned officers and privates.

Inclosed you will also find copy of dispatch marked C, to Robert Ould, and when answer is received the matter will be I hope definitely settled.

I am, colonel, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN ADAMS, Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S., Commanding.

[Inclosure A.]

HEADQUARTERS EXCHANGED PRISONERS, Jackson, Miss., November 23, 1862.

By authority from the War Department I hereby proclaim that an exchange has been completed of all prisoners (Confederate officers and men) delivered at Vicksburg up to this date. I also make proclamation that those delivered at Vicksburg from this time forth are exchanged upon delivery.

JOHN GREGG, Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S.

{p.816}

[Inclosure B.]

RICHMOND, January 11, 1863.

Maj. G. R. FAIRBANKS:

If the 900 men were captured before December 10 they have been already exchanged. If they were captured since I hereby declare them to be exchanged. Let me know, however, by telegraph where they were captured. Do not register them at Vicksburg. The Yankees will present the paroles.

RO OULD, Agent of Exchange.

[Inclosure C.]

HDQRS. PAROLED AND EXCHANGED PRISONERS, Jackson, Miss., January 18, 1863.

ROBERT OULD, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners, Richmond, Va.:

Maj. G. R. Fairbanks has communicated to me your telegram of the 11th instant declaring men captured before 10th December already exchanged. Does this refer to all men captured before 10th December or only to 900 referred to by Fairbanks?

JOHN ADAMS, Brigadier-General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, January 20, 1863.

Brig. Gen. JOHN H. WINDER, Commanding Richmond, Va., &c.

GENERAL: You are instructed to dispose of the following-named prisoners as hereinafter specified: (1) John Roche, parole to work as a coal miner under direction of Captain Warner on such wages as he shall prescribe; (2) Patrick Kelly, administer oath to observe all State and Confederate laws and parole to work in city of Richmond; (3) Elbert Flynn, (4) John Murphy, (5) Edward Vickell, (6) John Ward, administer oath of allegiance and parole to work under direction of Captain Warner; (7) Roger Byron, administer oath of allegiance and allow him to enlist in some South Carolina regiment; (8) Amos Hemmings, (9) Frederick Cullen, (10) James McLaughton, (11) Francis T. Treanor, (12) Peter Blair, (13) Aaron Ankrum, (14) William H. Maguire, (15) Thomas Hankls, (16) Felix Willett, (17) John Green, (18) John Miller, administer oath of allegiance and parole to work under direction of Capt. G. W. Alexander, assistant provost-marshal, city of Richmond; (19) Chauncey Ward, administer oath of allegiance and as he prefers let him enlist in some regiment or parole him to go to work; (20) Charles Willis, send him to Captain Pegram, C. S. Navy, and if he gives him a good character administer the oath of allegiance and let him enlist in the Navy; (21) John Newton, employ him on wages at his trade about the prisons until the officers can form some idea of his character; (22) August Sheran, (23) James Smith, send North by first flag-of-truce boat; (24) McNeil-if Colonel Ould thinks this man is entitled as a sutler to be sent home on parole send him North, if not, retain as a hostage for our citizen prisoners; (25) J. F. May, (26) E. McWee, (27) E. Whitney, (28) P. McChesney, (29) William Conner, (30) D. C. Georgia, (31) Caleb May, (32) Thomas Ward, (33) James Cail, (34) John Elliott, retain as hostages for our citizens held as prisoners by the enemy; (35) Hiram Hale, (36) - Hale (his son), administer oath of allegiance and give them transportation home; (37) Jacob {p.817} Thrasher, (38) George Thrasher, administer oath of allegiance, give transportation to Staunton and commutation of rations to their home;. (39) Annie D. Brown, (40 and 41) her two mulatto nieces; (42 and 43) their two children and (44) Brown (her son), (45 and 46) William Edwards and his daughter, release on parole to work in city of Richmond under direction of Capt. G. W. Alexander, assistant provost-marshal; (47) Lewis H. Call, send to enrolling officer as a conscript; if incapable of military service employ him as a teamster under some C. S. officer; (48) Joseph Kennan, parole to work in the interior of the country under direction of some C. S. officer; (49) Robert B. Wright, send to some hospital or send home; (50) J. H. Trout, retain as a prisoner until demanded by the authorities of Virginia; (51) C. B. Humwell, order Lieutenant-Colonel Critcher, Fifteenth Virginia Cavalry to send names of witnesses and retain this man for trial; (52) Charles H. Marsh, treat as prisoner of war; (53) George W. Steele, (54) John Buntain, (55) David Bowers, retain as prisoners; (56) James Gilmer, retain as prisoner until the length of confinement renders any information he might communicate valueless to the enemy, when he may be exchanged for some citizen prisoner; (57) Pat. Leonard, parole not to bear arms against Confederate States and return to Baltimore by first flag of truce; (58) George Miller, retain as prisoner suspected of being a spy until the length of confinement renders any information he might communicate valueless to the enemy, when if no evidence in the meantime shall be furnished he may be exchanged for a citizen; (59) Wilson Gleason, (60) Thomas Gallan, (61) John Whitehead, (62) Bernard Harkell, (63) Thomas W. B. Phillips, (64) Edward Lent, (65) George B. Heath, (66) John Berden, (67) Edward Farrell, (68) Theodore McCary, (69) Edward Welsh, (70) C. Fuher, (71) Charles Christopher Callum, (72) Hiram Scovell, (73) Solomon Howe, (74) Richard T. Sinton-these are deserters from the enemy and may be treated as prisoners of war and paroled under the cartel if they desire it. If any of them do not and will not take the oath of allegiance and give their parole to work, administer the oath, exact the parole and assign them to some C. S. officer who can make them useful, with due caution to observe their deportment; all such as do not work to return under the cartel and [such as] will not take the oath and give the parole you will for the present retain as prisoners. (75) William B. Taylor, (76) Jacob R. Taylor, send the first of these brothers to the hospital for medical treatment and employ the other as an attendant about the hospital on wages if his health will permit As soon as the circumstances of their home will render it prudent administer the oath of allegiance and send them home. (77) James Clarke, parole him to go to work under direction of the provost-marshal of Richmond City.

Very respectfully, &c.,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

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SALISBURY, January 20, 1863.

Brig. Gen. J. H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.:

Ship to come through with second lot of prisoners 150 large-size tents, it will be necessary owing to the peculiar position of prison inclosure and buildings to have at least two or three more companies for guard duty.

H. MCCOY.

{p.818}

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SALISBURY, January 20, 1863.

General J. H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.:

Dispatch received concerning prisoners. Will try and have everything in readiness. Can two independent companies be sent for guard duty?

Ship by express 2,000 tin cups and plates and any bedding you can spare for prisoners.

HENRY MCCOY, Captain, Commanding Prison.

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HEADQUARTERS C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Salisbury, January 20, 1863.

Brig. Gen. J. H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.

SIR: Your telegram concerning prisoners of war was received late last night. I will as near as possible try and have everything in readiness for their reception.

The buildings will not possibly hold more than from 1,200 to 1,500 consequently it will be necessary to put the balance in tents. I telegraphed you to-day to send me with the second lot of prisoners 150 large-size army tents, likewise 2,000 tin cups and plates with if possible bedding for the prisoners as we have none of the above-named articles here.

Owing to the peculiar location of the buildings in the prison grounds, they being very much scattered, it will be necessary for the safety of the prisoners to have my force increased at least two or three companies. I hope you will be able to send them with the prisoners.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY MCCOY, Captain and Assistant Quartermaster, Commanding.

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CHARLESTON JAIL, January 20, 1863.

General G. T. BEAUREGARD.

SIR: One week ago last Friday I in connection with S. T. Riddell, C. Rowell and O. F. French were captured by a detachment of cavalry under command of Captain Dickison near Saint Augustine, Fla. We had been out by invitation to see them grind cane and were returning when we were captured. We were taken to Captain Dickison’s camp, near the Saint John’s River, and from thence to General Finegan at Lake City, where we were paroled and sent to this place in charge of Captain Mays, who has our paroles. On our arrival here we were lodged in jail where we now are. I would state further that there are two other prisoners with us who belong at Key West, Fla., and also two others who claim to be deserters. They have all been paroled.

Permit me now, general, to call your attention to the following facts:

First, we have no clothing except what we have on, and, second, our means for providing ourselves with these articles are very limited; consequently we would most respectfully ask that we may be sent North as soon as possible.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

VIRGIL H. CATE, First Lieutenant Company C, Seventh Regt. New Hampshire Vols.

{p.819}

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HDQRS. DEPT. OF S. CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., January 21, 1863.

Lieut. VIRGIL H. CATE, Seventh Regt. N. H. Vols., U. S. Army, Charleston Jail.

SIR: Your communication of the 20th instant has been considered and I am instructed to inform you that some or all of you prisoners of war will be either sent to Richmond or Port Royal as soon as practicable. As for yourself, a commissioned officer, you are not subject to exchange and will probably be turned over to the local authorities of the State of Florida for trial under the statutes made and provided in that State for the punishment of persons engaged in exciting negro slaves to insurrection. It is needless for me to inform you that this course is a necessary consequence of the proclamation of the President of the United States by which the Army and Navy of the United States were instructed to aid negroes against their masters. Should you wish to secure clothing and money I will forward any open communication on the subject to the commanding general at Port Royal by flag of truce.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS JORDAN, Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, January 21, 1863.

Capt. W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: In reference to the list of men sent me yesterday containing the names of twenty-nine prisoners taken in the Valley to be held as hostages I have to say that they were all paroled and sent home via City Point on Monday last except the first on the list, viz, Lieutenant Dawson, of Company K, First [West] Virginia Cavalry, who still remains in the prison.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

T. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

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PONCHATOULA, January 22, 1863.

Lieut. Col. J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General, Jackson, Miss.:

I inclose herewith letter addressed to Confederate Army officers by Colonel Clark, U. S. Army, which was left at Madisonville yesterday and forwarded to this place this morning. None of the citizens mentioned have arrived at this place.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS SHIELDS, Lieutenant-Colonel and Acting Assistant Inspector-General.

[Inclosure.]

MADISONVILLE, January 21, 1863.

ANY OFFICER OF CONFEDERATE ARMY:

Under flag of truce and in absence of any officer to confer with I have taken the liberty to land some 250 citizens, mostly women and children. They have been left at their own request and without restraint. I commend them to your kindness.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN S. CLARK, Colonel and Aide-de-Camp to Maj. Gen. N. P. Banks.

{p.820}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, January 23, 1863.

Col. G. W. LEE, Atlanta, Ga.:

Hon. H. C. Burnett, of the Senate, desires reply to his letter concerning correspondence with H. C. Payne, a prisoner in your custody. The Department requests you to answer his letter.

J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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VICKSBURG, January 23, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

Major Watts applies for a boat to go up with flag of truce and exchange the prisoners now in jail here. What reply shall I make?

M. L. SMITH, Major-General.

[Indorsement.]

VICKSBURG, January 23, 1863.

Reply that I am ordered by Secretary of War not to exchange any prisoners until General Clark and the thirteen chiefest others at New Orleans are given up.

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General, &c.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, January 23, 1863.

Captain TURNER.

CAPTAIN: Please furnish me the name of the Yankee officer who was sent here by Colonel Imboden from the northwest and with reference to whom an order was issued that he should be retained. This order will still be insisted upon and you will see that it is enforced.

Very respectfully,

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

P. S.-He will probably be called for in a few days.

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JACKSON, MISS., January 23, 1863.

Maj. Gen. M. L. SMITH, Commanding, Vicksburg:

Orders from Secretary of War not to exchange any prisoners until General Clark and the thirteen “chiefest” others at New Orleans are given up.

J. R. WADDY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, January 23, 1863.

Capt. W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: I wish to report a matter which I should have mentioned before but for a press of other business. With the batch of prisoners sent off by flag of truce on the 11th instant a sutler named Marcus McNeil, from New York, went oft under the name of Turner, a prisoner of war, the latter remaining in his (McN.’s) place. I did not discover it until the prisoners had left and then it was made known by a deserter who {p.821} moreover stated that McNeil had paid Turner a sum of money for so doing. Upon searching Turner the sum of $196 was found upon his person and he acknowledged that it had been paid to him for the purchase stated above. Will you please inform me what disposition shall be made of the money?

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

THOMAS P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

P. S.-The money is in bullion bank notes and is said to be spurious.

T. P. T.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, January 24, 1863.

Capt. W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: In answer to the inquiry made yesterday as to the name of the Yankee officer sent here by Colonel Imboden from the northwest, &c., I have to say that his name is A. Dawson, lieutenant, Company K, First Regiment [West] Virginia [Cavalry] (Peirpoint Volunteers), captured at Moorefield, Va., January 3, 1863.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

TH. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

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HDQRS. RICHARDSON’S PARTISAN RANGERS, C. S. ARMY, January 2d, 1863.

Whereas Col. J. K. Mizner, commanding U. S. forces at Brownsville, Tenn., has issued a proclamation addressed to James Whitelaw, H. W. Colter, James Bond, Dr. E. A. Taylor, Wiley Mann, Robert Wilson, Dr. E. Davis, Charles F. Read, T. P. Livingston, R. Y. Longley, George T. Taylor, F. Maclin, Dr. J. S. Peete, C. P. Taliaferro and all indefinitely alleging that the persons and property of many Union citizens having been threatened by guerrillas and persons claiming allegiance to or sympathy with the so-called Confederate States, and notifying all persons in Haywood and Tipton Counties that in case of molestation of the person or property of all loyal citizens living within the military district of Jackson, Tenn., the above-mentioned persons to be held responsible in person and property for all acts of violence; that in case of the arrest of any loyal citizen double the number will be arrested and held as hostages and twice the amount of property taken or injured will be levied from citizens therein named: Now therefore in reply to this paper bullet fired across the Hatchie River by the brave Colonel Mizner at unoffending non-combatants be it known that for each man named and every other good and loyal citizen of the Confederate States living in Haywood and Tipton Counties, Tenn., who may be arrested under the aforesaid proclamation I will have shot twice the number of Yankee soldiers taken in battle or on duty, and for each dollar’s worth of property taken under said proclamation I will take or destroy twice the amount from the United States, their soldiers and Union men. It may be as well to proclaim hereby also that for every house burned by the U. S. soldiers I will shoot five U. S. soldiers on duty or taken in battle. The impudence of the aforesaid brave’s proclamation consists in the fact that while he, his officers and men are stealing from all Southern men horses and mules, negroes and chickens and arresting unoffending men, women and children he threatens to {p.822} do these things if “loyal citizens” as he calls them are molested in person and property. From such men and infamous Government to which they render such disgraceful service Southern men have nothing to hope except what their arms can secure.

To all soldiers in the Army of the United States who have become tired of a war waged to free negroes and enslave white men I extend an invitation to lay down their arms and seek my command for protection; all such shall be treated as friends and brothers.

R. V. RICHARDSON, Col., Comdg. First Tennessee Regt. of Partisan Rangers, C. S. Army.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, January 27, 1863.

Brig. Gen. JOHN H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.

GENERAL: You will dispose of the prisoners below named as follows: (1) Joseph Stiles, to be returned as a prisoner. If a case cannot be made out against him as a spy he will be valuable as a hostage for our citizens held as prisoners. (2) John Flagg, to be held as a hostage for citizens; (3) Jim Allen, to be paroled under cartel, if he is entitled to it, but if not to be held as hostage for citizens; (4) Stanley Lees, to be held as a hostage for citizens; (5) Solomon Fisher, to be discharged and furnished transportation to his home; (6) Henry Mallard, to be paroled as a British subject to work but not to go into any region of our country which may have been or which may hereafter be the theater of hostilities; (7) George William White, to be sent to provost-marshal at Staunton with instructions to parole him to remain in Augusta County and administer oath to demean himself as a good citizen; (8) S. Dickinson, to be discharged and furnished transportation to Christiansburg, Va.; (9) Aaron Bennett, to be sent to Staunton, and instruct provost-marshal to administer oath of allegiance and parole him to remain in such part of Augusta or adjacent counties where he may reside without injury to our cause; (10) Thomas Raleigh, to be discharged as a British subject on parole of good conduct; (11) George Miller, to be held as a hostage for our citizens.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

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JACKSON, January 27, 1863.

General PEMBERTON:

I have obtained from city authorities use of part of bridge remaining standing. By to-morrow afternoon I will be ready for 500 prisoners. It is perfectly safe and secure; can be guarded by few men. For more prisoners I will have to construct a high wall to pitch tents; no buildings to be obtained. Shall wall be made?

JOHN ADAMS, Brigadier-General.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, January 28, 1863.

Capt. W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: In reference to the accident which occurred yesterday morning when the prisoners were being sent off I wish to report the following: The prisoners were started from this prison at 4 o’clock a.m. and were {p.823} marched by the nearest and usual route to the Petersburg depot. The train was waiting to receive them but had backed nearer to the foot bridge that spans the canal than is usually the case, in consequence of which the prisoners had to be halted before they were all over which left a portion on the bridge and on this side. Before those in front could be gotten on board the bridge gave way and about sixty or seventy were thrown into the canal. All were rescued except two whose names I inclose.* This is clearly proven from the fact that at City Point the roll was called and the prisoners counted in the presence of the Abolition officer in charge of the Yankee boats and only two were missing. The rolls sent down called for 794 and I have the Federal officer’s receipt for 792.

Proper persons were engaged all day yesterday in dragging for the bodies supposed to be drowned. Two were discovered as mentioned above. The coroner took charge of them. None of the guard who accompanied the prisoners were drowned.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

T. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

* Not found.

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BRITISH CONSULATE, Charleston, January 30, 1863.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State, Richmond.

SIR: I beg leave to call your attention for the third time to the imprisonment of John Carfoot, a British subject, in the political prison at Salisbury, N. C. It is now nearly two months since I first addressed myself to you respecting this matter. As yet no information has been furnished to me, although there is no reason why the particulars of the arrest should not have been conveyed to me in fifteen days after my first application. In again urging your attention to this case I feel it my duty to suggest to you the grave responsibility which will undoubtedly attach to those who have confined a subject of the Queen for upward of nine months without affording him an opportunity of proving his innocence, if indeed any charges have been preferred against him.

I have the honor to be, sir, your very obedient, humble servant,

ROBERT BUNCH, Her Majesty’s Consul.

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CHARLESTON JAIL, February 2, 1863.

General G. T. BEAUREGARD, Commanding Department.

SIR: I respectfully represent to you that I, as the late commander of the gun-boat Isaac Smith, with my brother officers have been confined as prisoners in the common jail. We are here upon the same footing with criminals, subject to even stricter rules, as we are not allowed what is called “the liberty of the yard” and provided with the same quarters and food. Under these circumstances, so humiliating to officers of our rank and position, I most respectfully but earnestly ask if we cannot be paroled, as has heretofore been the custom, as soon as the necessities of your service will permit.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. S. CONOVER, Acting Lieutenant-Commander, U. S. Navy.

{p.824}

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HDQRS. DEPT. OF S. CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., February 2, 1863.

Lieut. F. S. CONOVER, U. S. Navy, Charleston. (Through Colonel Gaillard.)

SIR: In reply to your note of this date I am instructed to inform you that you cannot be paroled and for these reasons: The Army and Navy of the United States under the late proclamation of your President are instructed to assist slaves in servile war against their lawful masters, which is not only a high crime under the local laws of the State in whose waters you were captured but is contemned by all people as a means or appliance of war wholly illegitimate between civilized nations. It is purposed that the officers of a service thus found employed shall be held amenable to the laws made and provided in South Carolina for the punishment of those who incite our slaves to rebellion against their masters.

You and your associates will, however, be permitted all possible liberty compatible with your secure confinement, to which end instructions have been given to the provost-marshal. The usual ration allowed to prisoners of war has been directed to be furnished you in strict accordance with the regulations of the United States; that is “one ration without regard to rank” for each officer or man, and such a ration as is issued to our men. You and your associates, however, will be allowed to make any additions to your table at your own expense without restrictions.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. JORDAN, Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

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CHARLESTON, S. C., February 3, 1863.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

Shall I send prisoners of war (sailors) captured in Stono to Salisbury, N. C., or Richmond, holding officers?

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

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RICHMOND, February 3, 1863.

General BEAUREGARD, Charleston, S. C.:

Send the prisoners to Richmond, retaining the officers

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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CHARLESTON JAIL, February 4, 1863.

General G. T. BEAUREGARD, Commanding Department.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 2d instant and although no reply to it may be thought necessary I cannot permit myself to pass over part of its contents in silence. I do not understand that the proclamation of President Lincoln instructs as you say officers of the Army and Navy to assist slaves in servile war against their masters and cannot conceive that it is so understood by the officers of my Government. On the contrary I am happy to believe that an idea so repugnant to the laws of humanity finds no place in their minds. This I say, sir, only in justice to myself {p.825} and those who for years have been my associates. The chief object of this letter, however, is to ask if my brother officers and myself can be permitted to communicate with our families.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. S. CONOVER, Acting Lieutenant, U. S. Navy.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 32.}

HDQRS. DEPT. OF S. C., GA. AND FLA., Charleston, February 4, 1863.

I. All prisoners of war in this city (except officers and negroes) of the land and naval service of the United States will be sent forthwith and turned over to Brigadier-General Winder at Richmond, Va.

...

III. All officers of the land and naval service of the United States at present prisoners in the custody of the provost-marshal near these headquarters will be sent for further confinement to Columbia, S. C., until further orders.

...

By command of General Beauregard:

JNO. M. OTEY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, February 5, 1863.

Brigadier-General WINDER, Hon. R. OULD:

Your letter of the 20th ultimo relative to the intercourse between citizens of the United States and Confederate States by the boat coming to City Point under flag of truce has been received. The intercourse should be regulated on terms of equality and reciprocity. If the Federal Government adhere to the rule that none shall pass to the United States except with the permission of the Secretary of War the requisition should be made that none should be permitted to land here without a previous permission from the War Department. No permission of the Secretary of War of the United States should be respected the application for which was not made through the commissioner of exchange (Mr. Ould). The Department does not perceive any necessity of placing those who are permitted to land nor those who shall make application to depart from the Confederate States under a special surveillance. None of the latter class are allowed to leave at this time without affording satisfactory references to their good character. That precaution will be continued. The Department is quite willing to place the subject in the hands of the commissioners of exchange of prisoners, and that they may determine who shall be allowed to go and return on either side. It does not desire to impose restrictions or embarrassments in the way of such intercourse as it is willing to allow at all The adoption of any rules by the United States Government may require the adoption of corresponding rules on the part of this Government, but the Department would prefer rules which would not subject persons on either side to inconvenience, expense or delay.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

{p.826}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., February 6, 1863.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State:

Inclosed you will find a report from General Winder of all the information that can be extracted from him on the subject of John Carfoot. A letter has been written to Mr. Wellford, at Salisbury, to make further inquiry on the subject.

For Secretary of War.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, February 5, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

DEAR SIR: In reply to yours of 4th instant relative to John Carfoot I have the honor to report that the said John Carfoot was arrested near New Berne, N. C., by Captain Boothe in April, 1862, and sent to Salisbury, N. C., by General Ransom. The inclosed letter, a copy of one addressed to the Adjutant-Genera] and the original of which is on file in the Adjutant-General’s Office, will explain the nature of the charges against him. He was discharged on the 3d day of January, 1863, and I am informed he is now at work in Salisbury, N. C., having taken the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States. I also inclose an extract* from a letter to the British consul notifying him of Carfoot’s release. I am under the impression the former inquiry came through the Adjutant-General’s Department and hence the reference was addressed to that office.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

* See p. 808.

[Sub-inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, January 14, 1863.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit the following information concerning John Carfoot: He was arrested near New Berne, N. C., in the month of April, 1862, by Captain Boothe and sent to Salisbury by General Ransom. He was supposed at the time to have come to the above-named place in company with General Burnside There are no papers on file.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., February 7, 1863.

General J. C. PEMBERTON, Jackson, Miss.:

Use your own discretion about the deserters. Parole and discharge if you think best.

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

{p.827}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, February 7, 1863.

R. T. CLARKE, Esq., Conrad’s Store, Va.

SIR: You are informed in reply to your letter of the 2d instant that General Orders, No. 64, paragraph V, announces that no oath of allegiance to the United States and no parole by a person not in military service pledging himself not to bear arms against the United States will be regarded as an exemption from service in the armies of the Confederate States; but persons liable to conscription taking such oath or giving such parole will be enrolled for service. If captured by the enemy they will be demanded as prisoners of war. The Department therefore is not authorized to exempt you on the grounds stated.

Respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

–––

HDQRS. DEPT. SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., February 7, 1863.

Lieut. F. S. CONOVER, U. S. Navy. (Through Col. John S. Preston, commanding, &c., Columbia.)

SIR: Your letter of the 4th instant has just been received and I am instructed to say that of course you and your brother officers will be permitted to communicate in writing with your families to whom any letters will be forwarded with all possible dispatch. In connection with the cause of your present situation I have only to say that were the language of President Lincoln’s proclamation of doubtful import the meaning would be made clear by the fact that there are now at Hilton Head or that vicinity negro troops, fugitive slaves who have recently been employed in armed expedition against the people of Georgia and South Carolina.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. J[ORDAN,] Chief of Staff.

–––

AUSTIN, TEX., February 8, 1863.

General J. B. MAGRUDER, Galveston.

SIR: General Pelham, a most worthy citizen of this vicinity, was in New Mexico at the beginning of the present war, and when General Sibley reached that country with his brigade and found it untenable General Pelham shouldered his gun to fight for Southern independence, and on his way down from Santa Fé with arms in his hands was taken prisoner and paroled, but inasmuch as he had not joined the service formally and had his name placed upon the muster-roll the enemy deny him the benefits of a prisoner of war and claim him to be a political prisoner and as such refuse to exchange him. He feels the injustice done him in this regard by the enemy and is exceedingly anxious to be exchanged, so that he may be in a condition to aid in the defense of our country against the Abolitionists, and particularly to be enabled to defend his family without violating his parole. General W. R. Scurry is referred to for full particulars in regard to General Pelham. Now if you can consistently with your duties aid in disenthralling a brave, true and valuable citizen by procuring his exchange the people of Texas will consider it not only as an act of justice but another evidence of your devotion to her cause. Not having a personal acquaintance with you that would justify this appeal induces me to address you over my official signature.

{p.828}

Hoping you will find it compatible with your public duties and sense of justice to use your best efforts in behalf of General Pelham,

I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,

C. W. BURNLEY, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ninth Legislature.

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HDQRS. DEPT. SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., February 8, 1863.

Col. JOHN S. PRESTON, Commanding, &c., Columbia.

COLONEL: Assistant Surgeon Marvin, U. S. Navy, should not have been sent to Columbia but to Richmond, whither you will send him in charge of some officers when convenient; that is, without detailing an officer for that special service. Of course it will not do to let him run at large, though it is desired that he shall have as much liberty as practicable. He will be delivered to General Winder at Richmond.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. J[ORDAN,] Chief of Staff.

–––

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Richmond, February 9, 1863.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR.

SIR: I am directed by the President to forward for your attention and the proper action the following copy of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 5th instant:

Your obedient servant,

BURTON N. HARRISON, Private Secretary.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Salisbury, N. C., February 9, 1863.

B. R. WELLFORD, Esq., C. S. Commissioner

SIR: Although I understand that your visit to this place is made only for the purpose of investigating the cases of parties confined here for political offenses and therefore myself and the eleven officers lately attached to U. S. steamer Columbia who are held as prisoners of war are not directly included among its objects I take leave to submit to you a brief statement of our case and to request that you will do me the favor of bringing to the notice of the proper authorities at Richmond the exceptional circumstances under which we became rather than were made prisoners.

The Columbia, at that time one of the blockading squadron In the vicinity of New Inlet, N. C., while running in in the evening of the 14th ultimo with the intent to anchor for the night in obedience to orders, some three miles from shore and when by the soundings she should have been at that distance and the order had been given to bring ship to anchor found herself (owing to an error of the leadsman {p.829} in calling the depth of water) close in with breakers, and before her engines could be reversed she struck on the reef off Masonborough Inlet where all efforts to get her off by lightening her of her guns and coal proving fruitless she became a total wreck. At midnight the foremast was cut away to prevent her canting broadside to the surf, in which case all on board would probably have perished. On the afternoon of the 15th the U. S. steamer Penobscot hove in sight and toward 4 p.m. two of her boats succeeded in approaching near enough to catch a small line thrown from the end of the bowsprit. By means of a strong rope attached to this thirty of our crew were dropped overboard and hauled some hundred and fifty yards through the surf to the boats, all but two reaching them alive. An end was put to this effort to rescue us by the coming on of the night which brought a heavy gale from southwest that raised a violent sun, causing the vessel to strike with fearful force and exposing us momentarily through the long hours of the night to be swept from the quarter-deck where all hands were crowded for greater safety, drenched by the seas that broke over them and the rain which fell in torrents and toward morning half frozen by the bitter cold which followed a sudden shift of the gale northwest.

While in this helpless and perishing condition, with no vessel in sight and our only chance for life being apparently an escape to the shore, a fire was opened upon the wreck from two batteries a short distance back of the beach several of whose shells passed just over the vessel, on which I ordered the white flag to be hoisted at the peak in token of our surrender (not having a gun to reply with) and the ensign to be set union down in the rigging as a signal of distress. Soon after this the southernmost battery ceased its fire, but the other kept it up nearly two hours longer not seeing as I was afterwards told our white flag. Between 9 and 10 a.m. (16th) two U. S. steamers made their appearance in the offing, and the firing on the wreck from the northern battery being still kept up I dispatched to the commander of the nearest a boat that narrowly escaped being swamped by the surf with a note requesting him to send in his boats and endeavor to take us off. To our astonishment, however, instead of doing this after his communication with the other vessel both of them commenced replying to the batteries at long range. Upon seeing this I at once (although the wind was at the time blowing a violent gale offshore) lowered my last boat and ordered an officer to pull in for any practicable point with a flag of truce and inform the commander of the post of our defenseless condition and surrender when the battery ceased firing on us.

On the return of the boat I went on shore myself at the request of Colonel Lamb but surrendered to Colonel Wilson, of one of the Georgia regiments, who informed me that he was the senior officer on the station.

It was not till the following morning (17th) that the ship’s company could be got on shore when we were taken to Wilmington and ordered thence to Richmond the same night by General Whiting.

On reaching Goldsborough, however, the twenty-eight seamen only who accompanied us pursued the route to Richmond, myself and officers being sent on to this place by order as I have since been told of General Smith.

Never having seen the proclamation of President Davis issued on the 12th ultimo I am not competent to speak with confidence of its tenor or bearing on our case; but if I have been correctly informed that it is directed in express terms only against officers of the Army of the United States who shall be found in arms on the soil of any of the Confederate States endeavoring to foment a servile insurrection I {p.830} would respectfully inquire whether naval officers not being referred to in it can under the strict construction to which all such documents are subject be fairly held to come within its scope, and whether in view of this alone the officers (myself and fellow prisoners) might not non obstante the proclamation be granted a release on parole?

But without presuming to decide a question in regard to which my information is limited permit me to urge as a far stronger argument in favor of our being paroled the peculiar nature of the circumstances which led to our becoming prisoners-defenseless, shipwrecked mariners barely escaping with life to the shore which for eighteen hours it was doubtful whether we should survive to reach. Our situation is one which has ever been recognized by civilized nations as establishing a claim upon the hospitality of even their enemies which I shall not readily believe the Confederate Government will be the first to deny, and I cannot suffer myself to doubt that on the facts of our case being fairly in its possession it will have no hesitation in according to us the parole we request.

I subjoin the names* and rank of the officers who are my companions in captivity, and have the honor, sir, to remain,

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. P. COUTHOUY, Lieut., U. S. Navy, late Comdg. U. S. Steamer Columbia.

[First indorsement.]

FEBRUARY 26, 1863.

Respectfully referred to the President.

The fact that this party came into our possession by shipwreck and that he asserts ignorance of the President’s proclamation commends his case to favorable consideration.

J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

[Second indorsement.]

SECRETARY OF WAR:

For the reasons set forth let the exception be made.

JEFF’N DAVIS.

[Third indorsement.]

Referred to Brigadier-General Winder to carry into effect the order of the President hereon.

By order of Secretary of War:

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

[Fourth indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, March 23, 1863.

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War with the remark that these men have been ordered to Richmond and the President’s order will be carried into effect upon their arrival in the city.

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

* Omitted.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, February 10, 1863.

Capt. T. P. TURNER, Commanding C. S. Prison.

SIR: Some boxes of clothing will be sent to you to-day for the prisoners of war now in your custody. You will please send to these headquarters {p.831} a list of clothing and what disposition has been made of them. You will be held responsible for it after you have received them.

By order of General Winder:

W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

–––

ALLEYTON, [TEX.,] February 10, 1863.

Maj. Gen. J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER.

DEAR SIR: The political prisoners that were arrested by detachments from the Arizona Brigade I have turned over to the civil authorities in the counties in which they resided according to your orders. I am sorry to inform you that the arrests were made with much cruelty and violence to women and children and to the prisoners arrested. Affidavits have been made to be forwarded you, and I will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if true I will have the men arrested and punished and the officers who commanded the detachments arrested and held subject to your order. I have assured the citizens you will punish severely any injury inflicted on their rights, persons or property. I learn some are disposed to doubt my authority to act as your adjutant-general as they say they have never seen it published that I was authorized to act for you. Would it not be well to publish in the newspapers that I must be respected and obeyed as one of your adjutant-generals? My only desire is to carry out your views in enforcing subordination, a proper regard for the civil law and the rights and privileges of our citizens. The officers of the Arizona Brigade do not enforce proper order, and until under the immediate command of a strict disciplinarian will not be efficient but will always make trouble. Colonel Hardeman is yet very sick, unable to leave his bed. Colonel Madison is in command. I hope you will pardon the liberty I have taken in addressing you personally as I believed it best to do so in this case. I will keep you regularly informed of all matters and transactions that take place in this country through the proper channel. All opposition to the General or State government has apparently subsided. I will prepare a history of the evidences that made it necessary to declare martial law for transmission to Richmond and send it to you for your approval.

With sentiments of esteem and respect, I am, very truly, your obedient servant,

HENRY L. WEBB.

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OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, Greeneville, February 10, 1863.

Col. JOHN E. TOOLE, Provost-Marshal.

SIR: Some arrangement should be made at once for taking possession of and preserving all property subject to confiscation in this department. Men are continually leaving for Kentucky who always leave their property in the hands of some friend who disposes of it, thus defrauding the Government or rather the citizens of such property. A few days since one of the enrolling officers reported to me some property left in his district by Doctor Taylor, the notorious Lincolnite, which he said some women with whom Taylor had been living were removing. I told him to take possession of it, which he did of all to be found. A fine case of surgical instruments had been removed, also some other property. Shall he retain this property as I have ordered? If retained to whom shall I send it or report it? Another enrolling officer reports a cow or two belonging to the notorious Fry which I told him to hold {p.832} subject to orders from the authorities. Stockbridge left some property, mostly books, which his wife has been selling. Stockbridge having spent nearly all the property she had when he married her this may all be well enough. Shall I interfere? I would be glad to have some instructions on this point.

I am, sir, your humble servant,

JAS. H. ROBINSON, Assistant Deputy Provost-Marshal.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, February 13, 1863.

Gen. J. E. JOHNSTON, Commanding, &c.

GENERAL: At the request of Mr. Robert Ould, agent of exchange, the Secretary of War directs that the following prisoners be brought to this city:

All the Federal commissioned officers who were captured previous to the 10th of December, 1862.

All the citizens of the United States not in the Confederate States at the commencement of the war who have been captured or arrested and are now confined in the military prisons of the department.

All officers and men belonging to the home guards of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.

If any of the above mentioned are within the limits of your command will you please have them sent to this city as soon as practicable.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

[Indorsement.]

Sent copies to General Bragg and Lieutenant-General Pemberton ordering them to execute.

J. E. J.

–––

C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, February 13, 1863.

Surg. JOHN WILKINS, In charge of C. S. Military Prison Hospital.

SIR: I send you to-day six boxes marked “Thos. T. May, Libby Prison Hospital, care Agent of Exchange, Fort Monroe.” The boxes contain articles of various kinds for the use of the Federal sick and wounded in your hospital. I am directed by General Winder to turn these boxes over to you with the request that you examine them, make an inventory of the articles they contain and distribute them as your judgment may suggest. Please acknowledge the receipt of this and when the inventory is made out send me a copy to be forwarded to headquarters.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

TH. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

–––

C. S. MILITARY PRISON HOSPITAL, Richmond, Va., February 13, 1863.

Capt. THOMAS P. TURNER, Commandant of Post.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter and six boxes marked “Thos. T. May, Libby Prison Hospital, care Agent {p.833} of Exchange, Fort Monroe.” In obedience to your instructions I have examined their contents and inclose you an inventory of same.

Very respectfully,

JOHN WILKINS, Surgeon in Charge.

[Inclosure.]

Inventory of six boxes marked “Thos. T. May, Libby Prison Hospital, care Agent of Exchange, Fort Monroe,” sent on by the Sanitary Committee of New York for the use of the sick and wounded in this hospital, received February 3, 1863:

Cotton shirts, 83; condensed milk, 20 cans; Ink bottles, 3; cotton drawers, 55 pairs; corn starch, farina, &c.; tapers, 30; lead pencils, 4; woolen shirts, 41; sponges, 9 pieces; chocolate cakes, 5; woolen drawers, 40 pairs; tin plates, 1 dozen; assorted pickles, 5 gallons; socks, 35 pairs; tin cups, 112 dozen; pickled peaches, 5 gallons; slippers, 42 pairs; writing paper, 2 reams; 1 lot of rags and 2 cloth coats; envelopes, 10 packages; 1 lot of assorted dried fruit; vests, 2; penholders, 2 dozen; towels, 9 dozen; steel pens, 4 dozen; assorted soap, 2 bags; combs, 3; cans soup, 1 dozen; scissors, 6 pair.

JOHN WILKINS, Surgeon in Charge.

–––

HDQRS. C. S. FORCES, N. E. ARKANSAS AND S. E. MISSOURI, Batesville, Ark., February 15, 1863.

Capt. A. D. BROWN, C. S. Army:

Capt. A. D. Brown, C. S. Army, is directed to proceed with his party under flag of truce and deliver official communications to Brigadier-Generals Brown and Davidson, U. S. Army, as addressed.

By command of Brigadier-General Marmaduke:

E. G. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS, &C., February 16, 1863.

This party is armed with pistols and sabers for their protection against jayhawkers and bushwhackers.

J. S. MARMADUKE, Brigadier-General.

–––

C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, February 19, 1863.

Capt. G. W. ALEXANDER, Assistant Adjutant-General and Assistant Provost-Marshal.

SIR: In accordance with General Winder’s instructions I send you four boxes marked as follows: No. 1, Castle Thunder, 75 coats or jackets; No. 2, Castle Thunder, 75 pairs of boots; No. 3, Castle Thunder, 75 flannel shirts and 100 pairs socks; No. 4, Castle Thunder, 75 trousers or pants.

The general wishes that you will have the articles carefully counted and distributed as requested in Colonel Ludlow’s letter to Hon. Robert Ould, a copy* of which I send you, and in delivering the articles to the {p.834} prisoners make them receipt for each article and take duplicate copies of same.

You will please, captain, also receipt to me for the above-named boxes.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

TH. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

* Not found.

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SAN ANTONIO, February 19, 1863.

Major-General MAGRUDER, Comdg. Department of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

GENERAL: On the 19th of January, ultimo, I wrote you a note inclosing a parole pass requesting to be exchanged for some civil prisoner held by the Confederate States Government. My note was returned indorsed:

On the 2d February following I again wrote asking a reconsideration of the foregoing decision. My letter was returned indorsed:

Since entering upon the foregoing correspondence I have been shown by Major Russell, of General Bee’s staff, an order from Richmond which directly and positively refuses to acknowledge such passes as that issued by General Butler in the light of paroles, said order especially stating that such parole passes will not exempt parties from military duty. In taking said pass I knew full well that it was contrary to all the usages of war, it being manifestly illegal and unprecedented to subject non-combatants to permanent military disability and without the privileges of exchange; but this not being the first departure from the rules of civilized warfare on the part of our enemy I had hoped that this like other departures from common usage might be rectified by reprisal and therefore availed myself of the pass to escape the Yankee lines, promising myself to use my best endeavors to effect an exchange. Having failed I now accept your original decision, general, as final, to wit, that I am not a subject of exchange and that my supposed parole is not a parole but only a pass. I therefore consider myself released from now henceforth. But I must beg to file an answer to the indorsement of the 12th February made upon my letter of the 2d February.

Neither my pass nor any letters hint in the most shadowy form that I have ever taken an oath in presence of any U. S. officer or in favor of the United States Government. Yet by some misconception it has been inferred in said indorsement that I have taken some kind of an oath while within the Yankee lines. This I now most clearly and emphatically deny. My pass was obtained strictly as a personal favor to myself through Mr. G. S. Denison, Federal collector of New Orleans, and before whom I had positively refused to take the oath of allegiance {p.835} to the United States. He saw General Butler and not I. I was asked no questions and subjected to no tests. The pass was drawn by General Butler’s adjutant. I signed my name to it. It was then handed me and so the matter ended. I did with a willing heart and free conscience take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America in San Antonio months before going to Louisiana, and by that oath alone with the help of God I ever expect to abide.

I have the honor to be, general, your most obedient servant,

THEODORE HEERMANN.

–––

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, Va., February 20, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Commanding, &c., Tullahoma.

GENERAL: At the request of Mr. Robert Ould, agent of exchange, the Secretary of War directs that the following prisoners be brought to this city: All the Federal commissioned officers who were captured previous to the 12th of January, 1863.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

–––

CIRCULAR.]

HEADQUARTERS HINDMAN’S DIVISION, Little Rock, February 22, 1863.

It has frequently happened that officers and men of this command captured and paroled by the enemy have remained a considerable time without exchange either with their companies or else at home rendering no service. Brigade commanders are directed to forward reports promptly setting forth the name, company, regiment and rank of every such paroled prisoner, when and where captured and whether in hospital or not when taken, so that they may be exchanged and returned to duty without delay. Regimental and company commanders must be required to make similar reports from time to time.

By command of Major-General Hindman:

R. C. NEWTON, Assistant Adjutant-General.

–––

HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA, Jackson, February 23, 1863.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.

GENERAL: I have the honor herewith to inclose for the information of the War Department a copy of a notice* which purports to have been issued by Admiral D. D. Porter, of the U. S. Navy, and a copy of a retaliatory notification** which I have caused to be communicated to the Federal authorities near Vicksburg.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

* Omitted here; see Stevenson to Grant, February 24, and inclosure, p. 293.

** Omitted here; see Grant to Pemberton, Porter to Grant and Porter to Stevenson, March 2, pp. 308 and 309. For Seddon to Pemberton, March 20 and 28, see Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part III, pp. 679 and 696.

{p.836}

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ASHEVILLE, N. C., February 24, 1863.

[Hon. Z. B. VANCE.]

GOVERNOR: In obedience to your direction to do so I have made inquiries and gathered facts such as I could in reference to the shooting of certain prisoners on Laurel Creek, in Madison County. I have to report to you that I learn that the militia troops had nothing to do with what was done on Laurel. Thirteen prisoners at least were killed by order of Lieut. Col. J. A. Keith. Most of them were taken at their homes and none of them made resistance when taken. Perhaps some of them ran. After they were taken prisoners the soldiers took them off to a secluded place, made them kneel down and shot them. They were buried in a trench dug for the purpose. Some two weeks since their bodies were removed to a graveyard. I learn that probably eight of the thirteen killed were not in the company that robbed Marshall and other places. I suppose they were shot on suspicion. I cannot learn the names of the soldiers who shot them. Some of them shrank from the barbarous and brutal transaction at first, but were compelled to act. This is a list of the names of those killed:

Elison King (desperate man), Jo. Woods (desperate man), Will Shelton (twenty years old, [son] of Sipus), Aronnata Shelton (fourteen years old, [son] of Sipus, not at Marshall), James Shelton (Old Jim, about fifty-six years old), James Shelton, jr. (seventeen years old), David Shelton (thirteen years old, was not in the raid), James Madcap (forty years old, was not in the raid), Rod Shelton (Stob Rod, was not in the raid), David Shelton (brother of Stob Rod, was not in the raid), Joseph Cleandren (fifteen or sixteen years old, was not in the raid), Halen Moore (twenty-five or thirty years old, was not in the raid), Wade Moore, twenty or twenty-five years old, was not in the raid.

It is said that those whose names I have so marked did not go to Marshall. The prisoners were captured on one Friday and killed the next Monday. Several women were severely whipped and ropes were tied around their necks. It is said Col. L. M. Allen was not in command and that Keith commanded. Four prisoners are now in jail, sent here as I learn by order of General Davis. These are Sipus Shelton, Isaac Shelton, William Norton and David Shelton, son of Sipus.

I think the facts stated are about true. One thing is certain, thirteen prisoners were killed-shot without trial or any hearing whatever and in the most cruel manner. I have no means of compelling witnesses to disclose facts to me and I do not know that I shall be able to make a fuller report to Your Excellency at any early day. I hope these facts will enable you to take such steps as will result in a more satisfactory development of the true state of the matter.

I am, &c., yours, truly,

A. S. MERRIMON.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 15.}

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DISTRICT, DEPT. OF MISS. AND EAST LA., Columbus, Miss., February 25, 1863.

...

VII. The passing of paroled Federal prisoners through this district northward is positively prohibited without special orders from these headquarters or from higher authority for that purpose.

...

By order of Brigadier-General Ruggles:

R. M. HOOE, Assistant Adjutant-General.

{p.837}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, February 26, 1863.

W. H. SYME, Esq., Lewisburg, Va.

SIR: Your letter of the 14th instant has been received, and in reply you are informed, first that all prisoners who have been captured and paroled that were taken anywhere in Virginia prior to the 1st of November have been exchanged; second, the pay of a volunteer private continues during his captivity though paroled; third, the private should report to his regiment at once and if disabled placed on special duty; fourth, the provost-marshal has no right to appoint your son assistant provost-marshal. The application for duty should be made through the officers of your son’s regiment and proof of disability presented, and in that form be communicated to the Secretary of War.

Respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, February 26, 1863.

M. J. SAFFOLD, Esq., Montgomery, Ala.

SIR: You have been selected by this Department and are hereby commissioned to make a full examination into the cases of all prisoners (not connected with the Confederate Army) now held in confinement by the military authorities of the Confederate States at any military post or prison in the State of Alabama or the Department of Western Georgia.

You will communicate this appointment to the military commanders in the said State and department and inquire where such prisoners are confined, and with as little delay as practicable will repair to the respective posts or prisons and enter upon the discharge of the duties assigned.

You are authorized to require the production of all documentary testimony and military orders respecting such prisoners; may examine any witnesses who can be produced for or against them, and may hear any statements which the prisoners desire or are willing to make.

You are authorized to discharge, either absolutely or upon such oath or parole as you may think proper, all prisoners against whom no well-founded suspicion of having violated any law of the Confederate States may exist, or whose longer detention you may think not demanded by the public interests.

Orders will be issued to the commanding officers in the State of Alabama and the Department of Western Georgia to render you every facility in the discharge of your duties and to obey your instructions in regard to the prisoners you may examine.

A full report of your proceedings under this commission and your opinion with regard to each prisoner examined will be made by you as promptly as practicable.

You will notify the Department on receipt of this communication whether you will accept the position assigned you and when it will comport with your convenience to enter upon the discharge of the duties.

By way of compensation for your services you will be allowed the sum of $125 per month, and transportation will be furnished for all necessary travel by the commandants of the several posts.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

{p.838}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, February 27, 1863.

To the PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES:

In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives I have the honor to inclose a list* of the civilian prisoners now in custody in this city and at Salisbury, N. C., under military authority.

No arrests have been made at any time by any specific order or direction of this Department. The persons arrested have been taken either by officers of the Army commanding in the field or by provost-marshals exercising authority of a similar nature, and the ground for arrest is or ought to be founded upon some necessity or be justified as a proper precaution against an apparent danger. The Department has had commissioners to examine these persons with directions to “discharge those against whom no well-grounded cause of suspicion exists of having violated a law or done an act hostile or injurious to the Confederate States.”

The Department appointed in November last a commissioner to examine prisoners in the Southwestern Department, embracing a portion of Georgia, Alabama and a portion of Mississippi. This commissioner found some obstructions in the performance of his duties from the provost marshals and some difficulty in obtaining reports from them. He resigned in the latter part of January without making a report of the prisoners remaining in the department for which he was appointed. These commissioners have been found useful and I recommend that the Department may be authorized to appoint them for the objects before mentioned and that they be clothed with the authority of commissioners under the act of the Provisional Congress, No. 273, respecting commissioners appointed by the district courts.

In conclusion I have to say that under the examinations that have been made a large number of prisoners have been discharged and none are retained unless there be a cause of suspicion supported by testimony rendering it probable that the discharge of the prisoner would be prejudicial to the public interest.

Most respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

* Not found.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Raleigh, February 27, 1863.

Brigadier-General DAVIS, Knoxville, Tenn.

GENERAL: In my last letter to you I referred to a report that a number of prisoners taken on Laurel had been shot in cold blood and expressed the hope it might not prove true. I fear, however, that it is even worse than was first reported. I beg leave to ask your attention to the copy inclosed* of a part of a letter from A. S. Merrimon, esq., attorney for the State in that district, and to respectfully request you to make inquiry into the truth of the statements therein with a view to proceedings against the guilty parties. Whilst expressing again my thanks for the prompt aid rendered by your command in quieting the troubles in that region I cannot reconcile it to my sense of duty to pass by in silence such cruel and barbarous conduct as is alleged to have characterized a portion of them, and more especially as the officers mentioned are citizens of this State.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Z. B. VANCE.

* See also Merrimon to Vance, February 24, p. 836.

{p.839}

[Inclosure.]

ASHEVILLE, N. C., February 16, 1863.

Governor Z. B. VANCE, Raleigh, N. C.

GOVERNOR: Your letter of the 9th instant is just received. I beg to assure you that I shall at the next term of the court prosecute vigorously such of the prisoners to whom you direct my attention as may be turned over to the civil authorities. The late expedition to Laurel sent only four prisoners to jail and one of them was admitted to bail on yesterday by Judge Bailey. I understand there are no more to send. I have no knowledge of my own touching the shooting of several prisoners on Laurel. I have learned, however, from a most reliable source that thirteen of them were killed; that some of them were not taken in arms but at their homes; that of all the men shot thirteen if not more were prisoners at the time they were shot; that they were taken off to a secluded cove or gorge in the mountains and then made to kneel down and were thus shot. One man was badly and mortally shot in the bowels and while he was writhing in agony and praying to God for mercy a soldier mercilessly and brutally shot him in the head with his pistol. Several women were whipped.

This I learn from one who got his information from some of the guilty parties. I learn that all this was done by order of Lieut. Col. James A. Keith. I know not what you intend doing with the guilty parties, but I suggest they are all guilty of murder. I do not suppose they had any order to do so barbarous a deed, but if they had the order was void absolutely, no matter by whom issued. Such savage and barbarous cruelty is without a parallel in this State and I hope in every other. I am gratified that you intend to take the matter in hand. I will make such investigation as I can, but I have no means of compelling any one to disclose facts to me. It will not be difficult I learn to prove that the prisoners were killed. I assure you that I will prosecute all persons who have committed criminal offenses in this circuit at the next term of the court and in the meantime I will do all in my power to suppress crime and violence. These are fearfully on the increase in this section of the State. A report might be made that would astonish you. I have done all I could in reference to the complaints made to you from Jackson and Cherokee Counties.

...

I am, &c., yours, truly,

A. S. MERRIMON.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 49.}

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, February 27, 1863.

VIII. Capt. W. H. Hatch, assistant adjutant-general, will proceed without delay to Tullahoma, Tenn., on business in connection with the exchange of prisoners. He will report to Col. Robert Ould in this city for instructions. Having discharged these duties he will report at the office of the Adjutant and Inspector General in this city.

...

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS, Assistant Adjutant-General.

{p.840}

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ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, February 28, 1863.

General R. E. LEE, Commanding, &c., Fredericksburg, Va.

GENERAL: I have received your letter of the 24th instant and it seems only necessary to say that I concur in your views respecting the Sixty-fifth and Eighty-ninth Articles of War.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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CHATTANOOGA, February 28, 1863.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

SIR: I respectfully submit the accompanying papers* to the War Department to show the fact that Major-General Rosecrans declines to correspond with General Bragg and upon what grounds.

To Major-General Rosecrans’ letters to myself I replied** that the correspondence which he desired me to undertake was one of General Bragg’s functions which I could not assume.

Most respectfully, &c.,

J. E. JOHNSTON, General.

* See Rosecrans to Johnston, January 18 and 19, pp. 188, 191.

** See Johnston to Rosecrans, February 12, p. 266.

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INSPECTOR-GENERAL’S OFFICE, ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Tullahoma, Tenn., February 28, 1863.

ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Army of Mississippi

SIR: I have the honor in obedience to instructions from the commanding general to forward to your headquarters under guard George U. Thatcher, who purports to be a citizen of Missouri and who has twice been arrested within the lines of our army under suspicious circumstances, with the request that Thatcher be sent across the Mississippi River. The circumstances of Thatcher’s arrest are as follows: When the Army of Mississippi entered Kentucky Thatcher was found within our lines. Not being able satisfactorily to account for himself General Bragg had him arrested and ordered to the rear, directing him to remain at Chattanooga, Tenn., until the return of the army. Instead of doing this Thatcher preceded the army in its advance through Kentucky, arriving at Louisville simultaneously with General Buell, U. S. Army. Shortly after this an article appeared in a Louisville paper giving the organization of the Army of Mississippi (at that time so-called). Authorship of this article was attributed to the prisoner. On the return of the army Thatcher is again found within the lines with military goods for sale; also a negro which he claims as his property. Negro boy is identified by a citizen of Rutherford County and Thatcher is arrested as a spy but is released at the solicitations of Honorable Phelps, Member of Congress from Missouri, with the distinct understanding that he is to proceed immediately across the Mississippi River. Violating this Thatcher is rearrested and is now sent to Lieutenant-General Pemberton with the request that he be immediately sent across the Mississippi River as too dangerous a man to be allowed to remain within our lines.

{p.841}

You will pardon, sir, the apparent discourtesy in not giving you your title and rank as I am unacquainted with both.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. CLARE, Major and Assistant Inspector-General.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Raleigh, February 28, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: Some six months since a disturbance occurred in Madison County, N. C., near the Tennessee border, by some disloyal persons capturing the little country town and seizing a lot of salt and other plunder. An armed force was promptly sent from Knoxville under command of General Davis to suppress the insurrection which was accomplished before the local militia could get there, though ordered out immediately. But in doing so a degree of cruelty and barbarity was displayed, shocking and outrageous in the extreme on the part of Lieut. Col. J. A. Keith, Sixty-fourth North Carolina Troops, who seems to have been in command and to have acted in this respect without orders from his superiors so far as I can learn. I beg leave to ask you to read the inclosed letter* (copy) from A. S. Merrimon, State’s attorney for that judicial district, which you will perceive discloses a scene of horror disgraceful to civilization. I desire you to have proceedings instituted at once against this officer, who if the half be true is a disgrace to the service and to North Carolina. You may depend upon the respectability and fairness of Mr. Merrimon who made an investigation officially by my order. I have also written General Davis.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Z. B. VANCE.

* Omitted here; see Merrimon’s two letters, pp. 836, 839.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, February 28, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: In reply to the letter from the House of Representatives dated February 24, 1863, containing copy of a resolution passed by that body calling for the “authority by which a number of Yankee prisoners have been admitted to take the oath of fidelity to the Confederate States and have been allowed to locate as free laborers in Rockbridge County, Va.,” which letter was indorsed to these headquarters on the 26th instant for report, I have the honor to state that upon representation to the War Department that a large number of Yankee deserters had accumulated in the military prisons I was instructed by the Secretary of War to allow such of them as were willing to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States and permit them to seek work wherever it could be found.

These instructions referred exclusively to deserters and my action was in strict conformity thereto.

I would further beg leave respectfully to state that those men mentioned in the resolution above referred to as having located in Rockbridge County, Va., were employed by Joseph R. Anderson, esq., of the Tredegar Works, who forwarded them to that county to labor.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

{p.842}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., March -, 1863.

All matters relating to the exchange of prisoners and flag-of-truce boats will be under the direction and control of Robert Ould, agent for the exchange of prisoners, subject only to the orders of the Secretary of War.

JAS. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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BROWNSVILLE, TEX., March 1, 1863.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Richmond.

SIR: On the 20th ultimo I learned that one Henry Safford, formerly of Galveston, Tex., and lately from New York, had arrived at Matamoras with $50,000 in counterfeit Confederate money. I immediately notified General Bee of it and spoke with the Mexican authorities to have said Safford arrested. On the 26th a Spaniard named Manuel Lluro visited Brownsville and endeavored to negotiate the sum of $2,000 in paper which upon examination was found to be counterfeited. The bearer was arrested and in his voluntary statement asserted that he had received said paper from Safford. On the same day I visited Matamoras and succeeded in obtaining from the proper authorities an order for the arrest and delivery of Safford. Both he and Lluro are now at Fort Brown to be tried.

The Mexican Government is to receive (at the mouth of the Rio Grande) 40,000 stand of arms from New York which have been contracted for by J. Bustamente, an agent of paid Government. As the arms are to be paid for on delivery and the Mexican authorities cannot dispose of the full sum needed I at the request of General Bee have spoken with the custom-house inspector (Mr. Zambrano) who has agreed to let us have part of said arms. The consignee who resides at Matamoras is also willing to contract with us. As soon as oar object is accomplished it will not be amiss to forward the proper information to the C. S. agent at Havana that the French Government may be apprised of the neutrality of the United States. I shall leave here to-morrow for Monterey.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

J. A. QUINTERO.

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COLUMBUS, March 3, 1863.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON:

Twelve Federal prisoners sent to Okolona to go North. Shall they pass? I have endeavored to stop this indiscriminate passing of paroled prisoners acting as spies.

DAN’L RUGGLES, Brigadier-General.

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VICKSBURG, March 4, 1863.

Colonel WADDY:

Colored prisoners from Indianola sent over to-day by 12 o’clock train. Ninety-four in all.

M. L. SMITH, Major-General.

{p.843}

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, March 4, 1863.

[Capt. W. S. WINDER.]

CAPTAIN: The number of prisoners having greatly increased in the last few days, and having just received from Robert Ould, esq., rolls containing nearly 4,000 names of paroled prisoners of war that have been sent North which he has referred to me in order to compare them with the prison books that I may certify as to date of capture, which he says is necessary to have with his next interview with the Federal commissioner of exchange of prisoners, my time will consequently be so much occupied at the prison as to prevent me from attending closely to the temporary duty at provost-marshal’s office to which I was assigned by Special Orders, No. 49. I therefore respectfully request that I may be relieved from that duty if in your judgment no inconvenience may result from it.

Your obedient servant,

TH. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

P. S.-The provost-marshal’s assistant who has been sick for some time returned to duty to-day and I suppose my services can be dispensed with without serious inconvenience.

T. P. T.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, March 5, 1863.

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, Governor of North Carolina, Raleigh, N. C.

SIR: I received your letter of the 28th ultimo in reference to the conduct of Lieut. Col. J. A. Keith, Sixty-fourth North Carolina Regiment, and have directed General Donelson, commanding at Knoxville, to investigate the matter and report the facts to the Department.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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VICKSBURG, March 5, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

General Grant will not receive non-commissioned officers and privates without the commissioned officers. Please do not send the prisoners to this place.

N. G. WATTS, Major and Agent.

[Indorsement.]

MARCH 5, 1863.

Respectfully referred to Brigadier-General Adams who will not forward any of the prisoners to Vicksburg.

By order of Lieutenant-General Pemberton:

J. C. TAYLOR, Aide-de-Camp.

{p.844}

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 25.}

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond. March 6, 1863.

I. The following act of Congress and regulations to enforce the same are published for the information of all persons concerned:

II. Depots for recaptured slaves are hereby established at the following places, viz:

At the Camps of Instruction at Richmond, Petersburg and Dublin Station, in the State of Virginia; Camp of Instruction at Raleigh, in the State of North Carolina; Camp of Instruction at Columbia, in the State of South Carolina; Camps of Instruction at Macon and Decatur, in the State of Georgia; Camps of Instruction at Notasulga and Talladega, in the State of Alabama; Camp of Instruction at Tallahassee, in the State of Florida; Camps of instruction at Brookhaven and Enterprise, in the State of Mississippi; Camps of Instruction at Monroe, Camp Moore and New Iberia, in the State of Louisiana; Camp of Instruction at Houston, in the State of Texas; Camps of Instruction at Knoxville and McMinnville, in the State of Tennessee; Camp of Instruction at Little Rock, in the State of Arkansas.

III. The commandants of the several camps of instruction will provide necessary quarters for all negroes sent to the depots; will detail sufficient guards for their safe-keeping; provide for their custody, employment and subsistence; require full and accurate registers to be kept, and advertisements as prescribed by the act of Congress to be regularly made, and afford all facilities to claimants to establish their ownership, and on due proof surrender the slaves to their owners.

{p.845}

IV. Commanding generals will require all persons connected with the Army to make immediate report of all slaves arrested or coming into their possession; and if claim is not promptly made and established by the owner will send such slaves with a register of the place and date of their arrest with as little delay as practicable to the nearest depot in the State wherein the capture is made. They will also require all officers and soldiers now employing slaves forthwith to report the same and those hereafter employing them within ten days thereafter, with the names and residence of their owners and of the person by whom they were hired out and of the officer or soldier hiring, and return such reports as soon as received to this office; and will in all other respects enforce from the officers and men under their command a strict and prompt observance of the requirements of the above-recited act of Congress.

By order:

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, March 7, 1863.

General J. C. PEMBERTON, Jackson, Miss.:

Use your discretion with regard to men taken as prisoners of war. Enlist if any are willing. Let any willing take the oath of allegiance. Put any willing to work. Parole and dismiss toward their own country such as you may deem safe.

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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PROVOST-MARSHAL’S OFFICE, Charleston, S. C., March 7, 1863.

Capt. J. M. OTEY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: Under the approval of Brigadier-General Ripley I expect to send to Richmond in a few days the wounded prisoners of war captured on board the Isaac Smith together with sundry prisoners belonging to Confederate regiments now in North Carolina and Virginia. I would respectfully ask if the prisoner of war Calvin Jones shall be sent at same time or be detained longer. He belongs to Company D, Ninth Maine Regiment, and was sent here by Brigadier-General Walker on the 19th February last, and was captured but a short time previous to that date. I omitted to state that he is not a commissioned officer.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. C. GAILLARD, Lieutenant-Colonel and Provost-Marshal.

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VICKSBURG, March 8, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

Can I send Federal prisoners to Jackson?

C. L. STEVENSON, Major-General.

{p.846}

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SHELBYVILLE, March 9, 1863.

Maj. THOMAS M. JACK, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: In obedience to instructions from the lieutenant-general commanding (through Col. W. B. Richmond, aide-de-camp) of this date I have the honor to submit the following explanation: On the 7th instant the general informed me that he had received a communication from General Van Dorn stating that the prisoners captured by his (General Van Dorn’s) command at Thompson’s Station would pass through this place en route to Tullahoma; that they numbered about 2,200 men and would need rations. The general directed me to see that they had rations provided for them on their arrival; that General Van Dorn could not furnish them with cooking utensils, consequently I should have the rations properly prepared. The general suggested that I could use the utensils left in camp by a portion of Withers’ division, then on outpost duty, and to make the detail left in charge of the camp cook them. He also directed me to send a courier on the Lewisburg road to meet them with a communication to the officer in charge asking for the number of men and the number of days’ rations required and any other information that would facilitate their speedy transportation from this point to Tullahoma. Immediately after leaving the general I dispatched a courier as directed with a letter to the officer in charge of the prisoners making the inquiries named. I charged the courier to be as prompt as possible. I then sent for Captain Spence and directed him to go out to the camp of Withers’ division and see the officer in command and notify him that he would have to superintend the preparation of the rations. Captain Spence returned and reported that he found Colonel Walker (the senior officer present) and that the colonel signified to him that he was ready to carry out the order as soon as he received the rations.

I also saw Major Mason, assistant quartermaster, and directed him to furnish transportation for the rations when required. I then went to the post commissary store-house to see Captain Cromwell, assistant commissary of subsistence. The captain being absent I directed his chief clerk (a Mr. Baugh) to furnish the rations when called on without delay. I then awaited the return of the courier. The courier not having returned on the morning of the 8th (when I expected him to return on the preceding night at the latest) I reported the fact to the general. The general directed me to send Captain Spence with another courier on the same road with instructions similar to those given the first courier. The first courier returned about 3 o’clock on the afternoon of the 8th with a note from Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, commanding the escort in charge of the prisoners, giving the number 1,205, but said nothing about when their rations were out. The colonel also stated in his note that he would send his regimental commissary in to attend to the wants of his own command. Immediately on the receipt of Colonel Gordon’s communications I directed Captain Spence to have two days’ rations for 1,205 men sent out to Colonel Walker with instructions to have them prepared without delay. I also directed that the wagons used for hauling them out should remain and bring the rations back when prepared to the court-house. Captain Spence returned and reported that he had carried out my instructions. About 5 p.m. a violent rain came on which continued with more or less violence until a late hour at night and materially interfered with the cooking of the rations. In order to be certain that the prisoners would get their rations I saw Major Mason about 11 o’clock last night and asked him what directions he had given about the wagons. He replied that he {p.847} had “directed them to remain at the camp until the rations were cooked and then bring them in if they had to remain all night.” I sent Captain Spence out to the camp at an early hour this morning to inquire why the rations were not prepared and sent in. He reports that Colonel Walker had them ready at 2 a.m., but that the wagons had left before that time and that he had no other available transportation. These are all the facts in the case, and I earnestly hope that they will exonerate me from all culpable neglect in the premises.

Respectfully submitted.

T. F. SEVIER, Assistant Inspector-General.

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HDQRS. POLK’S CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE, March 9, 1863.

Maj. THOMAS M. JACK, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: The general directs that you place Colonel Sevier, the inspector-general, under arrest, and instruct the commandant of the post to instantly prepare food for the Federal prisoners now here.

Very respectfully,

W. B. RICHMOND, Aide-de-Camp.

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SHELBYVILLE, March 11, 1863.

Lieutenant-General POLK, Commanding.

GENERAL: I would state that some time during the evening of Sunday, the 8th instant, Captain Spence called upon me for two wagons to haul rations for the prisoners. All my wagons being employed in moving stores for the depot and post commissaries I told him to go there and take any two of the wagons that he saw, which he did. About 7 o’clock in the evening I was called on to furnish wood for the prisoners at the court-house yard which I accordingly furnished. Later in the night Colonel Sevier asked me if the wagons had been furnished to haul the rations and I told him that they had, and I do not remember any further conversation on the subject with Colonel Sevier. I heard nothing about where the rations were to be hauled from or to until the next morning when Captain Spence called on me for two wagons to haul rations from Walker’s regiment, Chalmers’ brigade, which wagons I sent immediately.

Respectfully submitted.

R. M. MASON, Major and Assistant Quartermaster.

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C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Richmond, March 12, 1863.

Capt. W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

CAPTAIN: I herewith inclose communication* from Major Boyle dated 11th instant containing a list of Yankee prisoners, twenty-nine in number. In connection with these prisoners allow me to make the following statement: They reached here yesterday about 7.30 o’clock p.m. The roll being called it was found that four of the prisoners on the list, viz, Brig. Gen. E. H. Stoughton, Captain Barker, Privates B. F. Pratt and R. B. Wardener did not answer, and Lieutenant Bossieux, the officer in charge of the prison during my absence, was informed that they were {p.848} at the Ballard Hotel for the night which fact was reported to me when I returned to the prison.

Deeming it my duty as the officer in command of the prison to see that the prisoners mentioned in an official communication as being sent here for confinement were delivered at the proper place, being quite sure that it was contrary to the wishes of the commanding general of this department that any such discriminations should be made in permitting a few of a batch of prisoners to obtain lodgings at a hotel while a majority of the same batch were committed to prison, and also as acting assistant provost-marshal considering that it was a part of my duty to see that prisoners are delivered at the proper time and place, I directed Lieutenant Bossieux to proceed to the Ballard Hotel and request of the officer or whoever might be in charge of the prisoners that they be delivered into his custody to be brought to prison. But for some reason unknown to me the officer, Lieutenant McClellan, refused to deliver them. I then went to the hotel myself after 12 o’clock p.m. and after a parley of nearly an hour Lieutenant McClellan reluctantly consented that the prisoners should be delivered into my custody.

I make this statement in order to vindicate myself from any charge of officiousness or assumption of authority. Please bear in mind that the unsealed official communication in reference to and containing a list of prisoners (the four mentioned included) was in my hands. Further, the train reached the city at 7.30 o’clock p.m. The provost-marshal’s office is open all night. I was there myself till 8 o’clock p.m., and a portion of the prisoners were properly delivered before 8 o’clock p.m. at the C. S. Military Prison.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

T. P. TURNER, Captain, Commanding.

* Not found.

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HEADQUARTERS RIVER BATTERIES, March 13, 1863.

Col. EDWARD HIGGINS, Commanding River Batteries, Vicksburg.

COLONEL: I beg leave to submit to your consideration certain facts connected with the imprisonment by the Federal authorities in New Orleans of several non-commissioned officers and men formerly under your command at Fort Jackson, La. Their names and respective rank are as follows: Sergt. Patrick Kane, Corpl. Edward C. Smith and Private William Stanley, First Louisiana Artillery, Company B; Private Daniel Doyle, First Louisiana Artillery, Company D; Private Abraham McLane, Twenty-third Regiment Louisiana Volunteers (Allen Guards); Sergt. George L. Williams, First Louisiana Artillery Volunteers, Company E.

These men were arrested in New Orleans in May or June last under the charge of a conspiracy while they were prisoners of war on parole to recruit a company for the Confederate service. They were tried by a military commission,* found guilty and sentenced to be shot. On the appointed day they were taken out for execution, but just after the firing squad had received the last commands, “ready,” “aim,” an order was produced by the provost-marshal which commuted their sentence to imprisonment at hard labor on Ship Island during the pleasure of the President of the United States.

A short time before the day on which they were to be executed the men belonging to my old company (Company B) sent to request that I {p.849} would come to see them. I obtained a permit from the provost-marshal and was admitted to their prison. There they told me that their trial had not been a fair one. They had no notice; no means of preparing a defense. One or two witnesses were examined by the military commission. They were asked if they had any rebutting evidence to produce, and in the face of their earnest protest were found guilty and condemned.

They were denounced by one of the traitors who had gone over to the enemy and it was chiefly on his testimony that they were condemned. They solemnly declared to me that the whole charge was a malicious fabrication; that they had never been concerned in any attempt to raise a company; that they had never in any way violated their parole. A few days ago Doctor Bradbury, who as you will remember volunteered his professional services and was with us at the fort during the bombardment, came out from New Orleans on the boat, the Cartel, which recently brought up the exchanged prisoners. He met with a gentleman who had just been released from Ship Island. While there this gentleman had frequently met our men and had brought with him a memorandum of their names to see if something could not be done for them. He states that men were never more faithful to a cause than they are to ours. They have frequently been offered their release on the sole condition of taking the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government; and this, although with the exception of Smith they are foreigners without ties of family or interest to bind them to the Confederacy, they have steadily refused.

As to the former good character of the men from my regiment (the First Louisiana) I can bear strong testimony. Stanley was employed in the magazine on ordnance duty. Sergeant Kane was gunner on the 8-inch columbiad in the upper river bastion of Fort Jackson. Corporal Smith was stationed with Captain Robertson in the Water Battery. Doyle was head carpenter in the quartermaster’s department. No men could have done their duty better, either during the long period for which we garrisoned the forts or during the fatiguing length of the bombardment. They were brave, active, willing and in the mutiny faithful among traitors.

They well deserve that efforts should be made to procure their release. This imprisonment is plainly a violation of fire articles of capitulation under which we surrendered, their trial and condemnation a flagrant instance of the many similar hollow mockeries which helped disgrace General Butler’s rule in New Orleans. In regard to the men belonging to the Allen Guards it will be easy to obtain from Capt. S. Jones, who is at present in command of the Twenty-third Regiment Louisiana Volunteers, a statement of their character and of the points which bear upon their case.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BEVERLY [C.] KENNEDY, Lieutenant and Ordnance Officer, River Batteries.

[Indorsement.]

VICKSBURG, March 18, 1863.

Respectfully transmitted with the recommendation that the agent for exchange of prisoners be directed to demand their exchange or a new trial with counsel.

M. L. SMITH, Major-General.

* See Vol. III, this Series, p. 616, for the order relating to these men.

{p.850}

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CAMP ON DEER CREEK, Washington County, March 13, 1863.

Maj. J. J. REEVE, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: I have the honor to make the following report: On the 15th [14th] of February, ultimo, I received by the hand of a citizen a letter from Capt. E. W. Sutherland, U. S. Navy, a copy of which is herewith* forwarded. The department was at once informed of the result of that interview and furnished with the notice** of Admiral Porter, then communicated by Captain Sutherland, who expressed his willingness to communicate at any time that it should be necessary by flag of truce.

On the 25th of same month I received instructions from Lieutenant-General Pemberton which I was ordered to communicate to Captain Sutherland or any other Federal officer. I at once sent by flag of truce a letter,*** a copy of which is herewith forwarded. After keeping the party with the flag of truce at Greenville for several days in the fruitless effort to communicate the ravages of the Abolitionists on Lake Washington compelled me to withdraw the party except a sergeant and one man, whom I left at Greenville with the flag and letter. I accidentally learned from a citizen that on or about the 4th instant a gun-boat, the Curlew, landed a party who met the flag of truce, disarmed the bearers and took them on board, where they were rudely treated and their dispatch broken open and read. It was then returned to them with the remark that Captain Sutherland should be informed the letter was for him. About the time this news reached me and before I could communicate with the sergeant referred to I heard from a citizen that a gun-boat had landed and taken off two men.

I at once dispatched another party with flag of truce and letter,**** a copy of which please find inclosed, as well as a copy of the answer I received to it. I cannot learn by what boat they were taken and have not received an answer from Admiral Porter. Their horses and horse equipments I found at Greenville. Since the receipt of Captain Prichett’s letter I have posted a picket at or near Greenville, but from the 23d instant to that time I had no troops nearer there than twenty miles except the party with the flag, and I need not add that the assertion of Captain Prichett in regard to flags of truce is utterly false and that none but those mentioned herein have been sent or been seen there.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. W. FERGUSON, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding.

* See Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part III, p. 55.

** See p. 294.

*** See Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part III, p. 67.

**** Not found.

[Inclosure.]

U. S. GUN-BOAT PRAIRIE BIRD, Greenville, March 9, 1863.

Lieutenant-Colonel FERGUSON, Commanding C. S. Forces, Washington County:

Your letter in regard to two of your men having been carried off while under a flag of truce has been received. In reply must state that I am not acquainted with the matter. I will immediately forward your letter to Rear-Admiral D. D. Porter, commanding Mississippi Squadron, and he will give you the direct information. It has been reported that flags of truce are almost constantly presenting themselves at this place {p.851} upon very trivial business which are not in accordance with the usages of civilized warfare. I hope to see no more here except on very important business.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. M. PRICHETT, U. S. Navy, Senior Officer, Commanding Naval Forces.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Raleigh, March 14, 1863.

GEORGE V. STRONG, Attorney for the District of North Carolina.

DEAR SIR: His Excellency Governor Vance directs me to inform you that Henry Hanbury, Green Mason, W. Jackson, Josiah Lufton, William Hodges, Charney Kenyon, E. H. Gerkin, M. L. Strausbery or Strasbury [Stransbury] and W. A. Foreman are now confined as prisoners at Camp Holmes. It is due the public as well as these individuals that the offenses with which they are charged should be speedily investigated in order that they may be retained for trial if guilty or be discharged if innocent. Unless some action is taken in the matter at an early day His Excellency will deem it his duty to have them discharged.

Yours, very respectfully,

DAVID A. BARNES, Aide-de-Camp to the Governor.

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HDQRS. DEPT. SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, March 14, 1863.

Col. JOHN S. PRESTON, Commanding, &c., Columbia, S. C.

COLONEL: I am instructed by the War Department to direct that all Federal officers captured before the 12th day of January, A. D. 1863, shall be forwarded to Richmond to Brigadier-General Winder.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. JORDAN, Chief of Staff.

A similar letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Gaillard, provost-marshal.

T. J.

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RICHMOND, March 14, 1863.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON:

Colonel Garland has not been delivered yet. I expect to receive him next Monday but there is no certainty.

RO. OULD, Agent, &c.

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PORT HUDSON, March 16, 1863.

Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

I request to parole Midshipman Francis, from [of the] Mississippi, who exerted himself to save our men overboard from flag-of-truce boat at Baton Rouge.

FRANK GARDNER, Major-General.

{p.852}

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MOBILE, March 16, 1863.

Hon. JOHN A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

DEAR SIR: In your communication to me of February last appointing me commissioner to investigate cases of prisoners now held in confinement by the military authorities it would seem that my authority to investigate only applied to arrests and imprisonments which have already been made. The object of this is to inquire whether the cases of prisoners which may arise daily during the time I may hold the commission are subject to my investigation. I have not been able to ascertain even who are the military commanders in the northern part of the State and Western Georgia to whom I am instructed to communicate my appointment. I suppose General Bragg commands north of General Buckner’s district, but I should be glad to be referred to the order or orders dividing the State and western part of Georgia into geographical departments and districts and appointing the commanders. What is it contemplated that I am to do with prisoners whom I think have committed offenses against the Government and should not be discharged? Are they to be remanded to the custody of the military authorities and their cases reported to the Department for further action of the Department or am I to turn them over to the civil authorities for trial? Is it expected that I will make one general report of my proceedings under the commission after going through with the departments assigned me or am I to make reports from each post or prison?

I take this occasion, judge, to say that in conferring this appointment upon me you have doubtless rendered me a far greater service than you were aware of at the time. I am almost entirely without an income now except the compensation of this office and even now am compelled to rely upon assistance from others almost in the shape of gratuities for the support of my family, my income derived heretofore almost entirely from my profession having been out off by the war. Though the compensation of the commissionership is a considerable help to me it is still inadequate to pay my heavy hotel bill and leave me any sufficient contribution to my family. I would therefore consider myself peculiarly fortunate if I could have the satisfaction so to execute this commission to commend me to the favorable consideration of the Department for an appointment the salary of which would be from $2,000 to $2,500, and for any assistance you may render me in promoting this end it could but add to the debt of gratitude I already owe you personally. Will you do me the favor to address an answer to my inquiries at Montgomery?

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

M. J. SAFFOLD.

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HOUSTON, TEX., March 16, 1863.

Maj. B. BLOOMFIELD, Chief Quartermaster, &c.

SIR: In accordance with your order of date 22d January last I took charge of and proceeded with the U. S. prisoners of war captured at Galveston 1st [of the] same month and proceeded by the New Orleans and Texas Railroad to Beaumont where railroad transportation was broken on account of extreme high water. Thence by your order of the same month I proceeded by the way of Sabine River on steamer Roe-Buck to Barr’s Ferry. Arrived there the 5th and on the 9th left for Alexandria, having had to await for the transportation wagons and {p.853} teams. On my trip up the Sabine two of the prisoners, one D. Chapin, of Company I, Forty-second Massachusetts Regiment, and H. C. Sellea, of Company D, same regiment, died and were buried, the former at Stark’s Ferry, Tex., and the other at Barr’s Ferry, La. On my arrival at Alexandria I found no preparations made to receive the prisoners and was detained there and on river below until the 22d February when I was ordered by Major-General Taylor to parole all my prisoners and proceed under a flag of truce to Port Hudson and report to General F. Gardner commanding there, with the intention of proceeding by the way of Clinton to Tangipahoa and thence up the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad. On the 23d I arrived at Port Hudson meeting Major Watts and Colonel Szymanski, exchange officers on the part of Confederate States Government, returning from Baton Rouge with C. S. prisoners that day exchanged. I was ordered immediately to proceed accompanied by Colonel Szymanski to Baton Rouge and there turn over the prisoners in my charge to the U. S. exchange officer. On the 24th we arrived at and turned over all save and except two sent back sick from Beaumont to this place, one left in the hospital [at] Beaumont and the two who had died as herein reported. I herewith hand you the receipt of Colonel Szymanski, the exchange officer on the part of the Confederate States Government, for the 330 prisoners under my charge.

Having thus reported the manner of the discharge of my duty under your orders I await your further orders and have the honor to be, sir, your very obedient servant,

W. J. HOWERTON, Lieut., Prov. Army, C. S., Comdg. Escort and Guard U. S. Prisoners.

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CITY POINT, March 17, 1863.

Brigadier-General WINDER.

SIR: A flag-of-truce boat has arrived with 350 political prisoners, General Barrow and several other prominent men amongst them. I wish you to send me at 4 o’clock Wednesday morning all the military prisoners (except officers) and all the political prisoners you have. If any of the political prisoners have on hand proof enough to convict them of being spies or of having committed other offenses which should subject them to punishment so state opposite their names. Also state whether you think under all the circumstances they should be released.

The arrangement I have made works largely in our favor. We get rid of a set of miserable wretches and receive some of the best material I ever saw.

Tell Captain Turner to put down on the list of political prisoners the names of Edward G. Eggling and Eugenia Hammermister. The President is anxious they should get off. They are here now. This of course is between ourselves. If you have any female political prisoners whom you can send off safely to keep her company I would like you to send her. Two hundred and odd more political prisoners are on their way. I would be more full in my communication if I had time.

Yours, truly,

RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.

[First indorsement.]

Send all called for in this letter unless they are charged with some criminal offense.

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

{p.854}

[Second indorsement.]

Executed and returned.

T. P. TURNER, Captain, &c.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 67.}

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, March 19, 1863.

...

XVIII. Paragraph XXVII, Special Orders, No. 62, current series, is hereby revoked, and Capt. W. H. Hatch, assistant adjutant-general, Provisional Army, C. S., will report to Col. Robert Ould for assignment to duty.

...

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS, Assistant Adjutant-General.

–––

[MARCH 21, 1863.-For Quintero to Benjamin, with inclosures relative to the arrest of Col. E. J. Davis and others, see Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part II, pp. 67-71.]

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, March 21, 1863.

EDWARD M. CLARK, Esq., Richmond, Va.

SIR: Your letter of the 12th-instant was referred to the Commissary-General who replies that it has been decided that paroled soldiers could have their rations commuted from the date of parole up to the period of exchange at the cost price of the ration. No commutation is allowed during the time the soldier is in the hands of the enemy. The accounts for commutation must be certified to by a commissioned officer cognizant of all the facts and dates.

Respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, March 21, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I have received from General Hooker General Orders, No. 49, of General Halleck dated Washington, February 28, 1863, a copy of which I submit* herewith.

I would respectfully call your attention to this order which in my judgment conflicts with the cartel for the exchange of prisoners and solicit such instructions with regard to it as you may deem requisite.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE, General.

[Indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, March 31, 1863.

Mr. Ould will please examine this and report wherein he thinks it violates the cartel.

J. A. S., Secretary of War.

* Omitted here; see p. 306.

{p.855}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., March 21, 1863.

Col. A. C. MYERS.

MY DEAR SIR: If the exigencies of our army require the use of trains for the transportation of corn pay no regard to the Yankee prisoners. I would rather they should starve than our own people suffer. I suppose I can safely put it in writing “Let them suffer.” The words are memorable and it is fortunate that in this case they can be applied properly and without the intervention of a lying quartermaster.

Very truly, your faithful friend,

RO. OULD

–––

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 51.}

HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISS. AND EAST LA., Jackson, Miss., March 23, 1863.

I. The following act of Congress and regulations to enforce the same are published for the information of all persons concerned :*

II. Depots for recaptured slaves are hereby established at the following places, viz: Brookhaven, Miss., Enterprise, Miss., Camp Moore, La.

III. All persons connected with the Army will make immediate report of all slaves arrested or coming into their possession, and if claim is not promptly made and established by the owner they will send such slaves, with a register of the place and date of their arrest, with as little delay as practicable, to the nearest depot in the State wherein the capture is made. All officers and soldiers now employing slaves will forthwith report the same, and those hereafter employing them within ten days thereafter, with the names and residence of their owners, and of the person by whom they were hired out, and of the officer or soldier hiring, and return such reports as soon as received to this office; and will in all other respects enforce from the officers and men under their command a strict and prompt observance of the requirements of the above-recited act of Congress.

By order of Lieutenant-General Pemberton:

R. W. MEMMINGER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

* Omitted here; see p. 844.

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HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT, Jackson, Miss., March 24, 1863.

Maj. R. W. MEMMINGER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of U. S. prisoners of war received at this post from Port Hudson on the 21st instant. The following is a list* of officers:

In obedience to orders from the lieutenant-general commanding, the above-named H. B. Francis, master’s mate, was paroled and sent through the lines North. Amongst the seamen there is one negro, who is said to be a free negro. He is reported a seaman, but Captain Fontaine says he has been employed as cook. I respectfully ask for instructions in his case. He is at present confined with the others.

I am, major, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN ADAMS, Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S., Commanding.

* Omitted.

{p.856}

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HEADQUARTERS FOURTH MILITARY DISTRICT, Jackson, Miss., March 24, 1863.

Maj. R. W. MEMMINGER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report* of U. S. prisoners of war received at this post on the 12th instant captured on the U. S. gun-boat Indianola.

Forty-three seamen; 20 firemen, boys, &c. Total number of prisoners, 85.

I am, major, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN ADAMS, Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S., Commanding.

* Names of prisoners omitted.

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HEADQUARTERS, Jackson, March 24, 1863.

Maj. R. W. MEMMINGER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAJOR: In obedience to orders from the Secretary of War the following-named U. S. prisoners of war (officers) were sent to Richmond, Va., on the 14th instant in charge of Captain Tabb, Fourteenth Mississippi Regiment: T. C. Fletcher, colonel; P. Kershner, lieutenant-colonel; F. Jaensch, major; A. Gallfy, captain; John C. Ander Egg, captain; James S. McMurtry, captain; A. S. McClure, captain; F. Doherty, captain; C. Cunningham captain; M. Mills, captain; W. P. Van Doom, captain; J. J. Cole, first lieutenant; P. M. Smith, first lieutenant; S. H. Corn, first lieutenants H. S. Wood, second lieutenant; R. H. Vorhes, second lieutenant; B. F. Heckert, second lieutenant; M. Menne, second lieutenant; G. W. Wilson, second lieutenant; W. H. Rogers, second lieutenant; William Buchanan, second lieutenant; J. M. Cady, second lieutenant. All of the above-named officers were captured previous to the 12th of January, 1863.

I am, major, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN ADAMS, Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S., Commanding.

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HEADQUARTERS, Fort Brown, Tex., March 24, 1863.

Maj. E. F. GRAY, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Fort Brown, Tex.

SIR: Inclosed herewith please find the parole* in triplicate of the crew of the U. S. schooner C. C. Pinckney, recently captured at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which was this day granted them by me.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. N. LUCKETT, Colonel Third Texas Infantry, Commanding.

* Omitted.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., March 25, 1863.

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, Governor of North Carolina, Raleigh, N. C.

SIR: I have received your letter with regard to the arrest of citizens of North Carolina by a party of cavalry from Georgia. In reply I have the honor to say that the Department has no information at present concerning the alleged arrest and removal referred to by Your Excellency but will proceed to institute inquiry and require a report of {p.857} all the facts and redress of any injustice done. I will advise you of the result of my inquiries.

With high regard, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

–––

RALEIGH, N. C., March 25, [1863.]

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Richmond, Va.:

General Pillow has sent a detachment of cavalry into Western North Carolina to enroll and arrest conscripts without the shadow of law and in defiance of the proper authorities. Please order it stopped through Colonel Coltart, Greeneville, Tenn., or there will be resistance and bloodshed.

Z. B. VANCE.

–––

HEADQUARTERS EASTERN SUE-DISTRICT OF TEXAS, Houston, March 25, 1863.

Capt. EDMUND P. TURNER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

CAPTAIN: I desire to know whether the major-general commanding has any suggestions to make or instructions to give in relation to the exchange of the Morning Light prisoners; what route they are to take, if they are to be sent forward for exchange and the course to be pursued in the premises in case he thinks proper to send them forward. The officer charged with the delivery of the prisoners taken at Galveston has returned having completed his mission.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. R. SCURRY, Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[Indorsement.]

The privates, sailors, petty officers, non-commissioned officers, &c., to be sent to Vicksburg for exchange. The commissioned officers to be kept prisoners; all the commissioned officers to be sent to the prisons or the penitentiary at Huntsville if the Governor will consent. General Magruder has broached the subject to him and he has not yet answered. Brigadier-General Scurry will correspond with the Governor and if it can be done will send them to Huntsville under proper guard.

J. B. M.

–––

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, March 28, 1863.

J. M. BAKER, Esq., Richmond, Va.

SIR: You are informed in reply to yours of the 14th instant that you are entitled to pay during your detention by the enemy according to your position in the army at the time of your capture.

Respectfully,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

–––

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, March 28, 1863.

Hon. JAMES M. BAKER, House of Representatives.

SIR: Your letter of the 22d instant inclosing a communication from Dr. H. Bacon asking intervention of the Government in behalf of certain citizens of Saint Mary’s, Ga., taken prisoners by the enemy, has {p.858} been received and referred to Mr. Ould, commissioner for exchange of prisoners.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

–––

HEADQUARTERS, Charleston, S. C., March 28, 1863.

General SAMUEL COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond.

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of General Orders,* No. 49, War Department of the United States, dated Washington, D. C., February 28, 1863, in relation to paroles.

I do not suppose that the observance of the order in question will affect this department in any way; that is it is not anticipated that it will be desirable at any time to release prisoners of war on the field of battle in this department; yet as this may not be the case at all times in other departments I have deemed it my duty to bring the matter to your attention in this way.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. T. BEAUREGARD, General, Commanding.

* Omitted here; see p. 306.

–––

HDQRS. DEPT. SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND FLORIDA, Charleston, S. C., March 30, 1863.

Col. JOHN S. PRESTON, Commanding, Columbia, S. C.

COLONEL: A communication from Commodore T. Turner, U. S. Navy, has been received at these headquarters in which he inquires particularly if the U. S. naval officers who are in confinement at Columbia are in need of money or any assistance from the United States Government. The general commanding desires that you will furnish the above information as soon as practicable.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CLIFTON H. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant-General.

–––

KNOXVILLE, March 30, 1863.

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, Governor of North Carolina.

SIR: Your letter* of the 22d of February addressed to me at Warm Springs was not received by me until now owing to the fact that I was absent from the department. I am obliged to you for the complimentary manner in which you have been pleased to speak of the small service which I had the honor to perform while on duty in your State. I assure you that I agree entirely in the sentiments you express relative to the reported shooting of prisoners by the troops under the command of Colonel Keith. I know nothing of the facts, the transaction having taken place before I was placed in command of the troops operating in North Carolina. No report was made to me of the affair before I left. I have forwarded your letter to General D. S. Donelson, commanding department, who will no doubt give the matter proper attention.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your Excellency’s obedient servant,

W. G. M. DAVIS, Brigadier-General.

* Not found.

{p.859}

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MILITARY PRISON, Alton, Ill., March 30, 1863.

Hon. HENRY C. BURNETT, Member Confederate Senate.

MY DEAR SIR: In the utmost extremity I address you. I can say but a few words as danger threatens both the medium of my communication and self. Hear me I conjure you, and demand of my Government immediate intervention for my deliverance.

Let hard facts speak for themselves and stern justice vindicate my claims:

I, J. F. Melton of Calloway County, Ky., commanded a company of cavalry at Fort Henry in Tilghman’s division. At the surrender of Fort Henry I retreated to Fort Donelson and was thrown under Col. (now General) N. B. Forrest; was captured after the surrender of Donelson on the 16th of February, 1862; made my escape en route from Camp Chase to Sandusky on the 26th of April, 1862; returned South for the purpose of raising a new company and while so engaged was recaptured on the 13th of July, heavily ironed with log chain and ball, transported to this prison, thrown into a cell 6 by 3 feet with my iron fetters on, kicked, cuffed, taunted, jeered and maltreated in every conceivable form. I remained the inmate of this living tomb until my life was despaired of. I was then removed to the hospital where I have remained ever since, denied the privileges of a common culprit, denied a parole, denied an exchange, several of which have left here during my imprisonment. To my demands they have replied by adding insult to injury, in renewed insult and cruelty. I have had to run the gauntlet of every disease which human flesh is heir to-smallpox, measles, mumps, pneumonia; in a word all the ills of Pandora.

Oh! the horrors of this place, the cruelty of my persecutors, tongue cannot tell, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. I have seen thousands of my companions in arms consigned to a premature and untimely grave here by the cruelty and injustice of my enemies, murdered in cold blood in this lazar house of disease and death.

With me “the sands of life are nearly run.” There is but little left now. I rejoice that it was freely offered upon the altar of my country as a last libation to liberty, sacrificed to that country which I so devotedly love, and which I have the proud consciousness of knowing I have faithfully served. Will not that country now interpose her strong arm and rescue me from this charnel house, this living death, and save the little of life left me to my country and family?

Will you abandon me in this dire extremity? Will you leave me to my unhappy fate in the iron hands of my most cruel and unnatural persecutors?

I do not, I cannot believe it. I will not think so meanly of my country. She does not know my wrongs. She cannot have heard of my most foul and unsoldierly treatment.

Oh! my countrymen, how long will you suffer these abuses; how long will you permit your patience to be abused, your forbearance outraged and your humanity scoffed at by these unlettered and unthinking monsters? Act at once and deliver me from worse than death.

How? Demand me under the cartel of exchange; unless surrendered throw into close confinement some influential Yankee officer and hold him as a hostage in pledge for me; make it known to the Federal Government and you will compass my immediate release. Refuse and I am lost. The grave will soon be my end, yet one reflection will illume my tomb and take away the sting of death, the consciousness that I fall a martyr to my country, blessing her with my last sigh in death.

{p.860}

Hear me I adjure you, for my cause, your cause, as sacred a cause as ever brought and bound a people together-the cause of our country and our God. Believing that you will instantly lay my case before the authorities at Richmond and demand that justice so long denied me,

I am, your unfortunate but faithful friend,

J. F. MELTON.

[Indorsement.]

APRIL 22, 1863.

Mr. OULD:

Demand explanation and exchange else I shall feel constrained to set aside an officer of the Federal Army for retaliatory treatment.

J. A. S., Secretary.

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HEADQUARTERS, Columbia, S. C., March 31, 1863.

Brig. Gen. THOMAS JORDAN, Chief of Staff, Charleston, S. C.

GENERAL: In answer to your communication of March 30 desiring to know if the U. S. naval officers who are in confinement at Columbia are in need of money or any assistance from the United States Government I have the honor to forward you the inclosed communication* from F. S. Conover, acting lieutenant-commander.

Your obedient servant,

JNO. S. PRESTON, Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General, Commanding Post.

* Not found; but see p. 823.

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RICHMOND, April 1, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: In the matter of Halleck’s General Orders, No. 49, I have the honor to make the following report:

The cartel of exchange only incidentally treats of the parole of prisoners. The only provisions in it relating to paroles are as follows, to wit:

I see nothing in article 1 of general orders which in any manner conflicts with the cartel.

Articles 2 and 3 are restrictions upon giving paroles. There are no regulations in the cartel as to when paroles may be given or not given.

I do not think that these paragraphs can be said to be in violation of the cartel. They certainly establish a new practice. Is it, however, not within the power of a belligerent in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary to forbid its soldiers from entering into any paroles? These provisions, however, taken in connection with others of the general order are so sweeping that it would not be safe hereafter {p.861} to take any paroles. The only sure course left is to hold at least until an explanation is had.

Article 4 is a penalty for the violation of one branch of the preceding article.

In article 5 it is difficult to understand what General Halleck means by “wholesale paroling.” The first [second] says “none but commissioned officers can give the paroles for themselves or their commands, &c.” The sixth provides that “no non-commissioned officer or private can give his parole except through an officer.” Article 1 [2] forbids any but a commissioned officer from giving paroles for himself or his men and article 6 seems to allow a non-commissioned officer or private to give his parole through an officer.

This discrepancy is complicated by the fifth article which declares that “for the officer the pledging of his parole is an individual act and no wholesale paroling by an officer for a number of inferiors in rank is permitted or valid.” Are these provisions consistent?

Article 6 makes the whole matter still more confused. What is meant by “giving a parole through an officer?” Is it that the officer is to approve it and sign that approval? If so how can lists of paroled prisoners who are about to be sent off be made at the Libby Prison? If it was not for the last clause of the sixth article it might be well supposed that all the provisions of the general order related to paroles given at the time of capture. That clause, however, speaks of “long confinement.” It only allows a private to give his individual parole after he has “suffered long confinement without the possibility of being paroled through an officer.” What is long confinement? According to this clause if he has been at the Libby a short time and no officer is there in confinement he cannot be paroled; moreover is he not according to article 1 compelled to remain a long time in prison until one of his own officers happens to be captured?

Article 7 declares that no prisoner of war can be forced by the hostile Government to pledge his parole, &c. The cartel [article 4] says “all prisoners of war shall be discharged on parole in ten days after their capture.” If the soldier under the injunction of his Government refuse his parole how can we discharge him on parole?

Articles 8, 10, 11 and 12 require no other comment than that the cartel and not the common law of war establishes the terms of the parole and gives the consent of both Governments to those terms.

Article 9 is in clear violation of the cartel. Article 4 of the cartel says:

Although I was only required by your indorsement to report wherein I thought the general order violated the cartel yet I deemed it my duty to make special mention of the foregoing matters in order that I might receive your instructions respecting the same. Had I not better bring the subject to the attention of the Federal agent of exchange, protesting against so much of the general order as is in violation of the cartel and asking explanations of that which is doubtful, ambiguous or contradictory?

With great respect, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.

{p.862}

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RICHMOND, April 2, 1863.

General J. H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.

GENERAL: The Secretary of War has suspended until the 10th instant the sentence of death against Capt. A. C. Webster, of Peirpoint’s army. Please direct the necessary measures in the matter.

Very respectfully,

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., April 3, 1863.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

SIR: Inclosed you will find sundry papers respecting John Carfoot, late prisoner at Salisbury, N. C., of whose detention complaint has been made as you advised this Department by the British consul. The reports of General Winder, commanding the military prison at Salisbury, N. C.; of General Ransom, by whose order Carfoot was sent to Salisbury, and of Mr. Wellford, who at the time of the reception of your letter was engaged in the examination of political prisoners at Salisbury and who was specially instructed to make inquiries into Carfoot’s case, with their inclosures, are respectfully submitted.

For Secretary of War.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

SALISBURY, N. C., January 3, 1863.

Capt. H. MCCOY, Commanding C. S. Prison.

SIR: You will discharge the following-named prisoners in accordance with an order from the Secretary of War viz: Edward Barnes, John Carfoot, John Delaney, Charles Deckwer, James Graham, Henry Knipping, William McKinney, Samuel McLure, James E. Robertson, Daniel Scholly.

By order of General Winder:

W. S. WINDER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure No. 2.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., March 9, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I inclose an unofficial letter from Capt. Samuel B. Waters, C. S. Army, stationed at the C. S. military prison at Salisbury, N. C., in reference to certain prisoners some time since discharged from that prison. Captain Waters’ letter was written in reply to one from myself asking information in reference to these parties, demanded by certain letters forwarded to me during my recent visit to Salisbury, but which not arriving before I had left were returned to me by mail in this city. Information about the Moomans was called for by the Hon. W. R. Staples, of Virginia, and about John Carfoot by the British consul.

Very respectfully, yours,

B. R. WELLFORD, JR.

{p.863}

[Sub-inclosure to Inclosure No. 2.]

HEADQUARTERS C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Salisbury, February 26, 1863.

Mr. B. R. WELLFORD, Jr.

DEAR SIR: Your favor of February 23 duly received and in reply will state that a communication came to these headquarters some time since in regard to the prisoners Mooman. They were exchanged and sent North through [William P.] Wood, the Federal commissioner, on October 28, 1862. In regard to John Carfoot we have no papers whatever. The circumstances of his arrest were these: He was at New Berne at the time of the battle and did not leave when our forces evacuated the place. Some two or three days after he with another party went about three miles from the town to look after some cotton and were arrested by our pickets, who suspected them of endeavoring to get the cotton in the Yankee lines. He was taken before General Ransom and by him sent up here. Afterwards he was examined by Lieutenant Talley and released by the order of the Secretary of War January 3, 1863. He was captured April 7, 1862. During his confinement at this post he was allowed the parole of the grounds. Previous to his arrest and also to the battle of New Berne he was in the employment of the Confederate States as engineer on one of our steamers. Since his release he has been in the employment of the Western North Carolina Railroad Company.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAMUEL B. WATERS, Captain Company A.

The Moomans were sent to Richmond to be exchanged through [William P.] Wood. If they are not now there they were sent on North. You can find it out by inquiry of General Winder. He has the list of the prisoners who were exchanged I suppose.

S. B. W.

[Inclosure No. 3.]

WAR DEPARTMENT. Richmond, Va., March 12, 1863.

Brig. Gen. JOHN H. WINDER.

GENERAL: The Secretary of War is informed by the British consul that John Carfoot reported by you February 3 as having taken the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States denies the fact stated and the Secretary of State asks to be furnished with any evidence in your possession respecting him, with a copy of the oath and an account of the circumstances attending its administration and acceptance. You will give this matter your early attention and communicate the result of your investigation to this Department to be transmitted to the Secretary of State.

By order of the Secretary of War:

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War.

[First indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, March 13, 1863.

Respectfully referred to Captain McCoy, commanding C. S. military prison at Salisbury, N. C., for immediate answer.

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

{p.864}

[Second indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS C. S. MILITARY PRISON, Salisbury, N. C., March 16, 1863.

John Carfoot was discharged from the C. S. military prison at this post January 3, 1863. His discharge was unconditional, he not being required to take any oath whatever, it being by order of the Secretary of War forwarded through Brigadier-General Winder’s headquarters.

H. MCCOY, Captain, Commanding.

[Third indorsement.]

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, March 18, 1863.

Respectfully returned to the honorable Secretary of War with the indorsement of Captain McCoy.

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure No. 4.]

HEADQUARTERS BRIGADE, Camp near Wilmington, N. C., March 13, 1863.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General C. S. Army.

SIR: In reply to letter from the Secretary of War of 10th Instant asking information relative to the arrest and sending to Salisbury, this State, of one John Carfoot I have the honor to state that the man was arrested by our pickets and brought to me. Upon an examination of his case it seemed he either had had or was trying to have communication with the enemy. It was customary In detaining parties for them to be sent by me to department headquarters with a statement of the case and the evidence thereon and the commanding general determined what it was proper to do with them. I was in charge of the outposts and did not take final action in such cases. This statement is from memory. I am certain though that at the time he was sent up the evidence was sufficient for his detention and imprisonment or he would not have been. It has not unfrequently happened that from long delay the evidence in such cases has been lost. I do not remember anything of the man having been employed by our authorities.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. RANSOM, JR., Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure No. 5.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., April 3, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I inclose an unofficial letter this day received from Capt. S. B. Waters, C. S. Army, Salisbury, N. C., in regard to John Carfoot late prisoner at that place respecting whom complaint has been made by the British consul. Captain Waters incloses a written statement of Carfoot showing that he had been previous to his arrest in employment of the Confederate Government.

Very respectfully, yours,

B. R. WELLFORD, JR.

[Sub-inclosure to No. 5.]

SALISBURY, N. C., March 30, 1863.

Mr. B. R. WELLFORD, Jr.

DEAR SIR: Inclosed you will find a written statement In John Carfoot’s own hand which will show you plainly that he was not only in {p.865} the employment of the Confederate States as an engineer but was also employed by our ordnance officer, Major Boone. I had him to write the statement himself in the presence of a witness. It was his own confession that I alluded to in my last letter to you, and if my affidavit is necessary I can give it to that effect. I go to Charleston on some business on Wednesday but will only be gone for a few days. In the meantime should you wish any further information you can write, as it will be but a short time ere I return.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAMUEL B. WATERS, Captain.

[Sub to sub-inclosure to No. 5.]

SALISBURY, N. C., March 28, 1863.

I run as engineer on the steamer North State for Dibble and owned by Dibble & Brothers but employed by the Confederacy; and next I was employed by Major Boone on the repairs of some machinery; and next I run as engineer on the steamer Johnston owned by Pender, also employed by the Confederacy. I was still in Major Boone’s employ while the steamer run on Neuse River, but when we moved down to Fort Macon Captain Devine was our paymaster.

JOHN CARFOOT.

Attest:

his PETER x BOWLIN. mark.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., April 3, 1863.

Maj. Gen. S. G. FRENCH, Petersburg, Va.

GENERAL: Your attention is invited to the inclosed letter with the request that you will cause an early investigation to be made and have the grievances removed if you find that the complaints are well founded.

Your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

[Inclosure.]

PETERSBURG, VA., April 1, 1863.

We the undersigned citizens of Fairfax County, have been confined in the Old Capitol Prison for some four weeks and were sent to Richmond for exchange. We have been at Camp Parole at this place for three days without having anything done in our case and scarcely anything to eat and nothing to sleep [on] or cover with.

Your earliest attention to this will be gratefully received.

Yours, with respect,

F. G. FOX, [And 11 others.]

P. S.-We wish to be sent to Richmond so we can form or join some company on the front.

[Indorsement.]

MODEL FARM, Near Petersburg, April 1, 1863.

DEAR SIR: I was at the camp of the paroled prisoners just now and had an interview with them, and when some of them mentioned you I advised this letter to you, and I beg to add my request that you will interest yourself in their behalf. They have been sufferers.

I am, respectfully,

R. COLLIER.

{p.866}

–––

Resolution of the C. S. House of Representatives adopted April 4, 1863.

Resolved, That a special committee of five be appointed to inquire into and report to this House as early as practicable-

1. What punishment if any in violation of law has been inflicted upon prisoners confined in Castle Thunder; the kind and character of the punishment inflicted by the officers of the prison.

2. How many have been killed, by whom and the circumstances under which they were killed.

3. That the committee have power to send for persons and papers.

–––

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, April 6, 1863.

W. O. TUGGLE, Esq., La Grange, Ga.

SIR: In answer to your letter of the 23d ultimo you are informed that if you were actually in custody as a prisoner after your parole and made your escape from such custody you are entitled to join your command at once; but if you were enjoying liberty under your parole and were merely on your way to a place from which you might more easily reach home and abandoned the officers who were conducting you under an impression that you might be detained there you would be bound by your parole notwithstanding your escape. It is probable that your exchange has been effected ere this as there were no such orders as is represented in your letter.

Respectfully,

JAS. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

–––

MONTEREY, April 6, 1863.

Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, Richmond.

SIR: Herewith you will find duplicate copies of the correspondence* between General Bee and Governor Lopez, of Tamaulipas (marked A, B, C and D), in regard to the parties abducted at the mouth of the Rio Grande on the 15th ultimo and reporting their return to the right bank of the river. E. J. Davis and three others, all that have come into General Bee’s possession and of whom he could obtain some information, are now in Matamoras. I hope that no serious consequences will ensue and that amicable relations will be continued. No news from the interior of Mexico.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

J. A. QUINTERO.

* See Series I, Vol. XV, pp. 1128-1132.

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TARBOROUGH, EDGECOMBE COUNTY, N. C., April 7, 1863.

Mr. SECRETARY.

SIR: I write you a few lines asking you how a paroled prisoner is to know when he is exchanged for certain. Does the Richmond Enquirer give all the notices or not? Or where the enrolling officer gets his authority from. My sons were taken prisoners and I want to be certain of the exchange before they go back. I have asked some men and there seems to be a difference of opinion about it. I {p.867} also ask if they can leave the infantry and go to the artillery or not when they are exchanged, for one of my sons is not able to march. You will please to answer me soon. Direct your letter to Tarborough, N. C., Edgecombe County.

Yours, most obediently,

WILLIAM COKER.

[First indorsement.]

Notices are published in the newspapers and in general orders.

[Second indorsement.]

A publication is made in the Richmond papers of the exchanges which take place. All North Carolina prisoners taken prior to orders have been exchanged.

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HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA, Jack-son, April 7, 1863.

Maj. Gen. C. L. STEVENSON, Commanding, &c., Vicksburg.

GENERAL: The lieutenant-general commanding directs me to send you the inclosed copies* of communications from the War Department and to say that he regrets that the tenor of your correspondence with Admiral Porter was not in accordance with his instructions; that hereafter your communications with the enemy will be guided by the considerations set forth in the indorsement of the President.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

* See Series I, Vol. XXIV, Part III, p. 696.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, April 8, 1863.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON, Commanding, &c., Jackson, Miss.

GENERAL: Your letter of 26th ultimo asking instructions in regard to a negro captured on the U. S. steamer Mississippi has been received. In answer you are respectfully informed that the negro can be put to work in any of the workshops of the Government or on the fortifications or in any manner that may be regarded by you as advisable. The Department has determined that negroes captured will not be regarded as prisoners of war.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Richmond, April 8, 1863.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR.

SIR: I am directed by the President to forward for your attention and the proper action the following copy of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant:

Inclosed please find the letters referred to.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BURTON N. HARRISON, Private Secretary.

[Inclosure.]

JOHNSON’S ISLAND MILITARY PRISON, Year Sandusky City, Ohio, March 3, 1863.

Hon. H. S. FOOTE, Member of Congress, Richmond, Va.

DEAR SIR: Inclosed you will find a letter from Lieut. John W. Dunnington, C. S. Navy, which I hope will receive your kind consideration. Though a stranger to you I address you this letter hoping to interest you in my behalf that justice may be done myself and the Confederate Government, to which I claim allegiance and of which I expect protection. I am a Tennesseean, a citizen of the Confederate States and a surgeon in the army. I was appointed surgeon of the Ninth Battalion of Tennessee Cavalry, commanded by Lieut. Col. George Gantt, of Columbia, Tenn. The Ninth Battalion was mustered into the State service the last of November, 1861, and was transferred to the Confederate service between the 1st and middle of December, 1861. Lieutenant-Colonel Gantt’s battalion was at Fort Donelson and was included in the surrender which took place February 16, 1862, after which I was held a prisoner for four months, then unconditionally released as a surgeon. I went to my home near Columbia, Maury County, Tenn., where I remained a short time and then procuring the required passes, &c., I proceeded South to rejoin the army, &c. I had no trouble whatever until I arrived at the headquarters of General McCook (since killed) who commanded at Battle Creek. Upon examining my pass he consented for me to proceed, but after delaying some time caused me to be arrested and returned to Huntsville, Ala. From there I was sent to Camp Chase and from there to this island.

For seven long dreary months I have been an occupant of either guard-house or prison, an innocent sufferer. I have done nothing to justify the treatment I am receiving and I think certainly my Government is not aware of the outrage. I have appealed to the authorities at Washington time and again but all to no purpose. So far I have been denied either an exchange or release, the latter of which is due every surgeon as they are non-combatants and so far as I am aware is extended by our authorities to all Federal surgeons. My treatment would have been intolerable did I not have the pleasing satisfaction of knowing that General McCook who ordered my arrest has gone to reap the reward of his doings-a reward richly deserved by him and all others engaged like him in this unholy nigger war. Several gentlemen have left here on exchange who promised faithfully to represent the outrageous conduct of the Lincoln Government in disregarding previous agreements, &c. (in holding surgeons as prisoners, of which I am the unfortunate subject and sufferer), but they have failed to comply with their promise, which was a duty they owed their Government, or else the authorities at Richmond have disregarded the report and thereby neglected their duty in allowing a citizen and soldier of the Confederate States to be grossly imposed upon. I appeal to you as a Representative of Tennessee to use every means in your power for my release from prison. Urge upon the authorities an immediate demand {p.869} for my immediate exchange as the treatment I am receiving is unjust. Having every confidence that you will give a son of Tennessee your aid,

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JO. E. DIXON, Surgeon, Provisional Army, C. S.

[Sub-inclosure.]

JOHNSON’S ISLAND MILITARY PRISON, Near Sandusky, Ohio, February 16, 1863.

Hon. H. S. FOOTE, Member of Congress, Richmond, Va.

SIR: You will excuse me for addressing you this letter when I state it is to claim your assistance and aid in getting released from this prison a much wronged Tennesseean, Dr. J. E. Dixon, of Maury County. Doctor Dixon was the surgeon of Col. George Gantt’s battalion, C. S. Army, and taken a prisoner at Fort Donelson a year ago this month. After a short imprisonment he was released to go South, a pass being given him through the Federal lines. He went to Maury County to see his family and there the Federal officer in command indorsed his permit and passed him through his lines. He had no trouble until he reached General McCook’s army at Huntsville. He showed his pass to General McCook who at first gave him permission to go South but soon after caused him to be arrested and placed in prison. He was shortly after sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, and from there to this place. He has been confined since July last, no charges being made against him. He was arrested with this pass in his possession. Although there have frequently been prisoners sent South for exchange he has never been permitted to go and sees no hope of getting away from this place. As he is a regular Confederate officer taken at the surrender of Fort Donelson he certainly is entitled to the protection and care of his Government, and I beg you as a matter of justice to a son of Tennessee and as a personal favor to me to insist that the Government demand his exchange at once. As I-am but slightly acquainted with you and probably unremembered, I will state that I am a brother of F. C. Dunnington.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. W. DUNNINGTON, Colonel, Provisional Army, C. S., Prisoner of War.

–––

PRISON BOAT, Aquia, April 8, 1863.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I learn that Capt. Stephen Chester, of the Engineer Corps, Fifteenth New York, was arrested about two months since on the banks of the Rappahannock and is now in the Libby Prison, Richmond City. Since his confinement he has had lost or stolen from him his coat and all the money he had with him, about $200, and is in a state of destitution and want. These facts are given me by his brother, of General Berry’s staff, who as judge-advocate under a military commission has shown me as much kindness as is consistent with his duty. I feel it due to him as well as to the cause of humanity to acquaint you with these facts and to solicit an interest in behalf of Captain Chester. If advisable or proper I most respectfully ask that he be included in the next list of exchange for an officer of equal rank or such equivalents as may be agreed upon. Otherwise I hope it may accord with your views of propriety to allow his friends through any safe channel you may designate to send him such supplies of money or clothing as he may need. {p.870} Any communication respecting this matter addressed to Capt. William H. Chester, assistant inspector-general, care of General Berry, will receive immediate attention and be thankfully received.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. A. CLAYBROOK.

P. S.-My prison life here will close I hope now in a few days.

R. A. C.

[Indorsement.]

OFFICE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, Richmond, April 25, 1863.

Respectfully returned.

Capt. Stephen Chester, U. S. Army, Engineer Corps, Fifteenth New York Regiment, was sent North via City Point and flag-of-truce boat April 23, 1863.

RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.

–––

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHERN VIRGINIA, Petersburg, April 9, 1863.

Hon. J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

DEAR SIR: On the receipt of your letter which I return that you may at a glance have the whole matter before you I directed Maj. W. H. Ker, adjutant-general’s department, to proceed to the Model Farm Barracks and investigate the alleged grievance. On the back of the letter you will find his report.

I have a great deal of trouble with these prisoners. Those that are not in service cannot be supplied with clothing until they are conscripted and mustered into service.

These men have the same clothing to protect them now that they have had ever since they left the prisons in the United States, and cannot be worse off with fires in the barracks than they were en route to this place.

Money paid to pettifogging lawyers I apprehend has often had something to do with the numerous complaints that come before you.

You may remember that the militia were called out and after all the trouble of mustering them into service and when the expense had been incurred and when they were rendering good service in guarding the paroled prisoners you caused them to be discharged, thus requiring me to take old soldiers from the field to relieve them.

That you may see the patriotism and influence that may have induced men to appeal to you for their discharge I inclose you a copy of a letter from the captain of the militia. You will perceive that Mr. Collier was hired to get you to discharge them.

He is also their agent to get them their pay and I am told by the captain has the power of attorney to draw it for many of them.

I have the honor to be, yours, respectfully,

S. G. FRENCH, Major-General.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

PETERSBURG, VA., April 8, 1863.

Maj. Gen. S. G. FRENCH, Commanding, &c., Petersburg.

GENERAL: I have investigated the matters referred to in the within letter and submit the following report:

J. N. Mills, A. B. Williams, G. W. Cook and Richard Richardson have been discharged; the other signers of the letter are retained at {p.871} the Model Farm [Barracks] for enrollment as conscripts. They receive the same rations as other soldiers but are without bed-clothing.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. H. KER, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure No. 2.]

PETERSBURG, April 9, 1863.

Maj. Gen. S. G. FRENCH.

SIR: In answer to the inquiry whether or not the men of my company agreed to pay Mr. R. R. Collier for procuring their discharge from the service I will say that many of them did inform me that they had done so. The sums they agreed to pay I do not know.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN BATTE, Captain Company A, Militia.

–––

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 76.}

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Tullahoma, April 9, 1863.

...

IV. The general commanding has been informed that a free and unrestricted intercourse with prisoners of war has been allowed to the officers and soldiers of this army and citizens. This practice is most pernicious to the well-being and discipline of the Army. Such intercourse will not hereafter be allowed except upon written permission.

...

By command of General Bragg:

GEO. WM. BRENT, Assistant Adjutant-General.

–––

CONSULATE OF FRANCE AT RICHMOND, Richmond, April 10, 1863.

Hon. W. M. BROWNE, Assistant Secretary of State, Richmond.

SIR: I have received with the letter of the 5th of this month which you have done me the honor to write three copies of the supplementary report of the Secretary of War relative to the exchange of prisoners between the Government of the Confederate States and that of the United States. I thank you for sending the documents, which in conformity to the desire which you have verbally expressed to me will be transmitted by me to the Department of Foreign Affairs at Paris.

I beg you, sir, to accept the assurances of the high consideration of your very humble and very obedient servant,

ALFRED PAUL.

–––

Treatment of Prisoners in Castle Thunder, Richmond, Va.

Evidence taken before the Committee of the House of Representatives of the Confederate States appointed to inquire into the treatment of prisoners at Castle Thunder.

SATURDAY, April 11, 1863.

WILLIAM CAUSEY sworn:

J. F. SCHAFFER sworn:

{p.873}

ROBERT B. CROW sworn:

T. G. BLAND sworn:

Captain Alexander here suggested that the witnesses be kept separate from the witness delivering his testimony as customary in proceedings of the kind before the committee. The chairman of the committee said he judged the witnesses present were all honorable men and would not suffer their own ideas to be influenced by the testimony of a witness. He, however, yielded the point and all the witnesses except the one under investigation were sent from the committee room.

Mr. BLAND resumed:

JOHN CAPHART sworn:

MONDAY, April 13, 1863.

The examination of witnesses was resumed.

JOHN CAPHART, detective, was recalled to the stand.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. Mr. Caphart, how many years of your life were you connected with prisons before you came with me?

Question. How does my treatment of prisoners compare with what you have seen in other prisons?

Question. Do you think you ever saw a worse set in any jail?

Question. They chain men down in jails then do they?

Question. You have been eleven months with me as commandant of Castle Thunder post; what is my manner and demeanor toward the prisoners?

{p.875}

Question. Have you not seen persons who came to the Castle spit upon by the prisoners from the windows and the sentinels cursed and abused?

Question: When prisoners are brought in under arrest and I am present, do I not attempt to discriminate and instruct the officers to separate and classify them and assign them different quarters according to their appearance or offense?

Question. Do you know anything of the plot gotten up among the prisoners to assassinate me and other officers, set the board yard [fence] on fire and liberate the prisoners?

Question. And [after] all this when Webster was afterwards condemned to death what was my conduct toward him?

Question (by Mr. WARD, counsel for Captain Alexander). Mr. Caphart, tell the committee how James Tyree was treated by the prisoners when first put into the Castle.

Question (by the COMMITTEE). How many more cases of this kind do you know about?

Captain ALEXANDER. That was a case of murder outright.

Question (by Mr. WARD). Did you ever see more lenient treatment by the captain of such incorrigible prisoners?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). You say the prisoners are dangerous to each other and visitors?

Question. How many do the guards number?

Question. Did you ever know visitors to the prison to be attacked?

Question: How long since were the prisoners so desperate?

{p.876}

Question. Were some of the men whipped brought from the room from whence the beef bones were hurled?

Question. What for?

Question. How did you know they were the men?

Question. How many men were brought out to be whipped?

Question. Were these men whipped for fighting?

Question. How do you know they were the right men?

Question. How many prisoners were beaten in that fracas?

Question. Do you know the provocation for the fight, and was it inquired into?

Question. How many rooms are there in the prison?

Captain ALEXANDER (to the committee). We get so accustomed to the men received at Castle Thunder that we know their character as soon as they come in and are thus guided in our disposition of them.

Mr. WARD (counsel for Captain Alexander, to the committee). Men are often received from the commanding officer of a company accompanied by an order running something like this:

Captain ALEXANDER. Such irresponsible orders are never observed nor followed out, though.

Question (by the COMMITTEE). Was the whipping referred to by order of General Winder?

WILLIAM CAUSEY, detective, was recalled to the stand.

By the COMMITTEE:

Question. Do you know anything about prisoners who were whipped; and if so, whether they were Confederate volunteers?

Question. Do you know what was their crime?

{p.877}

Question. Did not you hear something about a row among the prisoners?

Question. How long have you been a detective?

Question. Up to the time you left were the prisoners there all Confederate volunteers?

Question. Were there any Yankee prisoners there?

Question. What is Caphart’s character as an officer?

Question. In his general deportment toward the prisoners is he humane or otherwise?

Question. From the tenor of his remarks would you suppose he would be gratified rather than humiliated at the chastisement of a soldier?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Causey, don’t you think Caphart a good officer and detective?

Question. Did you ever hear Caphart exult over a man whom he thought was punished properly or justly?

Question. From his conversation did you think he thought the men were justly punished?

Question. Did you ever hear him express any regrets that they were whipped?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Do you know whether the prisoners whipped were Yankees or Confederate volunteers?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Have you been in the habit of visiting the prisoners?

Question. Did you see the men whipped?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). How many lashes were given them, and did you hear the sentence of the court-martial?

Question. Where was the whipping done?

{p.878}

Question. On what part of the body was the lash laid on?

Question. Did you see any prisoners tied up?

Question. Did you ever knock a prisoner down?

Question. Did you ever strike a prisoner?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). What is Captain Alexander’s treatment of the prisoners generally?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Do you know what provocation the captain had in thus speaking?

Question. What was his language?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Did not the prisoners refuse to be put back sometimes and resist-so much so as to require the exercise of force?

J. F. SCHAFFER, detective, was recalled to the stand.

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. What is the deportment of Caphart toward prisoners?

Question. Did you ever see men tied up by the thumbs?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Did you ever examine to see by which they were tied, the thumbs or the wrists?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). For what offenses were those you saw tied up?

Question. Do you remember on a certain occasion when eight or ten men were whipped?

Question. Is Caphart’s conduct toward prisoners abusive?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Mr. Schaffer, don’t you think Caphart as good an officer as there is on the force?

{p.879}

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Who is the most passionate of the two, Causey or Caphart?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). Is Caphart kind and humane toward the prisoners or the reverse?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). You know him to be a kind husband and father don’t you?

ROBERT B. CROW, detective, was recalled to the stand.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. You know Caphart?

Question. What is his general disposition; is he kind?

Question. Did you ever hear him express any regrets for punishment inflicted upon soldiers?

Question. Does he treat them roughly or kindly?

Question. Without provocation?

Question. How many prisoners are usually confined in the Castle?

Question. How often is it found necessary to punish the prisoners?

Question. Is it necessary to flog them as often as once a week? As often as once a fortnight?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN). What is Captain Alexander’s conduct among the prisoners under his charge?

Question. Have you seen him rough without provocation?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Don’t you know that the captain has an excited manner and when he swears like a sailor oftentimes he does not mean anything?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Did you ever, Mr. Crow, regret a punishment you saw inflicted on a prisoner at the Castle and thought it was wrong?

{p.880}

Question. Have not you, Crow, exulted over the seizure of liquor from poor women at the depots when you caught them smuggling it into the city?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN). Did you see the whipping of a man for knocking the eye out of another man?

Question. Was it a powerful man who laid the blows on?

Question. Was the thong made of heavy leather?

Question. Was the man whipped tried by the court-martial or was he lashed by Captain Alexander’s order alone?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Mr. Crow, do you like Caphart?

Question. Haven’t you had a quarrel with him?

T. G. BLAND was recalled to the stand.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. Do you know Caphart?

Question. What is his general conduct toward the prisoners?

Question. Did you ever hear him express regrets at their harsh treatment?

Question. Did he exult over it or appear gratified?

Question. How long have you known Caphart?

Question. Were you present at the whipping of the two prisoners referred to by the other witnesses?

Question. Who did the whipping?

Question. The prisoners you saw whipped, were they Confederate soldiers?

Question. Do you know anything of the case of George Wright, a deranged prisoner?

Question. What is Captain Alexander’s treatment of prisoners under his charge?

Question. With or without provocation?

Question. Were you ever in the room where the prisoners are confined?

Question. Did the prisoners ever assault or throw beef bones at you?

Question. Did you ever see them throw beef bones at anybody?

Question. How many prisoners do you know to have been killed at the Castle?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Mr. Bland, is there not a place in the Castle called the “sick bay,” where the warden puts the prisoners who need to be examined by time surgeon?

Question. Is it not the duty of the surgeon to look after these sick cases and have them removed to the hospital?

Question. Have you not made threats of personal violence toward me?

Question. Don’t you know the cause of Wright’s dementedness or insanity?

Question. When you were put in the cell by my order were you not possessed of a candle and a bottle of whisky?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Was the cell not naturally lighted?

Question. Do you not harbor an animosity against Captain Alexander?

{p.882}

GEORGE W. THOMAS sworn.

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. Mr. Thomas, state what you know concerning the treatment of prisoners in Castle Thunder and any other circumstances bearing on this investigation.

Question. Is in your opinion the conduct of the officials toward the prisoners humane and kind?

Question. On what occasion was that?

Question. Where did Captain Alexander receive his orders for the punishment of the prisoners?

Question. How often were the prisoners put out into that yard?

Question. Had they any blankets?

Question. Was there any covering to the yard to shelter them from the storm?

Question. What is your duty in connection with the prison?

Question. Are all of the prisoners without blankets?

Question. Are there any benches or seats in the prison rooms?

Question. Have you seen men whipped there?

Question. Was the punishment inflicted by order of General Winder?

Question. What other kind of punishment did you ever see inflicted there? Did you ever see prisoners wearing barrel shirts?

Question. Did you ever see men tied up by the thumbs?

{p.883}

Question. Have you known men to be killed there?

Question. Do you know the circumstances?

Question. Do you think the men shot and shot at could not have been recaptured without shooting?

Question. Do you know of any cases of whipping at the prison?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Thomas, do you think I am a cruel man?

TUESDAY, April 14, 1863.

GEORGE W. THOMAS was recalled.

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. Do you know anything of Caphart?

Question. Is he kind and humane?

Question. Do you think his rough deportment natural with him?

Question. Does he seem to regret the punishment of any prisoner?

Question. Have you ever heard him regret or exult over the punishment of any prisoner?

Question. If Caphart had been kind to them do you think they would throw beef bones at him?

Question. How are the prisoners clad generally?

{p.884}

Question. Was sufficient clothing obtained in that way to clothe all the destitute prisoners?

Question. Have you seen a prisoner with more than one suit of clothing?

Question. Do you know such a man as George Wright, once a prisoner in the Castle?

Question. Do you know anything of a deranged Yankee prisoner who was brought from the Libby Prison to the Castle and shot in attempting to escape?

Captain ALEXANDER. No, Mr. Chairman, I was not at the Castle at that time.

Question. What officer received him?

Question. Was it not the duty of the officer who received him to notify all that he was deranged?

Question. Have you seen barrel shirts worn by the prisoners?

Question. When soldiers are arrested on the street and taken to the Castle is it customary for an examination to be made into the charges against them?

Question. Then you put them all in among the “wharf rats” of New Orleans and the “plug uglies” of Baltimore?

Question. Are not a great many soldiers taken up and confined there who have merely overstaid their furlough?

{p.885}

Question. You turn the prisoners all in together; the desperadoes with the inoffensive soldiers?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Mr. Thomas, have I anything in the world to do with the clothing of prisoners?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Have you been in the Army; are not the prisoners in Castle Thunder clothed and fed as well as the soldiers now in the Army?

Question. Has not Captain Alexander exerted himself to clothe the more destitute of them?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). Do you know Mr. Bland?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Is Bland a drinking man?

Question (by Mr. WARD). If prisoners were put in Caphart’s charge do you think he would beat them if they would go along quietly and peaceably?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Don’t you think there are as hard cases here as anywhere else?

STEPHEN B. CHILDREY sworn:

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. What is your position at prison?

Question. What is the general treatment of the prisoners confined there?

Question. Did you ever see any whipping there without the authority of a court-martial?

Question. What is the general deportment of the officers toward the prisoners; is it kind?

Question. What is the necessity or excuse for rough language?

Question. You have never seen any whipping, then?

{p.886}

Question. Seen any other kind of punishment inflicted?

Question. Do you know of any prisoners being killed there?

Question. Do you think it was absolutely necessary to shoot this man to have recaptured him?

Question. Was the man outside of the building when fired upon and killed?

Question. Do you know anything about a crazy man who was shot in attempting to escape?

Question. Do you know anything about the case of George Wright, a prisoner, and his condition when sent to the hospital?

Question. In what condition was he when removed to the hospital?

Question (by Mr. WARD). You are the commissary of the prison are you not?

Question. And as such you came in contact with the prisoners a great deal?

Question. From your knowledge what is the character of the prisoners, or some of them?

Question. Did they ever make threats toward you?

Question. You know about the clothing collected by Captain Alexander for the use of prisoners?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). Do you know anything about the whipping at the prison?

Question. Do you know anything about the shooting of prisoners?

{p.887}

Question. Who gave the order to shoot the prisoners?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Mr. Childrey, do you consider me a cruel man?

Question. How many poor women am I now feeding from the milk obtained at the Castle?

Question. Did I not start a hospital and place my wife in it to attend to the sick and wounded?

Question. And did the Government ever pay me one cent for my money expended?

BALDWIN T. ALLEN sworn.

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. What is your position at Castle Thunder?

Question. What is the treatment of the prisoners?

Question. Does Captain Alexander and the other officers speak kindly or roughly to the prisoners?

Question. Have you seen whipping there without order of a court-martial?

Question. Do you know that General Winder gave the order or not?

Question. Did you ever see any whipping?

Question. Have you seen persons receive six, eight and ten lashes?

Question. Were the men you saw whipped Confederate prisoners and soldiers of the Confederate service?

Question. Were any of them Confederate soldiers?

Question. Do you know anything about the killing of some prisoners?

{p.888}

Question. Have you seen men wear barrel jackets?

Question. Have you known prisoners to be put out in the prison yard without fire or shelter in cold weather?

Question. How long did they remain there?

Question. Any other instance?

Question. You say you found out they were suffering. Suppose you had not taken them in promptly what do [you] think would have been the consequences?

Question. Of those placed in the yard last fall do you know of any who were taken sick afterwards?

Question. Did you ever see men tied up by the thumbs?

Question. What was their offense?

Question. Were they Confederate prisoners?

Question. Who was one?

Question. Have you seen men bucked there?

Question. What was their crime?

Question. Did you ever see the hands of any of the men tied up black from the stagnation of the blood in them?

Question. Did you ever see men handcuffed and their hands bloody from the effects of the tying up?

Question (by Mr. WARD). You are the warden?

Question. What is the character of some of the men confined there?

{p.889}

Question. Are not all picked up and put together in these rooms appropriated to the prisoners.

Question. Have you seen prisoners there with one suit on constantly?

Question. Is it a rare or common case for the prisoners to be whipped?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). They say you let George Wright lay for two weeks in the prison room sick without attending to his wants?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). I handle a great many prisoners do I not, but whipping is comparatively rare?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Are not the prisoners in the Castle constantly changing?

Doctor LUNDAY sworn.

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. State to the committee what you know of the condition and treatment of prisoners at Castle Thunder.

(Captain Alexander here explained that he had used the expression “killed ten men” in a jocose manner in response to Doctor Lunday’s remarks.)

WEDNESDAY, April 15, 1863.

The examination of witnesses for the Government was resumed.

J. T. KIRBY sworn:

{p.890}

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. State what you know about the treatment of the inmates of the prison.

CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE. Go on and give your testimony in your own way.

Question. Is Captain Alexander kind?

Question. What is the character of his usual intercourse with prisoners?

Question. On what charge are you confined?

Question. What is Captain Alexander’s treatment of the other prisoners under his charge?

Question. Relate what instances you know of sentences not being carried out.

{p.891}

Question. Did you ever see any Confederate soldiers whipped there?

Question. Without the order of a court-martial?

Question. What other kinds of punishment have you seen inflicted?

Question. How long do they remain bucked?

Question. Have you seen men wear barrel shirts?

Question. Is the punishment of the shirt severe?

Question. Have you seen any thumbing?

Question. How many hours have you known them to remain in that condition?

Question. Did you ever examine to see if any blood was drawn by the cord?

Question. What was the crime?

Question. Are the foregoing all the instances you know of?

Question. How many prisoners were put into time yard on one occasion?

Question. How long did they remain there?

Question. Were any of them sick afterwards?

Question. Did Captain Alexander give an order to have a fire built in the yard?

{p.892}

Question. How many days were they kept there?

Question. Were any men shot at the prison?

Question. Are there any female prisoners?

Question. Do you know anything of their treatment?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Mr. Kirby, where are you from?

Question. What were you sent from that room for?

Question. Then you were put out of the citizens’ room last Friday?

Question. You have a good room and a good bed?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). You say I didn’t carry out the sentence of Leary who was condemned to wear ball and chain?

Question. Did not you yourself petition the President for his reprieve? And did not you sit down in my office and write a letter to the President for Leary concerning his case? And did I not allow you to receive your meals from the hotels and faro banks and gave you many privileges not enjoyed by the other prisoners?

Question. You say Mr. Allen’s treatment of the prisoners is inhuman?

Question (by the COMMITTEE). What is your opinion of Caphart?

Question. Do you find prisoners like kind and humane officers?

Question. Do you know Mr. Bland?

Question. Do you know about the case of George Wright?

{p.893}

Question. Are you as a prisoner allowed to see persons from without the prison?

Question. What became of the letter?

Captain ALEXANDER. Mr. Chairman, shall I send to General Winder’s and get it? The letter is on file there.

Mr. WARD. There is an order from General Winder that all communications from the prison shall go through his office. Accordingly all letters from the prisoners are put in a box and taken up to General Winder daily.

Question (by the COMMITTEE). What did you come here for, Mr. Kirby?

Question. Was that business made known on your arrival here?

Question. Are the authorities aware of your arrest?

JOHN SHEHAN sworn.

By the COMMITTEE:

Question. You are a prisoner at the Castle and a Confederate soldier?

Question. What is the treatment of the prisoners generally at the Castle?

Question. How many lashes were laid on?

Question. Have you seen any bucking there?

Question. Have you seen prisoners tied up by the thumbs?

Question. What about the prisoners put out into the yards?

Question. Have you seen any men shot there?

{p.894}

Question. Could he not have been captured without shooting?

Question. Was there any investigation into the shooting?

Question. Have you got a cell or “sweat house” for the solitary confinement of prisoners?

Question. What were you put in the cell for?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). You are a sailor are you not, Shehan?

Question. Is it not my habit to treat prisoners kindly?

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). What is Captain Alexander’s deportment toward prisoners?

Question. You know Caphart?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Has my conduct been kind?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Have I not a great deal to provoke and make me angry?

CHARLOTTE GILMAN sworn:

Question. What are you in prison for?

Question. What is the general treatment of the prisoners?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Did I not go to General Winder and get an order for your washing?

WILLIAM CAMPBELL Sworn:

I have seen no cruelty on the part of Captain Alexander toward the prisoners. I think I am the only one who ever suffered. I was among the number put into the {p.895} yard. I was also bucked and put in the yard. The charge against me is desertion. I am from Louisiana.

Question. Have you been tried by court-martial?

Question. How long have you been in prison?

THURSDAY, April 16, 1863.

The examination of witnesses was resumed.

V. T. CRAWFORD sworn:

Question (by the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE). Did Captain Alexander obstruct your intercourse with the prisoners?

Question-Did he know your visits were professional ones?

Question. Were not some of your clients citizens?

Question. Do you know anything else bearing on the subject before the committee?

Question. Did Miller pay Mr. Ward?

Mr. WARD (to the committee). I deny the statement Mr. Crawford has made. He called on me on one occasion and desired that I should solicit practice for him, or in other words take advantage of my position to drum up clients for him at the Castle. He said he understood {p.896} such a procedure was customary at the Richmond bar and offered to give me half of the proceeds of such a joint operation. I told him I would not be a party to any such arrangement; that it was unprofessional, and that a party who stooped to it would most certainly lose standing and position at the bar. I did say that in case Mr. Crawford was inquired for I would notify him of it.

DENNIS O’CONNOR sworn:

By the COMMITTEE:

Question. How were you treated while there?

Question. Who arrested you?

Question. Did Captain Alexander find out the guilty parties?

Question. Had the prisoners any fire in the yard?

Question. Did you see any other whipping there?

Question. They were whipped because the coat could not be found?

Question. How many lashes did they strike each?

Question. Have you seen any men bucked there?

Question. Is bucking severe?

{p.897}

Question. Do you know of any men being killed there?

Question. Do prisoners who are confined in the sweat room suffer much?

Question. When arrested were you taken before the provost-marshal or to the Castle?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). I had your brother Thomas there once, O’Connor; what was my treatment of him?

Question. Are not all the prisoners glad to see me when I come among them?

MARION C. RIGGS sworn.

By the CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE:

Question. What is your position at the Castle, Mr. Riggs?

Question. What is the deportment of Captain Alexander toward the prisoners confined there?

Question. Have you seen men whipped there?

Question. What number of lashes did they receive?

Question. Did you see any bucking done there?

Question. Do you know of any men dying there after being taken out?

Question. The sweat house-do you know of men being confined there?

Question. What is bucking? Describe it.

{p.898}

Question. Were any men shot there?

Question. What was Captain Alexander’s deportment then? Did he seem to regret it?

Question. What was the man’s name; was he a Confederate soldier?

Question. Was there an investigation into the shooting?

Question. Did Captain Alexander give orders to shoot men attempting to escape?

Question. Did you hear any regrets expressed among the officers for the shooting of this man?

Question. Was it known that he was deranged?

Question. What is the general character of Caphart? Is he kind?

Question. What of Allen? Is he kind and humane?

Question. Is there any difficulty in managing prisoners?

Question. Do you think they would be insubordinate if kindly treated?

Question. Are you connected with the prison now?

Question. Do you know at whose instance you were discharged?

Question. Are persons allowed to see prisoners?

Question. Do you know of obstacles being thrown in the way of attorneys wishing to see clients?

{p.899}

Question. Do you consider Allen cruel?

Question. Do you regard Captain Alexander as cruel?

Question. Do you know of any cases where the captain has taken the responsibility of remitting the sentences of court-martial?

Question. Hear of any complaints about food?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). What are the characters of the prisoners confined there?

The guilty were afterwards whipped by orders from headquarters, General Winder’s.

My position was on the same floor with the mass of prisoners.

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). What is the cry when a new prisoner enters?

Question (by Mr. WARD). Has Captain Alexander been kind to you and the other officers?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Do you think I am unkind?

Question (by the COMMITTEE). When Captain Alexander sent the prisoners into the yard was it done by order of General Winder?

Question. Was it in the newspapers?

Question. Do you think Captain Alexander by nature a cruel man?

Question. What do the prisoners think of Captain Alexander?

Capt. CYRUS BOSSIEUX sworn.

By the COMMITTEE:

Question. You are stationed at the prison are you?

Question. What punishments have been inflicted there in violation of law?

{p.900}

Question. Have you seen any tied up by the thumbs?

Question. Do you know Riggs?

Question. Do the prisoners like him?

Question. Do you know Caphart?

Question. Do you know of any men shot there?

Question. Were these orders from the captain?

Question. Is there any necessity of shooting deranged men?

Question. Did you ever hear of orders to time guard by the military commandant of prisoners to kill them were they to put their heads out of the windows?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). The night that Riggs and Dillard had the fight Riggs says I was drunk; was he not drunk or under the influence of liquor?

Question. Do you think I am a cruel man?

Question. I have sometimes hard cases to deal with?

Question. Has the captain no disposition to be cruel?

Question. Nor Caphart?

Question. Ever see Allen drunk?

Question. How many times have you seen Riggs drunk?

Question. Did he get mania a potu?

{p.901}

HENRY EDENBOROUGH sworn.

By the COMMITTEE:

Question. What are you?

Question. Do you know of any soldiers put in as comfortable quarters as you occupied?

Question. Then it depends on general appearance and conduct how treated?

Question. Did the Secretary of War order your release?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Do you think me a cruel man?

Question. Did you ever see Riggs drunk?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Have you been offered a position in the Confederate Army?

Question (by the COMMITTEE). Then you consider the punishments at Castle Thunder humane in the highest degree?

Question. Would you take it as a mild punishment to be stripped naked and whipped upon the bare back without the order of a court-martial?

Question. Is that all you know?

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 1863.

JOHN ADAMS sworn:

{p.902}

By the COMMITTEE:

Question. What was your treatment there?

Question. How were you fed?

Question. Were your wrists tied tight then?

Question. Were you ever before a court-martial?

Question. Are your thumbs swollen from the tying up?

Question. Have you seen parties whipped without the authority of a court-martial?

Question. How many lashes did they receive?

Question. Has his general deportment been such that you consider him cruel and inhuman?

Question. Do you know anything about the shooting of men at the Castle?

Question. Was that by order of Captain Alexander?

Question. Do you know Caphart?

Question. Did you ever see Mr. Allen drunk?

Question. Do you know Riggs?

{p.903}

Question. Do you know prisoners who like Captain Alexander?

Question. Do you think if Riggs had commanded there you would hear of any fighting or throwing of bones?

Question (by Mr. WARD). When you were tied up by the thumbs did you not ask me to let you down?

Question. Wasn’t the rope around your wrists and thumbs and over the nail and not around your thumbs?

Question. What about your attempt to bribe the guard?

FRIDAY, April 24, 1863.

The testimony for the defense was commenced. Mr. Farrar, M. D., made a statement of facts that fell under his notice while visiting the Castle in the capacity of one of the medical committee appointed to inspect the sanitary condition of the prisons and hospitals. The impression made upon his mind was that every care was taken of the prisoners that it was possible to take. This feature and the well ordered condition of everything about the prison was remarked by all the committee.

Capt. JACKSON WARNER, assistant quartermaster and assistant commissary, sworn.

Question. How long have you known Captain Alexander?

Question. Did you ever see him intoxicated?

Question. What do you think of his treatment of prisoners?

Question. Did you ever see him treat a prisoner roughly?

Question. What are your ideas of the management of the prison?

Question. How long have you known Captain Alexander?

Question. Do you know any instances where Captain Alexander showed kindnesses to prisoners?

{p.904}

Question. In what room was he confined?

Question. Do you know anything in regard to the case [waste] of Government property?

WILLIAM F. WATSON, C. S. commissioner, sworn.

Captain ALEXANDER. Judge, some complaints have been made of my treatment of lawyers coming to the Castle on business. You have been there frequently; tell the committee how you were treated and how I deal with the profession.

Question. Do you regard time captain as a cruel maim?

Question. Do you think Captain Alexander a man not to be swayed from his purpose?

Question. Do you think the prisoners could be managed better under a milder or kinder man?

JOHN DE BUTTS. M. D., sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. Have I not told you, doctor, that your orders in regard to the sick were supreme?

Question. Do you think I am a cruel man?

Question. Doctor, what was Mr. Bland discharged from the post of steward of the hospital for?

Question (by the COMMITTEE). What is moral incompetency?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Is Kirby, the prisoner, comfortably fixed now?

{p.905}

Question (by the CHAIRMAN). Has Kirby the privilege of buying his meals?

Captain ALEXANDER (to committee). Gentlemen, I wish to prove by Doctor De Butts that I never refused an appeal of sickness. When a man is to be branded I direct the surgeon to indicate where the iron is to be placed and when men are sentenced to be whipped the lashes are remitted if in the opinion of the surgeon the party’s health is unequal to the punishment.

Question (by the CHAIRMAN). Do you know of any prisoners being placed in the yard of the Castle?

Col. ROBERT MAYO, member of the Legislature from Henrico County, sworn.

Captain ALEXANDER. You have known me a long time, colonel; tell the committee what you know of me.

Mr. WARD. Colonel, tell about the shooting you saw there.

Question (by the COMMITTEE). What other kinds of punishment did you see there?

Question. Is it not degrading to the soldier?

Question (by Mr. WARD). From your knowledge of Captain Alexander and his treatment of prisoners, do you think him a cruel man?

Question. Do you know Mr. Childrey?

Capt. THOMAS P. TURNER, commandant of the Libby Prison, sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. Captain, describe in your own terms your ideas of my treatment of prisoners.

{p.906}

Question. What kind of punishment do you inflict when any is necessary?

Question. Your prisoners are Yankees and not Confederate soldiers?

Question (by Mr. WARD). You have sent your worst cases to the Castle have you not?

Question. Is the order to shoot an escaping prisoner a standing order?

Question. If a prisoner was to attempt to escape from your prison by running upstairs as one did at the Castle would you consider it the duty of that sentinel to shoot him?

Question. Well, does a prisoner ever escape by running upstairs?

Question. Would you investigate a case of the kind?

Question. Did you send a deranged man to Castle Thunder and who was killed there in attempting to escape?

Question. If a deranged man was brought to your prison would you not consider it your duty to warn all hands that he was deranged in order to guard against accidents or to confine him?

SATURDAY, April 25, 1863.

The testimony was resumed for the defense.

Capt. THOMAS P. TURNER recalled.

By Mr. WARD:

Question. Were you ever present at Castle Thunder when punishment was being inflicted?

Question. Did you hear Captain Alexander say “Lay it on harder?”

Question. Is Captain Alexander temperate?

Question. What is the character of the inmates of the Castle; are they mutinous?

Question. Did you ever hear any complaints respecting Captain Alexander’s conduct?

Mr. WARD. This plan was for some time in practice at the Castle, but the prisoners would hide it about their persons and in their boots.

Question. Have you any instances of bribery?

Lieut. DENNIS CALLAHAN sworn:

I am the adjutant of the Castle and have been there three months.

By Mr. WARD:

Question. What is the general treatment of the prisoners?

Question. What is the character of the prisoners?

Question. Are not the prisoners fed on soldiers’ rations.

Question. Are not the soldiers among the prisoners as well dressed as the soldiers in the field?

JAMES JENNINGS sworn:

By Mr. WARD:

Question. Have you been kindly treated?

Question. Have you been punished?

JOHN DOYLE sworn:

By Mr. WARD:

Question. Didn’t a shot go through your hat?

JAMES MCALISTER sworn:

By Mr. WARD:

Question. How many lashes did you receive?

Question. Was the blood cut out of you?

Question. Do you know of any other punishments?

Mr. Wynne, doorkeeper of the House of Representatives, detailed before the committee some circumstances of his treatment at the prison when line went down to summon some officers and the purport of his conversation with several witnesses, which not being to the point here is omitted.

MONDAY, April 27, 1863.

Hon. Judge OULD sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. You, as judge-advocate of the court-martial, can give the committee some idea of the character of the prisoners?

Question. Do you think I am a cruel man?

Question. What do you think about me carrying out an order?

{p.909}

Lieut. PETER CALLAHAN sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. What is my conduct toward the prisoners?

Question. What is my conduct toward visitors?

Question. One of the witnesses swore that he saw fifteen men bucked and gagged in the prison; did you ever see such punishment?

Question. How do you know that these men were guilty of any crime? Innocent men are sometimes put there. Were those men that were bucked found guilty of any crime?

Question. What is the condition of Castle Thunder?

Question. You inspect the prison every morning?

Question. Then it would be impossible for a man to lie in his filth behind the door without you knowing it?

FREDERICK F. WILEY sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. How long have you been at the Castle?

Question. How long have you known me?

Question. What is the condition of the prison?

Question. What is the position of your room?

Question. What language have you heard Kirby use?

Question. Did I ever do anything with him?

Question. Is there a cell in the Castle that a man cannot stand up erect in?

Question. What about the whipping?

{p.910}

Question. How many lashes did they receive?

Question. Were all these men concerned in the beating of the old man who died?

Question. What authority had General Winder or anybody else to whip a soldier on his bare back?

Question. Do you know anything about prisoners being put out in the back yard?

Question. Were all these men guilty of attempting to blow up the building?

Question. Is it reasonable to suppose these men would blow up the building and themselves with it?

TUESDAY, April 28, 1863.

The testimony for the defense was continued.

FREDERICK F. WILEY recalled.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. Do you know the characters of McAlister, Shehan and Adams?

Question. What do you think of Caphart?

Question. On the night the prisoners were put into the yard were not those who looked sick taken back?

Question. Do you remember people on the street being in danger from missiles thrown from the windows?

Question. Did you not report the conduct of prisoners to the commanding general?

{p.911}

Question. Have I not always expressed solicitude for the sick?

Question. Do you know Mr. Riggs?

Question. Did you ever see him drunk?

Question. Do you recollect the time Riggs went into the citizens’ room?

Question. Do you think Captain Alexander a cruel man?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). How did I treat my soldiers I took down to the army?

Question. Was the Yankee who was shot running in the direction that he could escape?

Question. How long have you been at the prison?

Question. How many men have you seen whipped there without court-martial?

Question. What is the condition of the yard?

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. It appears from the evidence that one man was tied up by the thumbs.

Question. Did I not punish a man for punishing a servant without my order?

Lieutenant BOSSIEUX sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. Do you remember the putting of some men in the yard?

Question. Do you think me a cruel man?

Question. Are not the doors of the cells often left open?

Question (by Mr. WARD). What is your opinion of the character of the men there?

Question. Do you know of a cell a man cannot stand up in?

Question. You never knew of any secret punishment?

Question. What month was it the men were put into the yard?

Question. Do you know of any whipping?

Question. Do you know any punishment not of an ordinary character?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Do you remember me telling you once to abstain from shooting some whose intended escape we had discovered?

Question (by the COMMITTEE). What are your instructions in regard to prisoners putting their heads out of the windows?

Question. How many men have been shot by your guard?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Then you think if the prisoners behave themselves they will be well treated?

GEORGE W. WAYMACK, a prisoner, sworn.

By Captain ALEXANDER:

Question. Do you think a man put in the Castle if he behave well would he not be treated well?

Question. Did you ever see any act of cruelty there?

{p.913}

Question. When you were sick did I not let you go home?

Question. When before the court-martial did I not act as your counsel?

Question (by the COMMITTEE). Where are you from?

WEDNESDAY, April 29, 1863.

Judge BAXTER sworn.

Question. Judge, state what you know of the condition and treatment of prisoners.

Question. Do you know Kirby?

Question (by Captain ALEXANDER). Judge, do you think I am a cruel man?

Here testimony closed.

Testimony of DENNIS O’CONNOR-Continued.

Testimony of Capt. W. N. STARKE-Continued.

W. N. STARKE, Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

{p.914}

Mr. RIGGS’ testimony-Continued.

Question. State what you know of Mr. Wiley’s treatment of prisoners.

Question. Was any complaint ever made to Captain Alexander or any report ever made in regard to Wiley’s treatment of prisoners?

Question. You being there as acting assistant warden do you not think it was your duty to report all such things?

Question. Did you not curse the guard on one occasion?

STATEMENTS TAKEN UNDER OATH AND MADE BEFORE ROBERT D. WARD, ATTORNEY

Statement of Lewis J. Blankenship.

Question. How long have you been in Castle Thunder?

Question. State whether you know that Kirby had a conversation with McAlister, Adams and Shehan in regard to giving testimony before the Congressional committee. If so state all you know about it.

Question. Do you think there was a combination on the part of these men to injure Captain Alexander if possible?

Question. State what conversation you allude to.

{p.915}

Question. State what was the character of these men.

Question. What is the conduct of the men generally who have been in Castle Thunder?

Question. Have you seen any punishments inflicted in this prison?

Statement of J. B. Evans.

Question. How long have you been in Castle Thunder?

Question. Do you know of any combination among the prisoners to injure the reputation of Captain Alexander in any manner? If so please state it.

Question. What is the character of these men?

Question. Do you know whether Mr. Kirby ever sent out letters privately from time building?

STATE OF VIRGINIA, City of Richmond, to wit:

I, Robert D. Ward, do certify that the foregoing statements made by Lewis J. Blankenship and J. B. Evans were sworn to by them respectively before me. Given under my hand this 28th day of April, 1863.

R. D. WARD, Notary Public.

{p.916}

–––

WALKER’S ARTILLERY BATTALION, Camp Maury, near Milford, April 26, 1863.

[Capt. G. W. ALEXANDER.]

DEAR CAPTAIN: The summons of Hon. C. C. Herbert directing me to appear before the special committee of Congress on the 23d instant did not reach me until yesterday, the 25th instant. I immediately applied for leave of absence to enable me to obey the summons but found that no officer of the army will be allowed to take the cars except upon the special order of General Lee.

My application for two days leave, inclosing the summons, has been forwarded through the, regular channels to General Lee and it will be over a week before it can be heard from. I fear that the deliberations of the committee will be closed before I can obtain permission to leave camp.

If you think it important for me to appear before the committee without delay you might procure an order from the Secretary of War directing my immediate appearance.

If the committee anticipates remaining in session over a week please advise me of the fact and I will go down as soon as General Lee’s permit is received.

I assure you it will afford me pleasure to bear testimony to the systematic and able manner in which you have managed the provost prison under your charge and to the humanity and kindness with which you have treated the prisoners in your custody.

You have the greatest talent for controlling and managing desperate characters, and I have often said that I do not believe there is another man in the Southern Confederacy who can fill your present position.

Hoping that the report of the committee will triumphantly vindicate you, as it will do, from the malicious charges which have been preferred against you.

I remain, your friend,

GREENLEE DAVIDSON.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF HENRICO, Richmond, April 28, 1863.

Captain ALEXANDER.

SIR: In reply to your communication I state that in consequence of the violent proceedings of the prisoners in blowing up the building, garroting and using slung-shots upon the newly-arrived prisoners, robbing and endangering their lives, I gave you orders to punish these ruffians severely and if necessary to resort to corporeal punishment.

Respectfully,

JNO. H. WINDER, Brigadier-General.

Captain Alexander’s Defense.

CASTLE THUNDER, Richmond, April 13, 1863.

To the Honorable Committee of the House of Representatives, C. S. A., for the investigation of Castle Thunder.

GENTLEMEN: Bonaparte said that “the first requisite in an officer was health, the second temper; without the first the second is seldom {p.917} found, and without the second a good officer, mingling the gentleman with the commander, cannot exist.”

There is nothing so degrading to an officer of rank as an intemperate reprimand, and before his inferiors. If he be respectful, as he would have others respect him, and forgets not that he is a gentleman, his conduct is said to have merited the rebuke from his not having defended it. If both parties lose their temper a court-martial follows and neither party gains by the result. To make a good officer a man must be a gentleman, and they are inseparable. The man who cannot command his tongue is the worst man to intrust with any command. The supercilious and the arrogant always meet from men endowed with common sense the contempt such frivolity deserves.

So much for my opinion of a man placed at the head of any public affair. Now, I will proceed to state in as concise a manner as possible my views which I respectfully submit to your honorable notice. This subject I feel I cannot handle, although fraught with some interest to you and much anxiety to me. When this cruel war was forced upon us on the secession of Virginia I was among the first to resign from the old Navy and take up arms. I chose the Army, and shouldering my musket enrolled myself as a private. My career and advancement since then is known. I followed my unfortunate leader far within the enemy’s lines, never questioning an order, but obeyed all; never asking, where go we? We fell. I suffered; but, thank God, escaped from the tyranny of the “usurper of rights” and have tried to deal them some good blows. My injuries placed me in command of this post. Here I have tried to do my duty, and no matter what may be said or done you cannot keep this strong right arm idle-it shall work either as an officer or private until we achieve what we are all struggling for-the vindication of a sacred right-self-government. I trust I have clearly demonstrated to this honorable body the character of the men who have been committed to my care-the murderer, the robber, the deserter, the substitute deserter, the pickpocket, and worst of all the skulker-the man who by his skulking endangers his comrades, therefore worse than the murderer-the spy, the reconstructionist, the disloyal; all, all that are inimical to our glorious cause are thrust upon me. Why? Because this Castle is the only penitentiary the Confederacy has. I have proved that rules and regulations were regularly distributed; that they were repeatedly told that punishment would follow a persistency in wrong-doing; that the place only acquired a bad name by the conduct of the fiends that inhabited it, and that punishment was only resorted to when it became absolutely necessary and it had become unsafe for a man to enter the wards. I have proved that while our noble army was in the field subsisting on corn these fiends were being fed on full rations and then would refuse positively to rejoin their suffering comrades, and could only be forced there at the point of a bayonet.

That some men were whipped on the back is true. Does it appear in the voluminous evidence that there was a single man not by the order of a court-martial or one from a State represented by any representative in our legislative halls? It was represented by one of the witnesses that men were tied up by the thumbs and gagged. The witness, who by the way was proven to have been discharged from his place for “moral incapacity,” is certainly mistaken, or saw it in one of his drunken {p.918} dreams, for it does not appear in the evidence, and I say it is not so. In fact I think that if those horrid brutalities existed the witnesses or whoever made the statement were very culpable to-report them only when they were turned disgracefully away from this place. A man who knows a wrong to exist and reports it not is more guilty than the wrong-doer. I might here state that evidence also shows that when the hordes of the invader threatened close [to] our walls I did not rest safe within but threw myself into the breach, and when the smoke, of battle receded and we were again free from their accursed presence I turned my attention to the care of those brave men who shed their blood in our defense and who, maimed, were borne to my doors. Many remember the little hospital of the “Angel of Mercy” where thirty beds were always kept and the brave were cared for by a pale little Virginia woman-my wife. Do the records show the loss of a single limb or life from that hospital or do they show a single bill paid by the Confederate States Government for its support? I do not like, gentlemen, to recount these things, but I am a stranger to you and I would rather you would condemn me to be shot than to promulgate upon such evidence as you have had before you from your legislative halls that [am cruel. There are men in your honorable body who know me and know my career. All men conversant with military law know that if a man persists in passing a sentry without the countersign he risks his life. That two men have been shot here is also true; one an Irishman who substituted for a gentleman from Halifax, and the same night deserted while in sight of the enemy, afterwards captured, locked up here and persisting in an attempt to escape was killed. Another, a Yankee, who rushing past the sentry attempted to fly by the back entrance-killed they say he was crazy. The sentry did not know it nor I; or I might for I believe one-half of them are crazy.

I have demonstrated here before this honorable committee that some characters that have been committed here to my charge have been without a redeeming point. I have appealed in every way to them until at last endurance was worn out and corporeal punishment did much good. Does it appear from the evidence that Southern volunteers were ever struck except by Officer Causey in self-defense? The committee have been made aware of the immense number of prisoners I have handled-thousands-and yet it appears that only about twenty have been punished. Does that look cruel?

Are not soldiers in camp when guilty of little peccadilloes bucked and made to ride a cannon or a wooden horse? These fiends are only bucked; is that comparison cruel? This being a receptacle for all that is bad would I not have been justifiable had I been present when that master-fiend Webster, who expiated his crimes on the gallows, contemplated murder and attempted to escape to have shot him or ordered my guard to do so?

Have I not proven by the very prisoners themselves whom I have taken ad libitum that the character of many of the prisoners is terrible and that I have been lenient? Have I not proven that I have done many acts of kindness and charity-yea, many, far outnumbering the alleged cruelties? Have I not proven that the only witnesses who seem to think I have been the least cruel knew of these things before and only reported them when they had been sent away from prison as being no further of any use? Have I not proven my vigilance and strict adherence to right and my energy in carrying out all orders of my superiors? Have I not proven my economy and personal supervision to prevent extravagance or waste of all Government stores {p.919} committed to my charge? Have I not proven that by my own individual exertions I have clothed many prisoners who were being sent to the field? When as some of the witnesses say were men exposed to the weather? Have I not proven their infernal character, and were not their comrades at that time whom they had shamefully deserted fighting our battles and sleeping on the cold ground without tent or other cover than the canopy of heaven?

I would here say a few words about the witnesses examined. Mr. Bland, a hospital steward, whom it appears from the evidence was a man not fit to be about a public institution; his depravity was such that he was disgracefully ordered away. He says he was five months in a Yankee prison and saw better treatment. I rather think that that argues badly for Mr. Bland, for while I was a prisoner among that hateful people the only one I saw treated well was one who sycophant-like courted favor at their hands. I was kept in a cell seven by four for three weeks, that cell underground and no window; moreover prisoners of war are entitled to better treatment than murderers, deserters, spies, &c.

Witness No. 2. Kirby, the spy. I hardly think it fair to take prisoner’s evidence; but I waive that and challenge the whole prison. His evidence shows that although he is incarcerated as that most hateful of all things, a spy, yet he is put in the best room in the Castle, has a fire, good bed and is allowed to purchase anything from the outside that he may require. Oh! gentlemen, does this look cruel, And then he is only removed from this room when the true instincts of the beast were developed and he proves to be a lowborn blackguard.

Witness No. 3. One Adams, who served out a term in the penitentiary, was pardoned during a second term and deserted in sight of the enemy.

Witness No. 4. A man who will not tell where he is from and is sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.

Witness No. 5. Shehan, a deserter, a man who has broken his parole and since he has given his evidence has again deserted his comrades. One or two others close the list and the least said about them the better.

Gentlemen, I leave the matter in your hands, well satisfied the action you take will be just action. I stand before the people and press of this country and invite at any time the strictest investigation.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. W. ALEXANDER, Asst. Adjt. Gen. and Asst. Provost-Marshal, Comdg. Castle Thunder.

Majority report of the committee of Congress to investigate the management of Castle Thunder.

[RICHMOND, May 1, 1863.]

The special committee to which was referred certain resolutions requiring investigation into the management of Castle Thunder, a military prison in this city, have instructed me to report that after a diligent examination of a large number of witnesses your committee find that the prison as to cleanliness and comfort has been well managed. Its discipline has been rigid, but good and successful, and the general treatment of prisoners as humane as the circumstances would allow. The evidence discloses some cases of severe corporeal punishment; some prisoners have been whipped with the lash, the blows numbering from five to twelve. This we condemn as inhuman {p.920} and inconsistent with our system of government. But it does not appear that this punishment has been inflicted except on persons of abandoned characters, and for such offenses as stealing, fighting and abusing more helpless fellow-prisoners.

It should be observed also that this mode of punishment is common in military prisons, and that all these cases happened before Congress had passed a law prohibiting this mode of punishment in the Army. Some persons have been put out of the prison into a walled yard and so confined for several days; and in one instance two or three prisoners were allowed to remain out a short time in bad weather. This we condemn, but it is proper to state that in one of these instances the prisoners so punished had attempted to blow up or injure the building by firing and exploding a canteen of powder, and all the prisoners in that particular room were so taken to this yard, the object seeming to be to force some of them to reveal the names of the ringleaders. It does not appear that any of these persons suffered materially. In another instance of this yard punishment the offense was beating a fellow-prisoner, an old man of sixty-five years, so severely that he afterwards died from the effects of the beating. Captain Alexander in excusing himself for these acts exhibits a statement signed by General Winder in which he is directed to use corporeal punishment if necessary to enforce discipline.

In one instance a sentinel discharged his gun at the window of the prison where a prisoner was putting his head out in violation of rules and otherwise annoying the sentinel. The ball struck the frame of the window and tore off some splinters, which scarred the face of another prisoner standing near. This we condemn as barbarous in the extreme, but the evidence discloses that the order was not to shoot in such cases so as to endanger the person of the prisoner but only to terrify him. Captain Alexander would say in the hearing and presence of the prisoners that if they broke the rules by putting their heads out of the window they should be shot, but he would instruct his sentinels not to shoot so as to hurt but around the window so as to frighten.

Without pretending to review all the particular cases of punishment the undersigned referring to the evidence in the case have come to the conclusion, considering the nature of military prisons and especially in view of the desperate and abandoned characters of the inmates of Castle Thunder who are described by the witnesses as being in the main murderers, thieves, deserters, substitutes, forgers and all manner of villains, that the management of it by Captain Alexander has not been marked by such acts of cruelty and inhumanity as to authorize his condemnation, but on the contrary we are satisfied that he has exhibited such traits of character as in our opinion eminently fit him for such a position. In the successful management of a military prison promptness and a determination to enforce rigid discipline are essential and in these qualities we conclude that Captain Alexander excels.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

W. R. SMITH. AUGUSTUS R. WRIGHT. D. C. DE JARNETTE.

First minority report on the management of Castle Thunder.

[RICHMOND, May 1, 1863.]

The undersigned, one of the special committee of five appointed under a resolution of this House to investigate and report upon certain {p.921} charges of cruelty and improper conduct on the part of Captain Alexander, the keeper of the military prison known as Castle Thunder, begs leave respectfully to report:

That the acts most complained of have been the killing of two prisoners, the shooting at a third the infliction of corporeal punishment by whipping on the bare back and the confining of prisoners in the prison yard exposed to the weather.

As to the two prisoners killed, one of them was a lunatic, a Yankee prisoner brought to Castle Thunder from the Libby Prison and shot during the night of the day on which he was brought there by a sentinel while the lunatic prisoner was in the act of trying to pass said sentinel. The other was one who was out upon the balcony at night attempting to escape; in this attempt lie was shot by a sentinel. The third case of shooting was also by a sentinel at one of the prisoners who was violating orders by putting his head out of a window overlooking the street. This shot did not take effect, though it appears it may have done so as the contents of the gun were lodged in the facing of the window. This appears to have been done in conformity with instructions from Captain Alexander, that such as put their heads out of the window were to be fired upon. In the judgment of the undersigned this remedy was not justifiable, though alleged to have been intended only as intimidation. The offense was such as could have been sufficiently punished by measures less hazardous to life and limb; the identification of the offender which no doubt could easily have been effected would have put it in Captain Alexander’s power to have applied ample corrections and yet in such manner as not to have endangered the life or limb of the prisoner.

As to the whipping: On two occasions Captain Alexander ordered one or two men each to be whipped on the bare back. On another occasion he ordered some eight men to be similarly punished. In all these cases the punishment was inflicted without the intervention of a court-martial. In this in the opinion of the undersigned Captain Alexander was again in fault. The punishment in the two first cases was for fighting and general insubordination, offenses which it would appear might have been adequately punished without subjecting the prisoners to such humiliating infliction.

The other case it is true was more aggravated, to wit, a combination on the part of the offenders for the maltreatment of an aged prisoner recently brought to the prison. It appears Captain Alexander had instructions from General John H. Winder to use this kind of punishment when necessary. Still the undersigned thinks General Winder’s instructions were not a sufficient warrant for resort to a mode of punishment unsupported by law and so odious to our people. And even had General Winder’s instructions been sufficient authority for the use of such punishment its application should have been tempered with such discretion as to have prevented the infliction of this extraordinary punishment except in cases where other punishments not so revolting would have been inadequate.

As to exposing prisoners in the yard this was resorted to on three occasions; one time against two persons for fighting; at another time against fifteen or twenty for fighting and general insubordination; at another against eighty or a hundred, time inmates of the same room, because some one or more had ignited a flask of gunpowder causing it to explode under such circumstances as induced the belief that there had been an attempt to blow up a portion of the prison building and thus enable prisoners to escape. Without stopping to discuss whether Captain Alexander was right or wrong in punishing all in that room {p.922} indiscriminately it may be remarked generally and with equal force as to persons guilty or innocent that this mode of punishing (long exposure to weather in winter) is improper, because it cannot be measured and assigned with that definiteness which should characterize all punishment. One thus punished for so simple an offense as a fisticuff might have entailed upon him permanent loss of health if not loss of life. Hence the undersigned thinks this treatment was either no punishment at all in consequence of mildness of the weather or if the weather was severe enough to make the punishment felt it might continue in fact long after it was intended and entirely beyond Captain Alexander’s control.

Upon the general conduct of Captain Alexander as resting on the mere opinion of witnesses there was some difference. Some of the witnesses charged great severity and cruelty, but it should be also stated that when this class of witnesses were pressed for facts to sustain their opinion they referred principally to the facts above recited. On the other hand it is but just to Captain Alexander to say the testimony was both satisfactory and abundant that the prison in everything relating to its sanitary condition and the general comfort of its inmates was well kept; that Captain Alexander to the mass of the prisoners is as kind and indulgent as could be expected or desired, in many cases allowing prisoners to send out and get better supplies than are furnished in their rations. The undersigned thinks the above contains a fair summary of the most material portions of the testimony, speaking from impressions as made during the progress of the investigation, not having since examined the manuscript, it having gone immediately into the hands of the printer.

The conclusion of the undersigned therefore is that in view of the great and delicate responsibility devolved upon the keeper of such a prison, embracing among its inmates the most lawless and desperate characters, while it may be much regretted that such modes of punishment were used he is yet not prepared to recommend Captain Alexander’s dismissal. The undersigned thinks the infliction of corporeal punishment as administered by Captain Alexander was illegal and improper; that the punishing by exposing prisoners to the weather was improper and unwarranted, and that the order to shoot at those at the window was also unjustifiable. But inasmuch as it is not known that any serious consequences have resulted from any of these acts, and inasmuch as they appear to have been resorted to by Captain Alexander not from any wantonness or cruelty but from a desire to maintain proper discipline and perhaps from an erroneous conception of his rights and powers as keeper of such a prison, the undersigned recommends that no further action be taken by the House.

There is one other fact in connection with this prison which should be remarked upon but for which Captain Alexander from the testimony does not seem to be responsible. It is that persons are sometimes arrested and incarcerated there for days and weeks and sometimes for months without being either brought to trial or even having charges preferred against them; sometimes confined simply under virtue of orders of superior officers “till called for.” It is true this evil does not seem to exist to any great extent but it is an infringement of personal liberty and the exercise of unauthorized power which should meet no encouragement and which should be abolished.

Respectfully submitted.

W. D. SIMPSON, One of the Committee.

{p.923}

Second minority report on the management of Castle Thunder.

Hon. THOMAS S. BOCOCK, Speaker of the House of Representatives:

The undersigned, a member of the special committee appointed under certain resolutions of the House of Representatives directing the committee to investigate the treatment of prisoners confined in the prison known as Castle Thunder, in the city of Richmond, and make report to the House thereon, begs leave to submit the following minority report:

The first resolution of the series adopted instructs the committee to inquire and report “What punishment if any in violation of law has been inflicted upon prisoners confined in Castle Thunder, the kind and character of punishment inflicted by the officers of that prison?” It was proven by witnesses brought before the committee that punishment of the most degrading and cruel character had been inflicted at various times by order of the officer in charge of this prison upon the prisoners confined therein. Some ten or twelve prisoners, all, with the exception of two, Confederate soldiers, were by order of Brig. Gen. J. H. Winder punished by lashes on the bare back. The offenses charged to have been committed by them in violation of the prison rules were fighting and stealing. The charges were preferred by their associates in the prison and the persons selected for punishment were chosen with the permission of the officers by the general vote of all the prisoners. In other words the parties making the charge and acting as witnesses sat as jurymen upon the case instituted by themselves and assessed the punishment. This novel and original method of enforcing the discipline of a prison invented by the officer having control of Castle Thunder deserves in my opinion the severest censure at the hands of Congress.

It was also in evidence before the committee that in the month of November one hundred or more of the prisoners were sent out into the back yard of the prison and kept there exposed to snow, rain and sleet, many of them having insufficient covering and comparatively unprotected against the weather. This punishment was inflicted by order of Captain Alexander to force from the prisoners a confession of who amongst them had been guilty of placing some powder in a canteen.

It was also proven before the committee that upon various occasions prisoners were punished by bucking, handcuffing and tying to a post with their arms stretched as tightly as possible and kept in this position for hours.

Witnesses also testified that Captain Alexander had during extremely cold weather refused fire to the prisoners and they were compelled to rely upon their own ingenuity and their precarious resources inside of the prison to supply fuel.

All the punishment inflicted except that by whipping was by order of Captain Alexander. Upon one occasion a sentinel discharged his gun at a prisoner in one of the windows and the splinters from the frame of the window wounded another prisoner.

Upon the facts elicited by the examination before the committee the undersigned is of the deliberate opinion that the punishments inflicted in Castle Thunder have been not only degrading and cruel but barbarous and inhuman. It is no excuse for the officers who are guilty of this conduct that Castle Thunder is a military prison and its inmates frequently of desperate character. The object of establishing and maintaining such an institution is the protection of society by the confinement of persons dangerous to its peace. To effect this object it is not necessary that men should be subjected to lashes, exposed to the {p.924} inclemency of a severe climate, kept huddled together without fire and put to the rack by having their muscles corded to extreme tension for hours together. Firmness and promptness are very different from torture and inhumanity. The fact that a man is confined in a military prison under charges of even the gravest character is no justification for the officer who responsible alone for his safe-keeping anticipates the functions of a court and punishes the prisoner in advance of a trial.

The second resolution adopted by the House is as follows: “How many prisoners have been killed, by whom and the circumstances under which they were killed?”

It was proved beyond any doubt before the committee that upon one occasion a deranged prisoner whilst running up the steps into the main building of the prison was shot by the sentinel and killed. Another prisoner was shot on the balcony by one of the guard and killed after he had begged the sentinel not to shoot. Under the circumstances attending both these cases the undersigned can regard them in no other light than as deliberate and willful murders. The unprotected and defenseless condition of a prisoner, confined and disarmed, no matter what his moral character, should appeal strongly to the sympathy of any man with proper sensibility, and to deprive him of life whilst in the condition of a prisoner can only be justified by the most extreme danger of the prisoner’s escape. In neither of these cases did such danger exist. One of the victims was insane, the other had abandoned any attempt to escape and was asking for mercy when killed. There was no evidence before the committee that the sentinels perpetrating these outrages had been punished by the officers in charge of the prison.

From the foregoing specific instances and from the general tenor of the evidence adduced before the committee the undersigned is of opinion that Brigadier-General Winder and Captain Alexander, who have had the superintendence of Castle Thunder, have shown a want of judgment and humanity in the management of that prison deserving not only the censure of Congress but prompt removal from the position they have abused. Not only were the charges of cruelty and injustice sustained against Alexander by the evidence before the committee but it was also shown that he had been partial in his treatment of the prisoners under his charge and that sonic of his subordinates had imitated his example. It is but just to state that Mr. Riggs, an officer of the prison, is entitled to praise instead of censure for the course pursued by him, a course the more commendable as it is so remarkable an exception to the cruelty practiced by his superiors.

Captain Alexander and his friends and attorney were present at the examination of witnesses and put such questions to the witnesses as they thought proper.

[This report, dated May 1, 1863, is unsigned but indorsed “Herbert.”]

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HEADQUARTERS, Tuscumbia, Ala., April 12, 1863.

Captain SPENCER, Commanding Flag of Truce.

CAPTAIN: I am directed by the general commanding district to inform you that all prisoners of war held by him were paroled on the 7th instant and sent to the Federal lines.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. D. RODDEY, Colonel, Commanding Cavalry.

{p.925}

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HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA, Jackson, April 12, 1863.

Maj. Gen. C. L. STEVENSON, Vicksburg.

GENERAL: The lieutenant-general commanding acknowledges receipt of your communication of 11th instant inclosing that of Mrs. Mary James and directs that you place a prisoner taken from the enemy whilst on that movement from the Mississippi River in irons, and inform Admiral Porter of the fact and of its being done in retaliation for the arrest of Mr. John James, upon whose release the man will be relieved from irons and close confinement.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. TAYLOR, Aide-de-Camp.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., April 13, 1863.

General R. E. LEE, Commanding, &c.

GENERAL: I have had under consideration the General Orders, No. 49, issued by General Halleck, inclosed to me with your letter of the 21st ultimo and have delayed answering your letter longer than I designed.

The cartel of exchange only incidentally treats of the parole of prisoners, no restrictions as to when paroles may or may not be given; no regulations of the practice to be followed in taking paroles are contained in the cartel. The first four paragraphs of the general orders do not appear to be in violation of the cartel. It is supposed that a belligerent in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary would have the right to forbid its soldiers entering into any paroles. They may operate to establish a new practice, and taken in connection with the provisions of the general orders are so sweeping in their operation that it might hardly be safe to take paroles at least until an explanation is had, and it may be necessary to hold all prisoners that are taken.

The fifth and sixth paragraphs taken in connection with the preceding are ambiguous if not contradictory. By the second paragraph “none but commissioned officers can give paroles for themselves or their men;” by the eighth paragraph “no non-commissioned officer or private can give his parole except through an officer;” by the fifth it is declared that “for the officer the pledging his parole is an individual act and no wholesale paroling by an officer of a number of his inferiors in rank is permitted or allowed.”

Does the term “inferiors in rank” refer only to commissioned officers? What is meant by “wholesale paroling?” What by “giving a parole through an officer?” Again these paragraphs might well be understood as only referring to paroles taken at the time of capture except fo