HEADQUARTERS, Camp Douglas, Chicago, July 12, 1862. Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich. COLONEL: On the 8th instant I inclosed you copies of correspondence with headquarters Department of the Mississippi relative to release of certain prisoners. I am to-day in receipt of the following reply to mine of July 1 (copy of which you have), viz: HEADQUARTERS Department of the MISSISSIPPI, General Halleck is empowered by the War Department to release such prisoners as he may deem proper. Colonel Tucker will obey orders. By order of Major-General Halleck: N. H. MCLEAN, Assistant Adjutant-General. May I ask your immediate instructions? JOSEPH H. TUCKER, Colonel, Commanding Post. HEADQUARTERS, Camp Douglas, Chicago, July 12, 1862. Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich. COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 8th instant inclosing declaration of martial law in and about Camp Douglas. I have made an order promulgating the declaration and had it inserted in the Tribune, Post and Times, of Chicago, this day; advertisement to be continued one week. I have ordered 200 posters to be placed about the camp; also caused stakes to be driven in the ground at the proper distances all around the camp, except where houses or fenced lots intervened. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOSEPH H. TUCKER, Colonel Sixty-ninth Illinois Infantry, Commanding. COLUMBUS, OHIO, July 12, 1862. General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army: Can the furlough of invalid paroled prisoners be extended by military commander on surgeon's certificate? If not, is that power in the hands of any one short of Washington? ALBERT B. DOD, Captain, Fifteenth U. S. Infantry, Military Commission. OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. place of confinement on parole. I have the honor to report that A. E. Reynolds has been on parole in this city since the time of his capture. His parole was given by order of Major-General Halleck. I found him here'on parole, residing at the house of a notorious secessionist in the city. I did not give him "permission to leave his place of confinement on parole." He was not in confinement. At the suggestion of the commanding officer of the district in the absence of General Halleck I extended his parole to report to the Secretary of War to endeavor to effect his exchange. By general orders of the general commanding the Department of the Mississippi I had authority to extend his parole. I did so under the impression that there was no impropriety in permitting him to leave Saint Louis, where he was on parole and where I then thought and still believe the good of the cause of the Union required that no prisoners should be suffered to be at large on parole. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, BERNARD G. FARRAR, Provost-Marshal-General, District of Missouri. Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, FORT HAMILTON, N. Y., July 12, 1862. Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. SIR: Inclosed you will receive a list of the prisoners remaining in Fort Lafayette. I sent off 138 by your order. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, MARTIN BURKE, Lieutenant-Colonel Third Artillery. [Inclosure.] List of prisoners in Fort Lafayette. Pierre Soulé, Adolphe Mazureau, W. H. Child, W. R. Butt, R. T. Zarvona, E. R. Platt, Thomas Sherman, James Anson, Thomas Potts, S. Hoffman, E. W. Cecil, J. B. Giles, Samuel Barry, John Bouldin, David Bendann, William H. Cowan, Francis Carroll, S. G. Cox, John Corbett, R. B. Carmichael, John B. Fisher, Warner Hobb, William H. Jones, Jacob Klasson, William Nabb, I. C. W. Powell, George W. Porter, H. G. Richard, John M. Tormey, Benjamin Worthington, Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone. General R. E. LEE, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Commanding Army of Northern Virginia. GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you that I have just received official information that the Secretary of War has invested Maj. Gen. John A. Dix with authority "to negotiate for a general exchange of all prisoners taken and held or paroled on both sides, the exchange to be on the principles of the cartel between the United States and Great Britain in the last war with that power." If your views on this subject remain as heretofore expressed it is presumed that there will be little difficulty in bringing the negotiation to a satisfactory conclusion, General Dix is under my command and will meet any representative whom you may appoint at such place in this vicinity not within our lines as you may designate. It will be necessary for you to give me thirty-six hours' notice of the time and place, that General Dix may be.enabled to meet the appointment. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, FORT MONROE, July 13, 1862. Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: It seems to me very important that I should have General Wool's correspondence with Generals Cobb and Huger in regard to exchange of prisoners and that I should have also some instructions from you. General Wool has taken away all papers relating to the subject, so that I have not seen a copy of the cartel between the United States and Great Britain. In the meantime I am advised this evening by General McClellan, to whom I sent a copy of your dispatch in cipher, that he has requested General Lee to appoint a general officer to meet me and given forty-eight hours' notice. I did not expect such speedy action and must ask your instructions as to the place of exchange, &c., and also General Wool's correspondence by to-morrow evening's boat from Baltimore. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. SIR: Will you have the kindness to send me a certified copy of the parole* given by Daniel C. Lowber, of New Orleans, who was released from Fort Warren, with instructions how to dispose of him. He now seems to think that he has been sent down here for the purpose of visiting his wife and is quite indignant that I do not send him home to his family. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Brig. Gen. NEAL DOW, Commanding Forts Jackson and Saint Philip: I am informed that wines and liquors have been distributed between officers and the prisoners in the forts. I depend on your well-known temperance principles to have a stop put to this most pernicious and criminal practice. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, *For case of D. C. Lowber, see Vol. II, this Series, p. 578 et seq. This parole will be found at p. 590. Col. J. C. KElton: ROSECRANS' HEADQUARTERS, July 13, 1862. General Ord has sent some prisoners to me who are described as wishing to be exchanged. If it be the order of the commanding general that an exchange of only these prisoners should be made I will go to the trouble and exchange, but if not I desire orders to send them up for transportation to Alton. W. S. ROSECRANS, HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF MISSOURI, Col. JOHN C. KELTON, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Department of the Mississippi, Corinth, Miss.: There are in the military prisons of Saint Louis and Alton several prisoners sent here from portions of the department not in my command, chiefly from Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. They are not prisoners of war. I am in doubt whether I have the same authority to dispose of them as in case of prisoners taken in my own district, or whether they are simply to be held subject to orders from the commanding officer of the district from which they were sent or of the commanding general of the department. I respectfully request instructions on this subject. I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, BENTON BARRACKS, near Saint Louis, Mo., July 13, 1862. General W. S. KETCHUM, Saint Louis, Mo. MY DEAR GENERAL: With this large lot of paroled men (1,167) just come, without officers and with extraordinary opinions of duties proper for them, is a somewhat unpleasant task. I have inquired what duty is expected of them, as I wish to be certain that my efforts will be supported. As yet I have no reply. It appears strange that on one side of the barracks are men who are to be mustered out, being paroled, while on the other side are men also paroled to be retained for exchange. Am I not to have officers? I think you told me they are being looked for. When found I do hope they may be sent here if these paroled men are to be here permanently. Colonel Marshall with his First Illinois Cavalry is here, and Lieutenant Price told me he would be here. last Friday to muster them out. I suppose their pay daily is about $400. I have just received an answer to my asking if recruits can be made from the First Illinois. "Replied that the discharge with the man will show whether he be proper subject for re-enlistment." The above is about it. Our weather is again getting warmer and warmer. Yours, truly, [First indorsement.] B. L. E. BONNEVILLE. SAINT LOUIS, Mo., July 14, 1862. Respectfully referred to Lieutenant Price, with a repeated notice that the First Illinois Cavalry are to be mustered out of service "with as little delay as practicable." W. SCOTT KETCHUM, Brigadier General and Assistant Inspector-General [Second indorsement.] Brigadier-General KETCHUM, SAINT LOUIS, July 19, 1862. Assistant Inspector-General, Department of the Mississippi. SIR: I have the honor to report that I have mustered the field, staff and band; also Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I, of the First Illinois Cavalry, out of the service of the United States, all except Companies H and I to date from the 14th instant. The muster-out rolls will be transmitted in a few days. Company L, of this regiment, at its last report to the colonel, June, 1861, was with General McClellan in Virginia as a body guard. Company M, Captain Thielemann, when last heard from was at Paducah, Ky. Has never reported to the commander of the regiment. Company K, Captain Huntley, was at last report at Batesville, Ark., with General Steele, acting as body guard it is thought. My order reads to "muster out the First Illinois Cavalry," but I presume it is intended to include only the companies already discharged. Permit me to say that so far as my authority and power has extended I executed this as all other orders with the least practicable delay. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. T. PRICE, Lieutenant, Fifth Infantry. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Capt. H. W. FREEDLEY, Third Infantry, U. S. Army, Springfield, Ill. CAPTAIN: My letter of the 11th instant very nearly covered all the points in your reports of the 5th and 8th instant. If they have not already been furnished please call on the quartermaster in Springfield, Capt. W. H. Bailhache, in my name, for as many carts or wagons as may be necessary to have the camp in a good state of police. A couple of carts should belong to the camp and as many more as may be neces sary for immediate use, say four, should be hired for a few days till the policing is completed. If a sufficient supply of water cannot be obtained by digging wells it will be necessary to have a water wagon furnished. Cannot the buildings used as hospitals be converted into barracks for some part of the guard and other buildings inside the fence be appropriated for hospitals? I wish you to see that all the orders which I have given in relation to the management of affairs at Camp Butler be put in immediate force. Hurry the completion of the rolls as much as possible and have a return for June with all necessary explanations made out immediately. I will be very glad if Major Fonda can remain in command, but I presume it will depend on the organization of the guard. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. HEADQUARTERS, Camp Douglas, Chicago, July 13, 1862. Colonel HOFFMAN, Commissary General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich. COLONEL: Iinclose you three [four] articles of a very offensive nature, cut from the Evening Journal of Chicago. I think it my duty to sub |