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prisoners belonged were Texas regiments and I believe all cavalry. I sent General Blunt copies of all written documents placed in my hands. Respectfully,

OWEN A. BASSETT,

Lieutenant-Colonel Second Kansas Volunteers.

Governor TOD, Columbus:

WASHINGTON, June 14, 1862.

The question in relation to prisoners is now under consideration. If they are paroled great complaint is made by the friends of our prisoners in the South. No trust can be placed in their parole. I think it is cheaper to keep them where they are than to send them back as recruits, for the rebel Government will release them by law from their parole and force all into the ranks who do not go voluntarily, so that we shall only have to fight and take them again.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

CORINTH, MISS., June 14, 1862.

Major-General BUELL:

The Secretary of War telegraphs that he will send an officer to Nashville to pay off and discharge all paroled prisoners at that place. H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

INDIANAPOLIS, June 14, 1862.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States:

Colonel Owen, who has so efficiently commanded at the camp for prisoners, is under orders to take the field with his regiment. I have organized a military force for their place. I desire to place the camp under the supervision of Col. D. G. Rose, U. S. marshal, as commander if it can be done without vacating or interfering with his office as marshal. He is the man for the position. Please arrange this. Advise me by telegraph.

O. P. MORTON,

Governor of Indiana.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, June 14, 1862.

Maj. Gen. JOHN E. WOOL, U. S. Army,

Commanding Middle Department, Baltimore, Md.

SIR: It having been stated that General Pettigrew, of South [North Carolina, taken prisoner in the late battle near Richmond, has arrived in Baltimore and is provided with comfortable rooms at Guy's Monument House, the Secretary of War directs that he be sent forthwith to Fort Warren and turned over to Colonel Dimick, commanding.

I am, sir, &c.,

L. THOMAS,
Adjutant-General.

General R. E. LEE,

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
June 14, 1862.

Commanding Army of Northern Virginia, Richmond.

SIR: Lieutenant Fellers, Company G, Thirteenth Regiment of South Carolina Infantry, is now at Fortress Monroe waiting to be exchanged, according to the information I have from the War Department, for Lieutenant Underhill, of the Eleventh Regiment of New York Volunteers, who is said to be a prisoner at Richmond. I am prepared to send Lieutenant Fellers within your lines at City Point upon an intimation from you that Lieutenant Underhill has been released. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, Major-General, Commanding.

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No arrangement of the sort has been made and individual exchanges are declined.

We will exchange generally or according to some principle, but not by arbitrary selections.

Major-General POPE:

G. W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War.

CORINTH, MISS., June 14, 1862.

1 think it will be well to make as many of the enemy give their parole as possible; still it would not be worth while to pursue those who have deserted and are on their way home. I would come and see you but have for several days been confined to my tent with the "evacuation of Corinth."

H. W. HALLECK,
Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Corinth, Miss., June 14, 1862.

General G. J. PILLOW, Oxford, Miss.

GENERAL: I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 9th instant. While putting no obstacle in the way of any peaceful citizen returning to his home if he comes with proper intentions I have uniformly declined issuing passports or personal safeguards to persons outside of our lines. I cannot make an exception in this case. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SPECIAL ORDERS,

H. W. HALLECK, Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, June 14, 1862.

No. 103. Theodore Lieb, of New Orleans, George William Craig, late first officer of the ship City of New York, and Frank Newton, late private in the Thirteenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, upon their own

* Reference to Pillow to Halleck, Vol. III, this Series, p. 669.

confession and clear proof after a full hearing were convicted of being members of an organized gang of thieves consisting of seven or more, of which William M. Clary and Stanislaus Roy, mentioned in Special Orders, No. 98, and now under sentence of death, were principals, bound together by an oath or obligation, engaged by means of a forged authority and false uniforms in robbing the houses of divers peaceable citizens of their moneys, watches, jewelry and valuables under pretense of searching for arms and articles contraband of war, must suffer the proper penalty. At least eight houses as appears by their confession were plundered by three or more of their gang while others were watching without at various times, and a large amount of property carried off. A large portion has been since. recovered. The heinousness of their offense is heightened by the contempt and disgrace brought upon the uniform, authority and flag of the United States by their fraudulent acts in making it cover their nefarious practices, and renders them peculiarly the subject of prompt and condign punishment.

It is therefore ordered that George William Craig and Frank Newton for these offenses as aforesaid be hanged by the neck until they and each of them are dead, and that this sentence be executed upon them at or near the parish prison in the city of New Orleans on Monday, the 16th day of June instant, between the hours of 6 a. m. and 12 m., under the direction of the provost-marshal, and for so doing this shall be his sufficient warrant.

Theodore Lieb being a youth of eighteen years, only in consideration of his tender years has his punishment commuted to confinement at hard labor on the fortifications at Ship Island or the nearest military post during the pleasure of the President of the United States. By command of Major-General Butler:

R. S. DAVIS,

Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,

WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, June 14, 1862.

No. 134.

II. Capt. Henry W. Freedley, Third Infantry, will report for such duty as he can perform to Colonel Hoffman, commissary-general of prisoners, at New York.

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, June 14, 1862.

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

DEAR SIR: May I beg that you will read the inclosed editorial from the Louisville Journal before action is taken in Buckner's case. Every word of this article is felt to be true by the loyal men of Kentucky, and I earnestly trust and pray that they may be spared the curse and humiliation of having this monster of treachery and crime turned loose to desolate and destroy them. When captured he was under indictment for treason in Kentucky, and it is felt there that the Government should not snatch him from the halter which the criminal court has in store for him.

Very sincerely, yours,

J. HOLT.

[Inclosure.]

The rebel Government demands as a condition of any further exchange of prisoners that General Buckner be exchanged. The demand appears to be put forth as a sine qua non. This is presumptuous and insolent. We hold three brigadier-generals as prisoners of war-Buckner, taken at Fort Donelson, and Pettigrew and another taken in front of Richmond, whilst Prentiss is the only Federal general held by the rebels. The rebels cannot obtain their three generals in our hands by giving for them three officers of equal rank, and if they undertake to insist that they will have a particular one of the three or stop all exchanges, let them stop the exchanges as soon as they like. We can afford it quite as well as they can. We have five times as many prisoners of all grades as they have.

Considering their condition the rebels try to carry things with quite too high a hand. They have at all times acted upon the assumption that they had a right in negotiating exchanges to give up whom they pleased and to keep whom they pleased. No persuasion has ever availed to induce them to exchange Colonel Corcoran. Half a dozen times they have promised and as often they have broken their promises. Their last promise was that they would exchange him if we would let them have the privateers, or semi-pirates, captured by us, but when we sent these to Fortress Monroe to be forwarded to them they violated their engagement as they had so often done before. They presume to decide authoritatively not only what prisoners they won't give up but what ones we shall give up, letting us understand that they will have their own way in both matters, and that if we dislike it or choose to rebel against their dictation all prisoners must remain prisoners. We shall see whether our Government in this the day of its power and triumph is to be bullied in that fashion.

Kentucky feels it to be her right to ask that General Buckner shall remain a prisoner during the war. She would feel herself deeply aggrieved by his release. Every loyal man and every loyal woman of our Commonwealth would feel it a personal wrong to themselves. All know that Buckner has been the evil spirit, the fiend, the devil of our State, the corrupter of her youth, the ruthless desolator of her homes. Hé has been no common traitor; he has been the arch-traitor, and she, with her 30,000 loyal sons in the field ready to pour out their blood to undo as far as possible his accursed work, demands that he shall stay in confinement till the end of the war and then take his trial for treason before the judicial tribunals of the land.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, June 15, 1862.

General JOHN E. WOOL, Baltimore:

It is represented to the Department that Roger W. Hanson and one or more other rebel officers are at large in Baltimore. Please advise the Department immediately whether the statement is true.

By order of the Secretary of War:

C. P. WOLCOTT, Assistant Secretary of War.

MCCLELLAN's, June 15, 1862.

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

Colonel Key has had an interesting interview with Howell Cobb to-day, the particulars of which I will explain to you by letter.

It proves among other things most conclusively that they will defend Richmond to the last extremity. The interview was arranged for the purpose of bringing about an exchange of prisoners, but in the course of the conversation other matters were introduced and discussed.

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

Maj. Gen. J. A. DIX, Commanding Fort Monroe, &c.

June 15, 1862.

GENERAL: The general commanding directs that Lieut. Marcus A. Throneburg, Twenty-eighth North Carolina Volunteers, a prisoner of war sent here from Fort Columbus by Colonel Loomis for release by error instead of to City Point as directed by me, be detained at Fortress Monroe until events before Richmond are further determined. Lieutenant Throneburg is to be exchanged for Lieutenant Perkins, aide-decamp to General Butterfield, who was taken prisoner at Hanover, and on the application of the general commanding to General Lee released. The error in sending Lieutenant Throneburg here instead of to City Point has resulted in his acquiring information regarding the position of troops, &c., here which renders it unsafe to have him returned to the enemy at present. Lieutenant Throneburg is sent to Fortress Monroe with the bearer of this communication.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

Throneburg sent to Rip Raps June 16.

S. W.

HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, June 15, 1862. Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Corinth, Miss.

GENERAL: Under instructions from my Government recently addressed to General Beauregard it has devolved upon me to inform you that it is understood Asst. Surgs. T. S. Foster* and Newton Vowles, of the Missouri State Guard, were captured (possibly some time since), brought to trial as bridge burners and one at least of them condemned to death under your authority. The authorities of the Confederate States have caused private individuals to be executed for burning bridges, but they deny the right to punish an officer acting under orders and I am directed to say will retaliate on the prisoners in our hands for any execution in violation of the rules of civilized warfare. Further, our authorities will consider themselves at liberty to examine into the regularity of the proceedings under which any citizen of Missouri shall be executed and to retaliate if it should prove a fair trial was not granted.

I must avail myself of the occasion to bring to your notice an act recently committed by an officer of your command without precedent to my knowledge in regular warfare. On the morning of the 30th ultimo a cavalry detachment from your army under command, as I learn, of Colonel Elliott, of the Second Iowa Cavalry, made a descent on Booneville, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and a depot for our

*See Vol. I, this Series, p. 389 et seq., for trial of Thomas S. Foster.

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