chaplain of your service, a Mr. Warner, whose immediate release has been directed as well as of any other chaplains held prisoners of war by us. Respectfully, your obedient servant, BRAXTON BRAGG, General, Commanding. HDQRS. MILITARY DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON, D. C., Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. SIR: I have the honor to report that Alfred Leigh was arrested on the recommendation of a large number of his neighbors, good Union citizens, he having made threats against some of them and having taken property from Union men who had left their farms on the approach of the enemy and refusing afterwards to give any account of it. He was likewise charged with having obtained four Government horses on false pretenses. I would further remark that I hold Leigh, Gunnell and one or two other disloyal citizens of Northeastern Vir ginia as hostages for the safe return of certain Union citizens of the same region now imprisoned in Richmond. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, [JAMES S. WADSWORTH,] Brigadier-General and Military Governor, District of Columbia. Col. G. LOOMIS, OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, New York City, June 16, 1862. Commanding Fort Columbus, New York Harbor. COLONEL: By direction of the Secretary of War you will please send to the depot near Sandusky in charge of a suitable guard all the rebel officers, prisoners of war, now in confinement at Fort Columbus. If possible so arrange it that they may arrive at Sandusky during the day as it would be difficult to cross to the island at night, and please inform the commanding officer of the time when they will arrive. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Lieut. Col. Eighth Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DIST. OF SOUTHWEST MISSOURI, No. 15. Springfield, June 16, 1862. The time has arrived when the most stringent measures must be enforced to repress the lawless and atrocious proceedings of the marauders who infest the southwestern portion of the State, practicing murder and robbery on every side. Not only open offenders, but all who in any way aid or abet them must be brought to punishment, and such regulations must be established as will render it impossible for these thieves and assassins to remain undiscovered, and in order to accomplish this object all good citizens are called upon to co-operate with and assist the military authorities in their efforts to punish the guilty and cheerfully submit to such regulations and orders that otherwise would be harsh and severe that are necessary and intended only to protect peaceable and law-abiding members of society. It is therefore ordered: I. That all citizens residing within the limits of the southwest division of the District of Missouri shall at once appear before some properly qualified officer and take the oath of allegiance to the United States of America and to the provisional government of the State of Missouri and receive a certificate thereof unless they have already done so. II. Every citizen who fails to obey the above order will be deprived of the ordinary privileges of loyal citizenship. He shall neither hold any office nor be permitted to vote; he shall not be allowed to serve as a juror or appear as a witness; he shall not transact any business, either agricultural, mechanical or professional; he shall not be permitted to pass at will upon the public highway, but as a punishment for the apparent aid and countenance which he extends to the marauders who are preying upon the country he is declared to be a prisoner within the limits of his own premises. III. The troops stationed in this division are instructed to stop and examine all persons whom they find without the limits of their own domiciles and arrest and convey to the nearest military post all such as cannot show a certificate of having taken the oath of allegiance. IV. When any citizen lives remote from any established military post so that it would inconvenience him to travel to the said post for the purpose he may appear before the nearest commissioned officer of the U. S. Army or the nearest notary public or justice of the peace and take and subscribe to the oath in duplicate, retaining one copy and forwarding the other to the nearest post to be recorded. V. Nothing in this order will be construed so as to interfere with orders issued from the Department of the Missouri regulating the terms upon which returning rebel soldiers or openly avowed secessionists can make terms of peace with the Government of the United States. By order of Brig. Gen. E. B. Brown: JAMES H. STEGER, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, June 17, 1862. Hon. JOHN A. BINGHAM, House of Representatives. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 13th instant requesting that "any information in this Department or in the Executive Departments of the Government touching the alleged correspondence of Hon. Benjamin Wood with the Confederate rebels be transmitted to the Judiciary Committee." In reply I have to state that the following comprised all the information received at this Department in regard to the subject, viz: A communication from the Post-Office Department inclosing two letters addressed to Mr. Wood which had been returned to the Dead-Letter Office and a letter from Mr. A. T. Allen to the Secretary of State. Both of the above it is presumed have already been transmitted to you by the War Department. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, June 17, 1862. RICHARD BATES, Washington, D. C. SIR: Your letter of the 14th instant asking if an exchange can be made between J. Stewart Wilson, of Company F, and Thomas Bruce, of Company D, both of the First Maryland Regiment (loyal), captured at Strasburg, Va., and John H. Pleasants and John Morris, jr. (rebels), captured at Fort Donelson, has been received, and in reply the Secre tary of War directs me to say that recently an arrangement was made for a general exchange of all prisoners of war, but its fulfillment has been delayed by the bad faith of the insurgent authorities. The subject, however, is still engaging the earnest attention of the Department which will continue its efforts for the release of all our citizens now held as prisoners of war until that end shall be accomplished; but as the release of the great body of these can only be effected by some system for a general exchange which is more likely to be adopted if special exchanges are not made the Secretary in justice to all is obliged to decline taking any action at present in the cases you present. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, No. 67. C. P. WOLCOTT, Assistant Secretary of War. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, June 17, 1862. The supervision of prisoners of war sent by generals commanding in the field to posts or camps prepared for their reception is placed entirely under Col. William Hoffman, Third Infantry, commissarygeneral of prisoners, who is subject only to the orders of the War Department. All matters in relation to prisoners will pass through him. He will establish regulations for issuing clothing to prisoners, and will direct the manner in which all funds arising from the saving of rations at prison hospitals or otherwise shall be accounted for and disbursed by the regular disbursing officers of the departments in providing under existing regulations such articles as may be absolutely necessary for the welfare of the prisoners. He will select positions for camps for prisoners (or prison camps) and will cause plans and estimates for necessary buildings to be prepared and submitted to the Quartermaster-General upon whose approval they will be erected by the officers of the Quartermaster's Department. He will if practicable visit the several prison camps once a month. Loyal citizens who may be found among the prisoners of war confined on false accusations or through mistake may lay their cases before the commissary-general of prisoners, who will submit them to the Adjutant-General. The commissary-general of prisoners is authorized to grant paroles to prisoners on the recommendation of the medical officer attending the prison in case of extreme illness but under no other circumstances. By order of the Secretary of War: L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Maj. Gen. JOHN E. WOOL, U. S. Army, Commanding Middle Department, Baltimore, Md. SIR: In reply to your communication of the 16th instant the Secretary of War desires that General Pettigrew, Colonel Hanson and all the other prisoners of war now in Baltimore on parole be sent without delay to Fort Delaware and there confined. I am, sir, &c., L. THOMAS, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith a letter from Colonel Key, one of my aides-de-camp, giving the substance of a conversation with General Howell Cobb. The subject is interesting and I would be glad to have it laid before the President. The letter should be regarded as confidential. I would be glad to learn the wishes of the Government in regard to a general exchange.. I am inclined to think that a satisfactory cartel can be made. You will observe General Cobb's views on the subject. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. B. MCCLELLAN, [Inclosure.] Major-General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE Ротомас, Camp Lincoln, before Richmond, Va., June 16, 1862. Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. SIR: I am instructed by Major-General McClellan to report to you the substance of an interview held on yesterday by me with the Hon. Howell Cobb, now acting as a brigadier-general in the rebel army at Richmond. I was ordered to proceed with a flag of truce to the bridge crossing the Chickahominy, upon the Mechanicsville road, where I would be met by General Cobb at 11 a. m. for the purpose of a conference in regard to an exchange of prisoners, my instructions being to learn the views of the rebel Government and report them to General McClellan, making arrangements for a second meeting. I also received permission to converse with General Cobb upon the general subject of the existing contest, informing him, however, that all such conversation was purely personal and not in any respect of an official or representative character. I went to the place appointed and there was met upon the bridge by General Cobb. We availed ourselves as suggested by General McClellan of the shelter of a little hut made by our pickets a few feet from the bridge and talked together for several hours, the conversation being carried on chiefly by him. In regard to the exchange of prisoners he exhibited written authority from General R. E. Lee, the commander of the whole Army of the Confederate States, giving him full power to make any convention on the subject as to any or all prisoners of war wherever captured. He expressed a readiness to make an agreement embracing all prisoners now held by either side, or one including only those taken by the respective armies now confronting each other before Richmond, and to make such agreement applicable either to existing prisoners or also to those hereafter captured. He stated that he would sign any cartel which was based upon principles of entire equality, and he proposed that exchanges should take place according to the date of capture, first, however, exhausting the list of officers. The scale of equivalents to be any one which we might present and which would operate equally; for instance the one exhibited by him to General Wool at a conference between them, and which was taken from a cartel between the United States and Great Britain in 1812, the exchanged persons to be conveyed by the captors (at the captor's expense) to some point of delivery convenient to the other party, the rule of exchange to operate uniformly without any right of reservation or exception in any particular case. He professed ignorance of any complaint against his Government in any matter of exchanging prisoners and pledged himself for the removal of any cause of complaint upon representation being made. He suggested the propriety of releasing upon parole any surplus of prisoners remaining after exchanges had exhausted either party. I saw no evidence of any disposition to overreach me in this conference.* * Trusting that I may not be considered as having committed any impropriety in the interview or in this communication, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS M. KEY, Colonel and Aide-de-Camp. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Brigadier-General WADSWORTH, Military Governor of the District of Columbia. GENERAL: It appears there is an officer of the rebel forces at Willard's Hotel named William Monaghan, a captain of the Sixth Louisiana Volunteers. It is not known whether he is on parole or not. The Secretary of War desires that he as well as any others who may be at large here under any circumstances be immediately put in confinement as in the case of prisoners of war. I am, sir, &c., E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO, ADJUTANT-GENERAL OF THE ARMY, Washington, D. C. SIR: I reported in my communication of May 17 that the officer (Captain Lewis, Fifth Infantry) sent by me from Fort Craig for the purpose of effecting an exchange of prisoners had failed in reaching the army in consequence of the high stage of water in the Rio Grande. It was not my intention to have renewed this without further instructions from your office, but Captain Lewis meeting with an opportunity of crossing the river proceeded under his original instructions to Donna * For Colonel Key's report in full, see Series I, Vol. XI, Part I, p. 1052 et seq. |