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General R. E. LEE,

[Inclosure No. 2.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
July 26, 1862.

Commanding Army of Northern Virginia. GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 24th instant in regard to the reported confinement in irons of Capt. George D. Walker, lately commanding the steamer Theodora. In reply I have the honor to state that I have no information in regard to this matter but will at once forward a copy of your letter to the War Department, with the request that the facts in the case may be made known to me and I will promptly acquaint you with the answer to my inquiry.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,
Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. FIRST CORPS, ARMY OF VIRGINIA, No. 14. Sperryville, Va., July 27, 1862. In accordance with General Orders, No. 11, from Headquarters Army of Virginia, the provost-marshal of the First Corps d'Armée, assisted by the provost-marshals of divisions and independent brigades, will immediately proceed to have arrested all male inhabitants within and near the lines of this corps. He will send to these headquarters the names of all such persons, with their age, occupation and place of residence, who are unwilling to take the oath of allegiance to be disposed of by the commander of the corps. A list of the persons arrested who have taken the oath and of those who have refused to do so has to be filed in the office of the assistant adjutant-general of the corps. By command of Maj. Gen. F. Sigel:

T. A. MEYSENBURG,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, July 27, 1862.

Major-General MCCLELLAN, U. S. Army,

Harrison's Landing, Va.:

Transports have been ordered to Fort Delaware to convey the prisoners of war to Aiken's. By direction of the President I have been appointed agent of the United States for the exchange of prisoners under the agreement between Generals Dix and Hill. I shall accompany the prisoners from Fort Delaware.

L. THOMAS,
Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS, Camp Douglas, Chicago, July 27, 1862.

Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich.

COLONEL: Ten of the prisoners who escaped on the evening of the 23d have been recaptured, and one, a lad named Charles Ellis, Twen

tieth Mississippi, returned and gave himself up. No new facts have been developed from their examination.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH H. TUCKER,

Colonel Sixty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, Commanding.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington City, July 27, 1862.

Col. GEORGE H. CROSMAN,

Deputy Quartermaster-General, Philadelphia, Pa.:

The Secretary of War directs that transports be provided to-day if possible to convey prisoners of war from Fort Delaware to Aiken's, on the James River, to be exchanged. There are 3,000 or 4,000. Can steamers be procured in Philadelphia? If so charter and dispatch to Fort Delaware at once. Reply immediately.

E. S. SIBLEY,

Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army, and Deputy Quartermaster-General.

Col. JAMES BELGER,

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, July 27, 1862.

Quartermaster, U. S. Army, Baltimore, Md.:

Are there any chartered steamers in Baltimore that you can dispatch to Fort Delaware this afternoon to transport prisoners of war from thence to James River? If not are there any that you can charter for the purpose? Reply by telegram at once how many of either kind can be started.

E. S. SIBLEY,

Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army, and Deputy Quartermaster-General.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, July 27, 1862.

Capt. GRIER TALLMADGE,

Assistant Quartermaster, U. S. Army, Fort Monroe, Va. : How many steamers can be spared from Fort Monroe to transport prisoners of war from Fort Delaware to James River to start at once on notice being given? Is the Vanderbilt at Fort Monroe and ready for sea? Answer by telegraph as soon as this dispatch is received.

E. S. SIBLEY, Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army, and Deputy Quartermaster-General.

FORT MONROE, July 27, 1862.

General MEIGS, Quartermaster-General: There are now three steamers here capable of bringing from Fort Delaware to this place 2,700 prisoners. Coatzacoalcos 900, Atlantic 900 and Merrimac 900. The Coatzacoalcos can go up James River. The other two can transfer their passengers here to river boats. The above estimate is rather under than over. The Vanderbilt has not yet returned from New York.

GRIER TALLMADGE,
Assistant Quartermaster.

Capt. W. W. MCKIM,

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, July 27, 1862.

Assistant Quartermaster, U. S. Army, Boston, Mass.:

Can you charter steamers to start at once with prisoners of war at Fort Warren for James River? Reply on receipt of this dispatch. By order:

E. S. SIBLEY,

Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army, and Deputy Quartermaster-General.

Major-General HALLECK:

SAINT LOUIS, July 27, 1862.

On recommendation of General Schofield have paroled S. H. Colms, major First Battalion Tennessee Infantry, ranking as colonel, to go to Sparta, Tenn. He wants to be exchanged for Colonel Minter, Eighteenth Missouri Volunteers. Major Colms' address is care McClure, Buck & Co., Nashville, Tenn. Colonel Minter is here.

B. G. FARRAR, Provost-Marshal-General.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT:

WASHINGTON, July 28, 1862.

I inclose certain papers in regard to certain Iowa- troops taken prisoners at Shiloh, since paroled and now at Benton Barracks.

The difficulty between them and the officers there is very unfortunate and will have a bad influence on recruiting in our State. It will be some time before they can be exchanged. Cannot orders be sent releasing them from any duty until exchanged or sending them to Davenport, Iowa, to occupy the Government barracks there until exchanged? They have not been paid since January 1, but I think I have arranged for that to-day.

Please give this matter early attention.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.

[Indorsement.]

JULY 29, 1862.

Respectfully submitted to the War Department.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

A. LINCOLN.

BENTON BARRACKS, Saint Louis, Mo., July 12, 1862.

His Excellency SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD, Governor of Iowa.

SIR: We the undersigned, paroled prisoners, members of the Eighth Iowa Regiment, desire to make the following statements concerning our treatment since the battle of Shiloh:

April 6 we arrived on the battle-field between 8 and 9 o'clock a. m. and were surrounded and completely cut off at 2 o'clock p. m. so we have been told, but were not taken prisoners until twenty minutes past 5 o'clock p. m., when we were overpowered by superior numbers. After an imprisonment of no ordinary severity, hardships and indignities of which few if any could form a correct opinion without being placed

under the same circumstances we were delivered over to our own forces. Part of us arrived at Huntsville May 28, but the majority of us May 30. We were kindly received and treated by our soldiers at Huntsville. May 31 we started toward Columbia, distant from Huntsville eighty miles. The train was loaded with cotton, and we had to march seventy-five miles in three days. We from close confinement and insufficient food were hardly fit for this march; yet though difficult it was accomplished and we arrived at Nashville June 3.

At Nashville from some unaccountable circumstances which appear very mysterious to us privates who have no means of seeing the workings of the hidden machinery [we were detained until] June 30, notwithstanding an order was posted up emanating from the War Department to the effect that all paroled prisoners were considered on leave of absence and were to report their post-office address to the Governors of the respective States to which they belonged. No countermanding order was made public to us, yet we were told that in our case this order was revoked. But in the face of all this the Ohio troops were sent home on furlough.

On the 24th of June another change took place in the programme; furloughs were made out dated June 3 and countersigned by the commanding officer at Nashville. These we have never received. Payrolls were made out and our descriptive lists taken that when the propitious moment should arrive all would be ready. June 30 an order came for our removal to Louisville, but on reaching that point we were put aboard a boat and reached Cairo July 2 and were quartered in dirty barracks little or no better than a hogpen, and if our senses of sight and smell did not deceive us these barracks had previously been occupied by this and some other animals, and it is doubtful if any of the lower apartments of the barracks had not been visited more than once recently by some of the brute creation and yet there were no means furnished us of cleansing them.

We were here informed by the commanding officer that he would treat us as brothers; that we would be paid off and discharged; that he would see to it that we should have every cent which rightfully belonged to us and the machinery which the Government had put between them and us should not deprive us of it, either; that we should get all the conveniences allowed us and even that ice should be furnished us. And then as at Nashville the inducements, threats, or both, to break our parole by standing guard were depicted to us in glowing colors. Yet 1,300 or 1,400 paroled prisoners well know that here (Cairo) as at Nashville we have never got full rations; that we had to carry three-fourths of all the water used from the Ohio River, distant three-quarters of a mile; that the citizens locked or nailed up their wells so we had to get water as we best could from the river and the so much longed for ice was a myth.

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July 9 much to our astonishment the Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin troops were ordered to Saint Louis, while an extract from a newspaper gained credence amongst us that we were to report at Jefferson Barracks for such duty as might be assigned us. The officer in charge of us reported at that point and we were ordered to Benton Barracks. Since being taken prisoners no camp equipage or cooking utensils whatever have been furnished us either to cook or eat our victuals with, except a cup and plate apiece to the prisoners at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and one plate, one cup, one knife, one fork and one spoon to every seven prisoners at Macon, Ga. Since coming within our own lines nothing of this kind has been furnished us but a few pans and far

fewer kettles. We are thus, comparatively speaking, wholly destitute of anything to eat our victuals with and wretchedly supplied with anything to cook them with. To-day requisitions have been made out for these much-needed articles which we fain hope and expect will be furnished to us. Since our first sight of Nashville we have been fed on empty promises for which we have no more appetite, and owing to the uncertainties which surround our future disposition very few if any of us have received any word from home.

In making these statements to you we do not mean to make an unsoldierly or whining complaint to you over what we have suffered but it must be remembered that those who would have attended to our wants and not suffered us to be trampled upon are now lying in Southern prisons, and now it does appear to us we have none who care for us further than to make so many stepping stones of us for their own promotion to office.

We make these statements to you that you may understand our situation and if you think necessary take such steps as you see proper under the circumstances, and that whatever our rights may be we may have them, that our parole may be respected and we not driven to the alternative of violating our conscience by perjury or suffering as mutineers. Very many of us would consider ourselves released from the parole if discharged and would either join the old or enter the new regiments, while all would make this preferable to being scattered to different places and duties, under officers we know not and who care not for us.

Form of parole.

MONTGOMERY, ALA., May 23, 1862.

I do hereby solemnly swear and pledge my most sacred word of honor that I will not during the existing war between the Confederate States and the United States of America bear arms or aid and abet the enemies of said Confederate States or their friends, either directly or indirectly in any form whatsoever, until regularly exchanged or released.

Parole given at Macon, Ga.

I do solemnly swear that I will not take up arms against the Confederate States of America or form any alliance to defeat them until regularly exchanged or otherwise honorably discharged.

Given and sworn to May 24, 1862.

Names and signers to the above statement: A. B. Smith, Company A, in behalf of 18 men; T. F. Greenlee, Company G, in behalf of 15 men; Sumner Smith, Company K, in behalf of 27 men; David S. Fuller, Company B; Jacob L. Tinkhan, Company D, in behalf of 36 men; Norman Sloan, Company F; Edward Young, for and in behalf of 26 men, Company B; John Pruitt, for and in behalf of 8 men, Company I; William Kirkpatrick, for and in behalf of 31 mén, Company H; Gideon McHenry, Company C, in behalf of 32 men.

P. S.-I have been authorized to add that Companies E and K have never yet received any pay from the Government. The other companies have been paid up to the 31st of December, 1861.

GIDEON MCHENRY.

JULY, 13, 1862.

Necessity compels us, the undersigned, this Sabbath evening to state to you that we have orders this evening from General Schofield to be fully armed and equipped so that we can relieve the Twenty-third Missouri, now on duty. Guards to be detailed this evening to report at

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