will enable me to reach the Confederate lines on that day. I ask also that you will present the matter to the Confederate authorities and if possible procure an unconditional discharge. Very respectfully, FELIX R. BRUNOT. [Inclosure.] SAVAGE STATION HOSPITAL, June 30, 1862. [General MAGRUDER, C. S. Army.] GENERAL: At the request of the Pittsburg Sanitary Commission I came to this place in charge of a band of volunteer medical cadets and nurses, whose services were offered temporarily and without compensation from Government. Some of them were distributed to other points. The following are the names of those who are with me at this hospital: J. W. Wightman, O. L. Miller, W. Eugene Gosling, Isaac Brown, W. H. Smith, John Bryant, John Beltzhoover, Legrand Hart, Thomas G. Smythe, John Haney, Thomas McCombs. I gave these men the opportunity to leave with the army but their sense of duty compelled them to remain. I report myself and them to you as citizens engaged only on a mission of humanity (yet earnest and anxious for the success of our cause), with the request that if possible some arrangement may be made by which the men can return home when they desire, or at least that we may be placed on the same footing as surgeons. Respectfully, FELIX R. BRUNOT. The above is copied from the rough original, and there may be in the one sent some slight verbal changes. F. R. B. NASHVILLE, August 3, 1862. Hon. P. H. WATSON, Assistant Secretary: In reply to your inquiry by telegraph I have to state, first, all Tennessee prisoners who are willing to take the oath of allegiance and enter into bond for its faithful observance should be released upon parole subject to notice. If they were released as suggested and permitted to return to Tennessee it would exert a powerful influence upon the State at this time. The oath when taken and the bond should be forwarded to the Governor of Tennessee and filed in secretary's office. If the power were conferred on me as intimated a short time since by the President-the power to prescribe the terms of release-I would at once appoint an agent competent to exercise proper judgment and send him to the various prisons where Tennesseeans are confined authorized to examine and release all who would take the oath and give bond. All those who were not willing to comply with foregoing conditions I would either exchange or retain in prison. If this course were adopted I feel well assured that much good would result from it. I repeat I hope none of those Tennessee prisoners will be exchanged and sent South who are willing to conform to the conditions herein set forth. ANDREW JOHNSON, Military Governor. General R. E. LEE, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Commanding Department of Northern Virginia. GENERAL: Brig. Gen. L. Thomas, U. S. Army, has arrived here as agent on the part of the United States for the exchange of prisoners. The steamers with the prisoners for delivery to your agent at Aiken's, some 3,000 in number, will arrive up the river in the course of to-morrow, Monday. General Thomas proposes to meet Mr. Robert Ould, agent on your part, at 12 m. to morrow at Aiken's. I have to request that Mr. Ould be informed of this and hope that he may meet General Thomas at the time and place indicated. General Thomas will, however, await Mr. Ould's arrival at Aiken's. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major-General, Commanding. WHEELING, August 3, [1862]. Hon. C. P. WOLCOTT, Assistant Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. SIR: I beg leave to call your attention to the cases of the following prisoners now in my custody: H. C. Rollins, Greenbrier County, Va.; Matthew Corbitt, Upshur County, Va.; Jno. S. Coonrad, Braxton County, Va.; Walter Cool, Webster County, Va.; Fred. Chewning, Braxton County, Va. These persons were tried as guerrillas by a military commission which assembled early in June last, by order of Maj. Gen. J. C. Frémont, commanding military department at Clarksburg, Va. Agreeable to the proclamation of the President of the United States that the proceedings of all military commissions wherein the penalty of death was recorded should be referred directly to him I am informed that the record of the military commission at Clarksburg, Va., was forwarded by the judge-advocate to General Kelley, commanding Railroad District, by him to Major-General Frémont and subsequently to the President. I have confined the above-named prisoners in the jail of this city for greater security, and as some time has elapsed since they were tried as stated deem it my duty to recall it to the notice of the War Department directly. If the proceedings of the military commission have not been approved by the President I would respectfully ask for special instructions in the case of these prisoners. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOSEPH DARR, JR., Mr. PRESIDENT: JACKSON, TENN., August 3, 1862. Believing as I do that our cause has been much damaged by the confinement of prisoners I cannot resist the inclination to urge on you the necessity for at once paroling all the rank and file now held by us as prisoners of war, especially those hailing from Tennessee and Kentucky. If paroled they will at once disperse to their several homes and few of them will ever again enter the army even when exchanged, whereas by holding them until the exchange is perfected we turn them over to their officers and they go at once into the army embittered by their long confinement and will fight more desperately than before rather than surrender and go into confinement again. We who have fought them often and captured them once look with regret on a policy which will only result disastrously to our arms. Comparatively few of them have any sympathy with the rebellion. The romance of war has passed away and the soldiers of the South (really the most conservative class in the South) now perceive that the inducements held out to them to enter the army, amounting almost to compulsion, were in fact baseless except the supposed necessity of keeping their social status good at home, which does not now require such sacrifices as a year since. Most of them are of the poorer but more conservative element of Southern society. Many men will surrender on any reasonable pretext if assured they will be paroled, and the rebels are constantly profiting by this knowledge while we reject the teachings of reason. Many homes and firesides could be reached by such a course as herein indicated which will never be reached by any other course. I know this is not military, but although in the army I am yet a citizen, and when I see what I believe to be a great and alarming error persevered in I would prove false to my obligations as a citizen were I to fail to raise my voice in warning. I know you, Mr. President, have the welfare of your country and success of our arms as the grand aim to which all your energies are directed, and I trust this matter will be considered and adjudged as its merits may require. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Of Illinois. ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, WAR DEPARTMENT, August 4, 1862. His Excellency ANDREW JOHNSON, Governor of Tennessee: You are authorized to examine the Tennessee prisoners at the several places at which they are confined and determine which of them shall be exchanged and which released and the terms upon which their release shall be granted. For this purpose you are authorized to *Not found. employ such agent as you may designate. Captain Ekin at Indianapolis has been advised that this authority has been given to you. P. H. WATSON, Assistant Secretary of War. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 4, 1862. Capt. JAMES A. EKIN, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Tennessee] prisoners desiring to take the oath of allegiance will not be exchanged, but Governor Johnson will be authorized to send a commissioner to examine and liberate such of them as he may designate on taking the oath and complying with such other conditions as he may prescribe. P. H. WATSON, Assistant Secretary of War. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Col. C. W. B. ALLISON, Commanding Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio: An officer on parole may be required to take command of paroled men to drill and do camp-guard duty for mere purposes of discipline provided he does not guard prisoners of war or relieve any other officer from duty so the latter would be disengaged to serve against the enemy. SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 226. ** E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, * XII. It has come to the knowledge of the general commanding that a number of officers and men taken prisoners by the enemy and afterwards released on parole have without waiting for their exchange returned to their regiments and have even in some cases been ordered to do so by the provost-marshals and other officers. This should not be allowed. Paroled prisoners will be sent as required by orders from the War Department to Annapolis to report to the commanding officer at that place. By the recent cartel for the exchange of prisoners it is agreed that paroled prisoners until exchanged Shall not be permitted to take up arms again nor to serve as military police or constabulary force in any fort, garrison or field-work held by either of the respective parties, nor as guard of prisoners, depots or stores, nor to discharge any duty usually performed by soldiers. By command of Major-General McClellan: SPECIAL ORDERS, ** S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General. VI. Whenever any person is arrested by the city marshal for disloy alty or for treasonable practices he will immediately report the name of such person to these headquarters, together with the cause of arrest. Without such report and a copy furnished in writing to Bvt. Brig. Gen. W. W. Morris, commanding the defense of Baltimore, he will receive no prisoners presented for confinement in Fort McHenry. * By command of Major-General Wool: Capt. G. M. BASCOM, WM. D. WHIPPLE, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, Assistant Adjutant-General, Flat Top Mountain, W. Va. CAPTAIN: I have the honor to inform you that Dr. William P. Rucker was taken at Suminersville by the rebels and is, now in captivity at Union, and I understand he will likely be murdered. The doctor was forced to leave Covington, by being a loyal man to our Government, last winter and go to Summersville; he is a gentleman of property and influence and has done a great deal for our cause, hence their bitterness toward him. I might here state that General Frémont took a great interest in him and offered him a high position which the doctor would no doubt have availed himself of had the general still remained in command. I would most respectfully suggest that Mr. Price, at Charleston, be placed in close confinement and held as hostage for the doctor and so inform them. I feel confident that this course would save the doctor's life. I understand their treatment of him is very cruel. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEORGE CROOK, Colonel, Commanding Brigade. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Detroit, Mich., August 4, 1862. Col. J. H. TUCKER, Commanding Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill.: Please forward without delay the rolls of prisoners called for from this office in May, the duplicate of which has been forwarded to the Adjutant-General. I do not refer to the rolls called for in my letter of the 31st ultimo. In making up the rolls be careful to note all prisoners known or supposed to have enlisted in the two regiments under Colonel Mulligan. Have prepared immediately and send to me an account of the prisoners' fund, showing the receipts and disbursements and the amount remaining on hand and accompany it with a detailed list of articles purchased. I do not want the receipted bills. These will be held subject to my inspection when called for. See paragraph 5, circular of regulations. Report to me also the condition of the hospital fund, how much was received, how much expended and how much remains on hand. Mr. Shubert who has a son at Camp Douglas, complains that on five different occasions $5 was sent to him and that the money was received 22 R R-SERIES II, VOL IV |