HEADQUARTERS, Fort Monroe, Va., August 11, 1862. Maj. Gen. G. B. MCCLELLAN, Commanding Department of Virginia. GENERAL: I have just received the communication of General Williams in regard to the flag of truce sent from here to City Point last week and I regret exceedingly that the failure to report should have been regarded as a want of courtesy to you as the general commanding or as a violation of military rule. Before I took command at this post and ever since a steamer has been sent to City Point with more or less regularity as to time to convey letters for our prisoners in the insurgent States, to receive letters for theirs and to land persons ordered to be sent through our lines by the Secretary of War. Of this practice I supposed you were aware. The instructions have always been the same to deliver the letters and the persons sent under the protection of the flag and return immediately to this post. The flag sent last week was for these purposes and with the usual instructions. As the steamer was about leaving some ten or twelve released prisoners arrived here from Baltimore with instructions from the War Department to deliver them for exchange. Thinking it a favorable opportunity to get them off our hands I sent them to City Point and took a receipt which has been delivered to General Thomas to-day. When you were on the Chickahominy it would not have been practicable for the officer in charge of the flag to report, and since the change. of position to the James River the old routine has been continued without adverting to the altered circumstances. If therefore there is a fault it is entirely my own and not that of the officer, and it has arisen from my construction of the obligation which a flag of truce imposes on those who use it. I supposed it to be my duty to send the vessel bearing it to her destination and then to order her back to the point of departure without stopping anywhere for any purpose, but confining her rigidly both in going and returning to the specific purpose for which she was sent. With this view of the sacred character of the flag of truce when I went to meet General Hill and desired to see you on my way I did not raise the flag until after I had passed your headquarters and took it down the moment I reached them on my return. If I am in error it is the result of too strict a construction of my duty and I regret that it should have been considered as a departure even through inadvertence from the rules of military subordination or courtesy. It is hardly necessary for me to add that no flag will be sent from this post hereafter without instructions from you. When persons arrive here with orders from the War Department to be sent across the lines I will retain them and advise you. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN A. DIX, HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, Brig. Gen. W. W. MORRIS, Commanding Fort McHenry. GENERAL: The major-general commanding this army corps directs that you prepare all the political prisoners at Fort McHenry to be sent to Fort Delaware to-morrow in charge of a guard. You will inform Colonel Belger, aide-de camp and quartermaster, of the number of prisoners and guard for which transportation will be required and the time they will be ready to leave. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, [WM. D. WHIPPLE,] Assistant Adjutant-General. ENGINEER DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 11, 1862. Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich. SIR: Will you have the kindness to inform Colonel Olmstead, prisoner now confined at Sandusky I understand, that I have recently learned that the sick and wounded prisoners (sixteen or eighteen in number) taken at Fort Pulaski have not all been sent to Savannah and that I was consequently misinformed on the subject. I am told that one or two of them only have been allowed to go. I relinquished the command of Tybee and Cockspur Island early in May before the wounded men were in condition to be moved and went to Hilton Head sick of the fever. While in the general hospital there I was informed at sundry times that the sick and wounded men had been removed from Fort Pulaski and sent up to the Confederate lines as promised. I believed such to be the case. Soon after my arrival in the North I received a note from Colonel Olmstead, then confined on Governor's Island, N. Y., inquiring if the men had been sent up, to which I replied through Colonel Loomis, the commanding officer, that they had. Finding that I was mistaken I adopt this means of putting myself right. I shall at once inquire into this matter and insist on having it rectified. I am mortified at the position in which I find myself placed. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Col. J. B. FRY: Q. A. GILLMORE, Brigadier-General of Volunteers. ATHENS, August 11, 1862. I have under arrest some Confederate soldiers who claim to have been discharged from service on account of disability. A part of them are willing to take the oath and some are not. Also some citizens applying for passes to go through my pickets who refuse to take the oath under any circumstances. Please inform me what I shall do in such cases. Please answer soon. [JAS. M.] NEIBLING, Lieutenant-Colonel. HEADQUARTERS, Huntsville, August 11, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel NEIBLING, Athens: Send the Confederate soldiers who claim to be discharged to provostmarshal at Nashville unless in special cases where you may deem it best to release them on oath and watch them. If there is anything suspicious in civilians who try to pass the pickets send them in like manner. JAMES B. FRY. General THOMAS: DETROIT, MICH., August 11, 1862. Shall I exchange Col. Peter Kinney, who is here, Fifty-sixth Ohio Volunteers, for a colonel at Sandusky? W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, General LAZ. NOBLE, Adjutant-General of Indiana, Indianapolis, Ind. GENERAL: I am looking for instructions to-day in relation to the exchange of prisoners and I expect to have them in motion from Camp Morton before the 17th, the expiration of the term of the temporary guard now there. If there should be a day or two delay I presume the Governor will have no difficulty in detaining the guard for that time. A guard will be necessary to accompany them to Cairo if no farther. I am not yet informed how the movement will be made, but they will all be shipped from convenient points to the vicinity of Vicksburg where the exchange is to be made. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. W. S. PIERSON, Commanding Depot of Prisoners, Sandusky, Ohio. MAJOR: I am expecting to receive instructions in relation to the exchange of prisoners and the rolls for which I telegraphed on Saturday are required to show who desire to be released by taking the oath of allegiance. Then have them prepared at once. After the exchange the prisoners remaining at the various camps will probably be collected. at the Sandusky depot. What has been done in relation to the contract for wood? I presume a contract has already been made according to my instructions and the wood is being received. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 12, 1862. Brig. Gen. JAMES S. WADSWORTH, Military Governor of the District of Columbia: Whereas, it is represented that the following persons, loyal Union men, citizens of the United States and residents of the State of Virginia, have been arrested and for a long time and now are imprisoned in Richmond, Va., viz, Maj. Charles Williams, Peter Couse, Squire Ralston, Burnham Wardwell, A. M. Pickett, Thomas Morrison and Moses Morrison You are therefore directed to arrest, convey to and detain in the Old Capitol Prison, Washington City, District of Columbia, the following persons, residents of Fredericksburg, Va., viz, G. H. C. Rowe, Montgomery Slaughter, John J. Berry, Michael Ames, Edwin Carter, J. H. Roberts, John F. Scott, William H. Norton, W. Roy Mason, John Coakley, Benjamin Temple, Abraham Cox, James Cooke and Lewis Wrenn. And it is ordered that said persons be detained in custody as hostages for the safety of the persons now imprisoned at Richmond as aforesaid until otherwise directed. By order of the Secretary of War: P. H. WATSON, Assistant Secretary of War. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, U. S. Army, Detroit, Mich. : The Secretary says take no steps toward a general exchange until return of General Thomas. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington. GENERAL: In compliance with instructions contained in your letter of July 28 to Maj. Gen. John Pope (transmitted to me on the 11th instant) I have the honor to inclose the two reports relating to the charges against Col. James A. Mulligan, commanding at New Creek, Va. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN E. WOOL, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General of the Army, Agent, &c., Aiken's. GENERAL: Under all the circumstances of the case the commanding general is of the opinion that it would be highly impolitic at the present juncture to release the prisoners, some eighty in number, determined this morning to be sent for delivery to the Confederates at Aiken's. They are possessed of information which if communicated to the enemy at Richmond would possibly lead to serious detriment to our interests. He begs you therefore to represent to Mr. Ould that it is impracticable to release these prisoners to-day but they will be sent up as soon as practicable. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, [S. WILLIAMS,] Assistant Adjutant-General. * Omitted here; but see Hoffman to Thomas, with inclosure, p. 179. HEADQUARTERS, Fort Monroe, Va., August 12, 1862. Brig. Gen. J. K. F. MANSFIELD, Commanding at Suffolk, Va. GENERAL: I have read your instructions to your provost-marshal and think them right and proper. I was yesterday at Fort Wool and discharged a large number of prisoners on parole. I found quite a number from Nansemond and Giles Counties and retain them for the purpose of communicating with you. I examined several of them and am satisfied that they have committed no act of hostility against the United States. That they sympathize with the insurgents there is no doubt, but if we undertake to arrest all such persons our forts and prisons would not contain a tithe of them. So long as they continue quietly about their business they should not be molested. The exercise of this power of arrest is at the same time the most arbitrary and the most delicate which a state of war devolves on a military commander, and it is one which should not be delegated to a subordinate. I find that many of the persons imprisoned at Fort Wool were arrested by Colonel Dodge and some of them on suspicion. This must not be repeated. Your subordinates may arrest persons detected in open acts of hostility to the Government but in every other instance and in every case the order for arrest should come from you, or if an arrest is made in an emergency without your order the case should be brought directly before you and the evidence taken before the party is sent here for imprisonment. Two of the persons sent to Fort Wool by you have died within the last three days, one of them, Mr. Jordan, the most respectable of all in standing. His body goes to his friends in Norfolk to-day. Imprisonment at Fort Wool is a most severe punishment at this season. The water is bad and the heat is intense, and no citizen should be sent there for a light cause and without pretty clear evidence of guilt. If parties in your neighborhood need temporary restraint you must find some place of safe-keeping there unless the case is very marked. My inclination is to discharge all these prisoners on a stringent parole, but before doing so I await your reply with your views on any particular case or cases. I am, very respectfully, yours, JOHN A. DIX, Major-General. SPECIAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF VIRGINIA, Near Cedar Mountain, Va., August 12, 1862. Sergt. James A. Neil, of the ambulance train of the enemy, and Private Jesse Hurdleston, of the Nineteenth Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, an ambulance driver in the service of the enemy, who were taken prisoners while in the act of relieving the sufferings of some of our wounded upon the field are unconditionally released as prisoners of war in consideration of the humanity thus displayed by them. The ambulance and horses belonging to the enemy taken with these men will be returned to their charge. Rations for two days and forage for two horses for the same time will be furnished them, and they will be forwarded with their ambulance and horses through our lines to those of the enemy. By command of Major-General Pope: [GEO. D. RUGGLES,] Colonel, Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff. |