Louisville, for confiscation. If they are not contraband will you please instruct that officer to forward them to me wherever you may order me? I prefer being exchanged there and joining those with whom I was captured. Believe me, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. R. ROSS, Confederate Prisoner. [Indorsement.] AUGUST 19, 1862. Respectfully referred to Adjutant-General Thomas, commissioner for exchange of prisoners of war. Captured arms and equipments are public property. H. W. HALLECK, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 15, 1862. JAMES A. EKIN, Quartermaster: I am hourly expecting General Thomas from James River where he has been making exchanges. I desire General Campbell to remain at Indianapolis until he arrives and I can then give instructions. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, DEAD-LETTER OFFICE, Maj. Gen. J. A. Dix, Commanding Fort Monroe, Va. Your obedient servant, A. N. ZEVELY, Third Assistant Postmaster-General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 15, 1862. II. The oath of allegiance will not be administered to any person against his own will; it must in all cases be a voluntary act on his part. Nor will any compulsory parole of honor be received. But oaths taken and paroles given to avoid arrest, detention, imprisonment or expulsion are voluntary or free acts and cannot be regarded as compulsory. All persons guilty of violating such oaths or paroles will be punished. according to the laws and usages of war. By command of Major General Halleck, General-in-Chief of the Army: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. Maj. N. H. MCLEAN, HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF MISSOURI, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Dept. of the Mississippi, Saint Louis, Mo. MAJOR: I have the honor to ask from the commanding general instructions regarding prisoners captured by guerrillas in Missouri and paroled. You are aware that these guerrilla bands claim to be in the Confederate service and their officers hold commissions from Jefferson Davis. They have captured at various times about 200 of our troops, volunteers and Missouri State militia, and have released them on parole. We have also an equal or larger number of their prisoners. I take it for granted that these prisoners on neither side are to be held subject to exchange. Yet we cannot well disregard the parole given by our own men. It appears to me that the best disposition that can be made of the question is to muster our own men out of service and hold the guerrilla prisoners as criminals. I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant, [Indorsement.] J. M. SCHOFIELD, HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Suggestions approved and will be carried into effect. Brigadier-General THOMAS. J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. RICHMOND, VA., August 15, 1862. DEAR SIR: We have appointed an agent to receive and deliver prisoners at Vicksburg, Maj. N. G. Watts. He will proceed to Vicksburg to-morrow to be ready to attend to his duty there. I have instructed him to telegraph me immediately on the arrival of any prisoners there, giving me the number of privates and officers, with the respective grades of the latter. I have also directed him to send to me by messenger the rolls as soon as they are delivered. As soon as a shipment is made cannot you be notified, and will you not order a list of such as may be sent to be forwarded to you? This with the list which I shall receive will make a duplicate and enable us to act. I have also instructed Major Watts to gather up the paroles in the West and transmit them to us. Let me hear from you in reply to this. Send it by the guard. Have you any idea when we will have our next meeting? I send you Colonels Corcoran and Willcox; also Major Vogdes and a lieutenant-colonel; also Colonel Corcoran's attendant. We have some 150 officers here whom I am anxious to dispose of. Excuse the haste and pencil of this note. Your obedient servant, ROBT. OULD. ROBERT OULD, Esq., AIKEN'S LANDING, VA., August 15, 1862. Agent for the Exchange of Confederate Prisoners, Richmond, Va. DEAR SIR: I have received your note of this date and will have a boat at this landing on the 17th instant with an officer to receive the 150 officers now in Richmond, who will receipt for the same subject to future exchange. I have received Colonels Corcoran and Willcox, Lieutenant-Colonel Bowman and Major Vogdes. I will see that duplicate rolls of prisoners in the West will be sent, one for you and one for me. Your obedient servant, L. THOMAS, OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. GENERAL: A man named Samuel D. Crane has been arrested at Camp Butler, Ill., for harboring an escaped rebel prisoner, and I have respectfully to inquire whether he shall be retained in confinement there or shall he be turned over to the U. S. marshal. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. [Indorsement.] AUGUST 28, 1862. In the Department of the Mississippi L punished several persons for the same offense by confinement in a military prison and afterwards released them. H. W. HALLECK, Hon. E. M. STANTON: BALTIMORE, August 15, 1862. In accordance with instructions from Brevet Brigadier-General Morris, U. S. Army, commanding during temporary absence of Major-General Wool, I last night suppressed the Maryland News sheet and confined the two editors at Fort McHenry. WM. P. JONES, Major, Aide-de-Camp and Acting Provost-Marshal. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Detroit, Mich., August 15, 1862. Maj. R. S. SMITH, U. S. Army, Madison, Wis. MAJOR: I will be much obliged to you if you can furnish me with the names and designation of the prisoners of war who died or escaped from Camp Randall. It is quite doubtful whether you will be able to do so, but I have thought it possible that some of the books belonging to the camp or hospital may be in your possession, or the quartermaster, from which the information may be obtained. I will send you some blank rolls. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. Hon. E. M. STANTON: INDIANAPOLIS, IND., August 15, 1862. After consulting with ex-Governor Campbell the following communication is respectfully submitted: About three hundred Tennesseeaus have taken the oath, and nearly the whole number here will take the oath. They all appear to be loyal and wish to get home. Shall Governor Campbell proceed administering the oath? The Tennesseeans ought to be discharged or removed from this place, as the feeling of the other prisoners is intensely bitter toward them because of their willingness to take the oath. JAS. A. EKIN. Mr. GEORGE W. DILL. DEPOT QUARTERMASTER'S OFFICE, DEAR SIR: Learning that you are now under arrest in New Berne from some cause or other unknown to myself I take pleasure in offering any assistance in my power that may not in the slightest particular conflict with our Government in suppressing the present rebellion. I have formed your acquaintance since my arrival in Morehead City and have never seen anything in your conduct which has caused me to regret it or lead me to suppose that you would lend your aid to those who are striving to overthrow the present Government. You have before informed me that you had taken the oath of neutrality and you have always seemed to me determined to abide by it. Of course I can only judge by your conduct when around our office and anything further I should be unable to say. If this will be of any benefit to you you are at liberty to use it. Very respectfully, yours, [Indorsement.] GEO. E. DANA. HEADQUARTERS, New Berne, September 11, 1862. The oath of neutrality is not sufficient it appears to prevent Mr. Dill expressing treasonable sentiments. Mr. George E. Dana will prove more useful to the United States by attending to his proper business. J. G. FOSTER, Major-General, Commanding. SPECIAL ORDERS, Į HEADQUARTERS IN THE FIELD, In pursuance of the annexed finding of facts, and the recommendation therein contained, it is hereby ordered that the said Calvin Sartain at the hour of 4 p. m. this day be shot to death. Lieutenant-Colonel Woolfolk, of the Fifth Regiment of Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, will cause to be made the necessary detail of men to execute this order. Captain Shelton, of Company F [D], of the Fifth [First] Regiment Missouri State Militia, will superintend the execution. BEN. LOAN, Brigadier-General, Missouri State Militia. [Inclosure.] The undersigned officers having investigated the charges against Calvin Sartain, find as follows, viz: * That a military commission held in Columbia, Mo., did find the said Calvin Sartain guilty of firing upon the steam-boat White Cloud. Military commission passed sentence of death against said Calvin Sartain, which sentence was approved by Major-General Halleck. We further find that the said Calvin Sartain escaped from the military authorities at Saint Louis and for some time afterwards avoided the military authority by lying in the brush; that about three weeks ago the said Sartain in company with others aided in raising a company for the Southern Army in Missouri, of which company he was a third lieutenant; that two weeks since the said Sartain united his company to the command of the notorious Poindexter and has been acting with him until the 13th of August, 1862, when he was captured by the military authorities near Laclede. We further find that all the foregoing acts of the said Sartain were committed north of the Missouri River and within Federal lines. We, the undersigned officers, having found the above facts do believe that the public safety requires that sentence heretofore passed against the said Sartain be carried into execution. JAMES MCFERRAN, Colonel First Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. ODON GUITAR, Colonel Ninth Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. Lieutenant-Colonel First Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. Major, First Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. Captain, Fifth Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. Lieutenant and Judge-Advocate. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 16, 1862. Captain EKIN, Indianapolis, Ind.: Your telegram respecting prisoners cannot be answered until the return of Adjutant-General Thomas. EDWIN M. STANTON, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 16, 1862. Col. G. LOOMIS, Commanding Fort Columbus, N. Y. COLONEL: The Secretary of War directs that you send the prisoners of war reported by you as at Fort Columbus to Fort Delaware under suitable escort. An order was sent you by telegraph a few days since to receive and receipt for all deserters delivered to you by Mr. Kennedy, chief of * See Vol. I, this Series, p. 476, for General Orders, No. 19, Department of the Mississippi, covering original case of Sartain. |