Captain EKIN. [Inclosure.] CITY HOSPITAL, September 2, 1862. DEAR SIR: I am at a great loss to know what to do about paying the employés at the hospital. A recent order from Washington prevents you from making such payments and the only way I can think of is for you to write to Colonel Hoffman and ask his consent to an arrangement like this: The savings from the rations at Camp Morton have been large and a fund has been created called the prisoners' fund. Now what better use could be made of this fund than to pay for taking care of the sick prisoners, the greater part of the work at the hospital being on their account? There is an immense amount of work yet to do in the way of washing, house-cleaning and white-washing. I would like money enough out of that fund to pay such expenses. Please inform Colonel Hoffman at your earliest convenience that there is due the employés for the month of August $199.50. My estimate for whitewashing, house-cleaning, &c., is $100 more. Urge Colonel Hoffman to make arrangements for the payment of both amounts. Very respectfully, General LORENZO THOMAS, JNO. KITCHEN, Surgeon in Charge Hospital. CAMP CHASE, OHIO, September 2, 1862. Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Philadelphia. SIR: I have been four weeks in prison on the grave charge of parole breaking while not a word of light can I obtain as to what course is to be taken in an imputation so serious as to affect my honor and my life. At the same time in which I am afflicted with the misery of imprisonment, presumption as to dishonor, possible danger of my life and ignorance of period of imprisonment I am strange to say on the honor of a gentleman and soldier innocent of the charge. Is it reasonable to suppose I would remain six months at home where hundreds of men continually passed and repassed the army lines with entire impunity (near Clarksville, Tenn.) without leaving home to the distance of twenty miles or communicating with the enemy of the United States, then leaving home after the signing of the cartel, starting for Washington to report to General Halleck for exchange, regularly reporting to General Boyle my arrival in Louisville, that then I would have violated my parole where I would be almost certain to be detected? Will you please order a courtmartial for me immediately? Very respectfully, your obedient servant, REUBEN R. ROSS, P. S.-General Halleck writes me that my papers and my case have been turned over to you for your decision. I will thank you, general, to examine them and place me at liberty for exchange or court-martial me as they may warrant you in doing. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, September 3, 1862. Colonel HOFFMAN, or any U.S. OFFICER HAVING CHARGE OF PRISONERS OF WAR: Any officer having charge of prisoners taken from the enemy is authorized to make a special exchange for General R. W. Johnson upon the basis of the cartel between General Dix and General Hill. Adjt. Gen. W. C. Turner may be exchanged in like manner. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. FORT HAMILTON, September 3, 1862. ADJUTANT-GENERAL U. S. ARMY. GENERAL: F. E. Mather, a citizen of New York, came down with a request from Mr. Pierrepont that I should turn over to him James K. Botts, a prisoner now in Fort Lafayette, confined by the Secretary of War. I wish to ask if Mr. Pierrepont has the power to release a prisoner from Fort Lafayette. An immediate reply will oblige, MARTIN BURKE, Lieutenant-Colonel, Third Artillery. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, September 3, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel BURKE, Fort Lafayette : Your telegram has just been received. No one but the President or myself has any right or authority verbal or in writing to direct the discharge of any prisoner in your custody. I do not doubt your desire to obey my orders and I have never complained nor had any reason to complain of your faithful discharge of your duty. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, COMMANDING OFFICER, Annapolis, Md.: Send a complete list to date of paroled prisoners at Annapolis, giving rank and regiment; then send each week a list of such as arrive at Annapolis after this date. L. THOMAS, OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Col. JESSE HILDEBRAND, Alton, Ill., September 3, 1862. Seventy-seventh Ohio Vols., Comdg. Military Prison, Alton, Ill. COLONEL: The Confederate prisoners of war at the Alton Military Prison will be immediately transferred to Vicksburg, Miss., for exchange and you will at once make all the necessary arrangements. A guard of one company will be sent with them and you will furnish the whole with cooked rations to serve them to Cairo, where their supplies will be renewed. Coffee will be made on the boat. Col. L. B. Parsons, director of transportation at Saint Louis, will furnish the necessary steam-boat transportation on your notifying him when the party will be ready to leave and its strength. Direct the commander of the guard to report to General Tuttle, commanding at Cairo, on the arrival of the boat at that point. Duplicate rolls will be sent with the prisoners whose accuracy you must certify to on the back of them, which rolls you will place in the hands of the commander of the guard with direc tion to turn them and the prisoners over to Capt. H. M. Lazelle, Eighth U. S. Infantry, agent for the delivery of prisoners of war at Vicksburg, Miss., to whom he will report for further orders. If the prisoners have any money in your possession you will turn it over to the commander of the guard with a certified account showing the amount due each individual, which money and account will be turned over to Captain Lazelle. If there are any too sick to travel they will remain in hospital with such attendants as may be absolutely necessary. To such of these Confederate prisoners as wish to take the oath of allegiance you will administer it and discharge them at once. Make duplicate rolls of all so discharged, one of which send to the AdjutantGeneral at Washington and the other to me at Detroit. Let the oath be taken in triplicate, one of which give to the man, keep one for the records of your office and the other send to me with the rolls. I expect this movement to be made on the day after to-morrow if possible; if not on the following day certainly. Give Colonel Parsons notice at least twenty-four hours before transportation will be required by telegraph, and notify General Tuttle at Cairo of the sailing of the boat by telegraph, reporting the same fact to me by letter at Detroit, Mich. Before the party embarks have the rolls called to see that all are present who should be there, and only those, and make any corrections in the rolls that may be necessary. You must be governed by the rolls in determining who are Confederate prisoners of war, and only those who are reported as belonging to the Confederate Army will be considered as such. Give the commander of the guard particular instructions to see that there are no disorders on the boat of any kind among the guard or the prisoners. You will have it understood before the boat leaves that no spirituous [liquors] of any kind be sold by any person on board, and you will direct the commander of the guard to see that the order is not violated. Beer also must be excluded. 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: When I was at Sandusky I omitted to say anything of the Confederate naval prisoners at the depot, and to guard against misunderstanding I think it well to say that they are included among those to be exchanged, and if they did not go with those sent to Cairo you will send them there under a guard immediately to report to the commanding officer to join some party en route to Vicksburg. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, Lieut. Col. W. D. WHIPPLE, Chief of Staff. SIR: I have the honor to report the receipt from the War Department dated September 1, 1862, of an order to arrest all prisoners refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and not to discharge them from custody when they refuse to take it without further order. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOSEPH DARR, JR., Major and Provost-Marshal-General. SPECIAL ORDERS, Į OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, No. 61. * Saint Louis, September 3, 1862. VIII. Mrs. Sappington, of Saint Louis County, having given information to the traitors of the movement of the U. S. forces and having harbored and aided men in arms against the United States Government it is hereby ordered that said Mrs. Sappington give parole and bond in $2,000 for her future loyal conduct and conversation, and leave the State of Missouri within forty-eight hours after receipt hereof and reside in the State of Massachusetts, reporting hereto by letter monthly until further orders herefrom. BERNARD G. FARRAR, Proceedings of a court of inquiry which convened at Alton, Ill., pursuant to the following order, i. e. : WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, XV. By direction of the President a court of inquiry will assemble at Alton, Ill., the 3d day of September, 1862, to inquire into the circumstances of the escape of thirty-six prisoners of war from the military prison at Alton on or about the 25th day of July last. The court will make a report and give an opinion in the matter, and will consist of Maj. Edmund Underwood, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry; Capt. Alfred Gibbs, Third U. S. Cavalry; Capt. V. R. Hart, Nineteenth U. S. Infantry. The junior member will act as recorder. * * * By order of the Secretary of War: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. ALTON, ILL., September 3, 1862. The court met at 10 a. m., pursuant to the above order. Present: Maj. Edmund Underwood, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry; Capt. Alfred Gibbs, Third U. S. Cavalry; Capt. V. K. Hart, Nineteenth U. S. Infantry, recorder of the court of inquiry. The court then proceeded to the business before it and was duly sworn by the recorder and the recorder duly sworn by the president of the court. The recorder here stated that his proper name was V. K. Hart instead of V. R. Hart, and it was directed to be so entered upon the minutes. The recorder requested that the court would adjourn until the next day to allow him time to prepare the case, summon his witnesses, &c. The court then adjourned until the 4th instant at 9 a. m. ALTON, ILL., September 3, 1862. The court having ascertained that it was determined to send the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry on active service the next morning at 9 a. m., reassembled at 2 p. m., and in view of the exigencies of service determined to reconvene at 8 p. m. on the same evening. The court accordingly met at that hour, pursuant to adjournment. Present: Maj. Edmund Underwood, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry; Capt. Alfred Gibbs, Third U. S. Cavalry; Capt. V. K. Hart, Nineteenth U. S. Infantry, and called first Capt. Charles C. Smith, Thirteenth U. S. Infantry, who being duly called and having heard the order read was duly sworn by the judge-advocate and testified as follows: About the morning of the 25th July last I was informed that some of the prisoners of war had escaped from the military prison, among whom was Colonel Magoffin, under sentence of death. I went up with another officer whose name I do not recollect to the rear of the prison whence we understood they had escaped. I saw at the end of post No. 5, who is stationed at the west end of the prison, a hole out of which I was informed some prisoners had escaped, among whom was Colonel Magoffin. The hole was just large enough for the egress of a man, about four feet from the outside of the wall. We went thence to the inside of the prison proper to try and find out where the hole was started. We searched the prison in what we supposed to be the vicinity of the hole, the cells, &c.; sounded the flag-stones and found nothing. We then went outside the prison proper, but inside the walls and were unsuccessful. Eight of the escaped prisoners were afterwards recaptured. Dorus E. Bates, first lieutenant, Thirteenth U. S. Infantry, being duly sworn, deposes: I was officer of the day on or about 25th of July at the military prison. There was nothing unusual happened to my knowledge during the first part of the night. About 12 or 1 p. m. the sentinel on No. 5 gave the alarm; called for corporal of the guard. I went around with the corporal and the sentinel said-his beat is at the end of an alley surrounded by a low fence-he saw two men lying outside the end of the fence. He challenged them and snapped his piece at them when they escaped. I examined on the sentinel's post but found nothing. I remained at the guardhouse over night, and next morning at daylight the sentinel reported the fact of the hole [to the corporal] and he to me. I placed a sentinel over the hole, but could not find the entrance to the hole on the inside before I was relieved, but kept searching for it from daylight till guard-mount. I reported the fact to the commander of the prison, Lieutenant Irvine, as soon as I could have the rolls of the prisoners called. Javan B. Irvine, first lieutenant, Thirteenth Infantry, being duly sworn, deposeth: I was acting adjutant of the military prison. I came up to the office on the morning of the 25th of July about 7 a. m. and soon after Lieutenant Bates, the officer of the day, came in the office. I asked him if things were all right. He said that they were bad; that a number of prisoners had escaped and asked if I could tell him how many. I told him not until the morning reports were brought in. I asked him how and where they escaped. He said he could show me the hole where they came out but that was all. I went and looked at the hole outside. I thought they must have raised a flag-stone in the corridor and dug under the wall, as they had once before done in May. I examined the location and found that it was untouched and remained as before. When the rolls came in I took down the names of the absent. The chief of Colonel Magoffin's squad reported him missing. I was much surprised and ordered the officer of the day to take the key to Colonel Magoffin's room and go and see if he were there. He went up and came back and reported him missing, and reported that the padlock to Colonel Magoffin's room was unlocked, but was shut too and seemed to be locked. After I had gotten about twenty-eight names I gave them to the commanding officer. He ordered me to go and try and discover the entrance to the hole. I did so and after looking at the hole on the outside I took the range to find the entrance. We went round to the rear of the prison where there was a range of ovens covered with a shed, with a roof sloping from front to rear, about eighteen inches or a foot from the top of the oven in rear. There was a space of five or six feet in front of the ovens where the prisoners washed their clothes. After looking both front and rear and finding nothing Lieutenant Griffin stepped up on a bench and looked up and said, "Here's the place." We then got up on top the oven and found the entrance to the excavation they had made. A hole had been cut down through one oven and the dirt thrown on top the two. The ovens had never been used for the prisoners. We could find no other trace of where the earth had been placed that was taken out. I examined the main excavation and found that the diameter was about eighteen inches. The commanding officer ordered the ovens to be demolished and the trench filled up. The wall is at least twenty-five feet high and at least three feet thick at bottom. The hole was cut through this wall underground and the stones carried out. |