from Richmond to Washington. General Tyler is also here. He will take charge of those paroled at Harper's Ferry and destined for the West. It is very important that all paroled prisoners should be ordered out of town, and I have to request that you will so modify your Special Orders, Nos. 83 and 48, so that Colonel Staunton may command the whole, as it is found the present system works very badly. I am, sir, &c., L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Annapolis, Md. GENERAL: I have received your dispatch. Orders in anticipation have been given to collect all the prisoners of war and forward them to Annapolis. Brigadier-General White is ordered with the paroled prisoners to Annapolis taken at Harper's Ferry. It was my design to put him in command of all the prisoners. I presume he has arrived. There are 9,000 at Ellicott's Mills. They will leave to-day on foot and will arrive in three or four days, Colonel Maulsby in command, with rations, wagons, &c. [JOHN E. WOOL,] Major-General. ANNAPOLIS, MD., September 20, 1862. Brig. Gen. DAN. TYLER, Annapolis, Md. SIR: By direction of the Secretary of War you will proceed with the paroled prisoners to Camp Douglas and there await further orders. I am, sir, &c., L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. Col. J. F. STAUNTON, ANNAPOLIS, MD., September 20, 1862. Sixty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. COLONEL: You will immediately direct all the paroled prisoners of war, officers and men, now in this city to repair to the camp near Annapolis, the officers to remain in camp to take charge of their men aud to hold themselves in readiness to accompany them when they leave here. You will also take immediate measures to have the men absent from their camp collected and kept embodied. I am, sir, &c., L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. Col. J. F. STAUNTON, ANNAPOLIS, MD., September 20, 1862. Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania Vols., Comdg., &c., Annapolis, Md. SIR: You will take immediate measures to organize the paroled prisoners (about 4,000 in number) into companies and regiments according to their respective States as far as practicable, assigning to them the paroled officers in grade corresponding to the proper military organization to the extent the number of officers present will permit. General Tyler will take charge of this organization when completed. This organization must be made at once that the troops may be put in immediate SIR: I am forwarding say 10,000 paroled prisoners to Columbus, Ohio. They are entirely destitute of mess-pans and camp-kettles. Can you send them say 600 of each by a transport steamer which Mr. Tucker, Assistant Secretary of War, is sending to transport the troops to Baltimore? DANL. TYLER, General L. THOMAS: DETROIT, September 20, 1862. Thirty-eight rebel prisoners sent from Portsmouth Grove to Fort Monroe on 17th. I will continue to discharge rebel prisoners who take oath of allegiance. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Col. THOMAS T. GANTT, Detroit, Mich., September 20, 1862. Prov. Mar. Gen. Dist. of Missouri and Iowa, Saint Louis, Mo. COLONEL: Your letter of the 17th is received. I have not yet been furnished with an official copy of the cartel for the exchange of prisoners and am governed entirely by the one published in the New York Times which I assume to be authentic. I have asked for an official copy and as soon as I receive it I will furnish you with one. I have also asked for definite instructions as to the mode of carrying out the stipulations of the cartel and as soon as they are received I will communicate them to you. In the meantime I am instructed thus far: All prisoners belonging to the Confederate Army held in prisons South are to be collected from time to time at Cairo, whence when a sufficient number is collected they will be sent to Vicksburg to be exchanged or paroled. Duplicate rolls giving the rank, regiment and company, and when and where captured, of every prisoner should accompany each party and a like roll should be sent to this office. The parties may consist of from twenty to a hundred or more as may be convenient. I am not yet instructed how to dispose of the irregular military prisoners not belonging to the rebel army, and for the present they will be detained at Alton. All prisoners belonging to the Confederate Army who may desire it will be released on taking the oath of allegiance. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Col. C. W. B. ALLISON, Commanding Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. COLONEL: In reply to your telegram of yesterday I have to say that you were not authorized to pay rewards for the apprehension of escaped prisoners out of the fund in your charge nor do I deem it proper to pay rewards at all. Such a course would be little short of an encouragement to the guard to neglect their duty for the purpose of gaining a reward for the apprehension of prisoners who had escaped through their neglect or perhaps connivance. If prisoners escape from Camp Chase it can only be through gross carelessness on the part of those who have charge of them and some officer or soldier of the guard should be held accountable for the escape. Instead of offering a reward you should detail a number of small parties of twenty men, not over three together, furnished with three or four days' rations and send them in pursuit. The necessary expenses of the pursuit and apprehension to a small amount might be paid out of the prisoners' fund. Prisoners who escape are not likely to take the railroad. If they do you can catch them, and if they do not they must be skulking in the neighborhood and your men don't want transportation to find them. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. W. S. PIERSON, Detroit, Mich., September 20, 1862. Commanding Depot of Prisoners of War, Sandusky, Ohio. MAJOR: In reply to your letter of the 18th in relation to claims of prisoners to be exchanged, &c., I have to say that such claims depend upon the description they bear on the rolls, and unless they are there entered as belonging to the Confererate Army any representations they may make will have no influence in any way. When I am instructed what disposition to make of such cases they will be informed of it. The oath of allegiance will be administered only to prisoners who belong to the Confederate Army, and as you have no such prisononers at the depot there are none to be released in that way. If there are political prisoners confined without cause, and this can be shown by the testimony of reliable Union men, I will refer such cases to the War Department. Their own statement of their innocence will not be sufficient. Let these things be understood among them and you will be relieved from many useless applications. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. COLUMBUS, OHIO, September 22, 1862. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: Many of the paroled Union prisoners at Camp Chase have not been paid for a year. It will be impossible for General Wallace to bring 35 R R-SERIES II, VOL IV them to any kind of order or discipline until they are paid, and I feel it my duty to so inform you. DAVID TOD, Governor of Ohio. COLUMBUS, OHIO, September 22, 1862. General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General : Paroled prisoners at Camp Chase are clamorous and mutinous for pay. No funds here to settle with them. They cannot be controlled until paid. I beg the Secretary of War to order Major Sherman to this duty immediately. LEW. WALLACE, Major-General. [Indorsement.] PAYMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, September 23, 1862. Respectfully returned to the Adjutant-General. It has been impossible for the Treasury to furnish funds to meet the heavy payments recently required for advance pay, &c. Major Sherman, the paymaster at Columbus, is out of funds. He requires no order to make these payments if the money can be obtained. The paroled prisoners who were at Camp Chase on 30th of June were paid to that date, so that only two months' pay can be due, except to those who may have been sent to the camp since that time. There are large numbers of regiments now in the field fighting who have four months' or more pay due them and who are unpaid owing to the inability of obtaining funds. This department will make every exertion to have money forwarded to Major McClure, the senior paymaster, to make these and other payments, but does not think that a threat of a mutiny should be considered either by the commanding officer of the post or this department a good reason for paying these men before those more deserving and having larger arrears due. Major McClure has been telegraphed to have these men paid as soon as funds are furnished. CARY H. FRY, Assistant Paymaster-General. ANNAPOLIS, September 22, 1862. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: I am satisfied that the exchanged prisoners, about 5,000 in number, should be sent to Washington by water, and accordingly I make the first shipment to-day, say 800 men, by the steamer Mary Washington. To make a shipment each day another steamer will be necessary. Two steamers will be preferable and I desire they may be sent here. Some of the men are very destitute of clothing. These will be retained to make the last shipment, as supplies of clothing are expected here. The troops from Harper's Ferry have arrived and arrangements are being made as rapidly as possible for their movement west. This movement is very distasteful to them and many complaints are made that it is a violation of their parole. This view is taken by numbers in the hope of being permitted to return to their homes, which should not be permitted. When the surrender was made at Harper's Ferry the rebels very industriously circulated among the men that the parole was intended for them to go to their homes and that their going to any camp of instruction would be a violation of it. As far as I can learn the officers do not hold these views and are entirely willing to carry out the orders for the western movement. The men of the Thirtysecond Ohio declare they will not pass through that State, but will visit their homes. Already many of the men have straggled off and I anticipate many desertions on the route. General Tyler is most actively engaged in preparing the troops, and will place the First Brigade under General White, who will receive instructions to make all needful preparations for them on his arrival at Camp Douglas. There are some twenty exchanged prisoners of the Garibaldi Guards in camp whom the colonel has applied for. I have refused the request, as these men could be attached temporarily to a regiment in the face of the enemy. The movement west will certainly commence to-morrow morning. Your telegram of yesterday received last night. It will receive attention this morning. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, General J. M. TUTTLE, Commanding, Cairo, Ill. GENERAL: I am directed by the War Department to collect small parties of prisoners of war at Cairo, to be sent thence at convenient times to Vicksburg for parole or exchange, and I have given orders accordingly. It is required that duplicate certified rolls accompany each party, both of which will be receipted by Maj. N. G. Watts, of the Confederate Army, agent to receive prisoners of war at Vicksburg, on their delivery to him, one of which he will retain and the other will be forwarded to the Adjutant-General at Washington. The time of forwarding prisoners is left to yourself, and I would only suggest that except by chance boats not less than about 1,000 be sent at a time under convoy. Prisoners sent to Vicksburg remain on parole until they are exchanged for an equal number of our troops, and this exchange is made by General Thomas on the receipted rolls which are forwarded to him. Please furnish me with rolls of all parties sent to Vicksburg. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Col. C. W. B. ALLISON, Detroit, Mich., September 22, 1862. Commanding Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. COLONEL: All political prisoners whose cases have been acted on by Judge Hitchcock and are not to be released will be sent in parties of twenty or more under a suitable guard to the Sandusky depot. Send full lists with them giving the charges and all particulars of when and where arrested, &c., in each case. If prisoners of war belonging to the Confederate Army are received at Camp Chase you will send them in parties of not less than twenty to Cairo to be turned over to the commanding officer there, who will forward them to Vicksburg for exchange or parole. Place them in charge of a suitable guard and |