Page images
PDF
EPUB

I

and to act on this construction of the cartel then the paroled troops may be brought under the regulations for the government of his camp proposed by Colonel Carrington. But it is possible and even probable that if officers or soldiers have pledged their word of honor to be gov erned by the restrictions enumerated in the cartel they will not feel relieved from their obligations by any official construction, and if the matter is then brought before a court-martial it is at least possible that its decision would require the cartel to be understood as it reads. If the troops have been paroled without requiring any personal obligations but depending only on the implied pledge of the Government that they would be ordered to no duty inconsistent with the provisions of the cartel, then neither officers nor soldiers have anything to say about what duty they may perform and it becomes solely a national question. Under all the many difficulties of the case I would respectfully suggest as the most economical course and as the readiest mode of avoiding the embarrassments which attend the care of men who are almost beyond the reach of rules and articles of war that except in special cases volunteer regiments on parole be mustered out of service. After they have been exchanged they can be recalled into service. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

[Indorsement.]

This matter has been submitted to the Attorney-General.

[Inclosure.]

H. W. H.

HDQRS. MUSTERING AND RECRUITING SERVICE,
Indianapolis, Ind., October 21, 1862.

Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.

GENERAL: I respectfully call attention of the honorable Secretary of War and the General Commanding to the condition of several thousand paroled prisoners about to assemble at this city, and ask approval if consistent with their views of the "cartel for exchange of prisoners of war" of the outline of duty to which I purpose they shall be subjected.

1. They may be called upon and required to guard their own camp, their own provisions. their own offenders and their own lines; otherwise they will be lawless, turbulent offenders against the public peace.

2. They may be subjected to all the camp rules that relate to the police and good order of their own quarters, and be held to such roster of roll and service calls as are necessary to this end.

3. They may in this connection be required to erect, repair and take care of such barracks as are required for their use.

4. Such parades as are necessary to insure the presence or proper accountability for the men are admissible, and they must observe in all their duties the decorum, discipline and obedience of soldiers.

5. Forcing guard, desertion and other military offenses are punishable as in other cases.

Bad advisers have instructed the soldiers against the observance of the foregoing routine of duty. I respectfully claim that there can be no legal interpretation of the cartel to conflict with the foregoing without involving the idea that "self-preservation" as respects the regiments and the maintenance of their military character have to be

abandoned. The questions will become of great moment the ensuing week and I respectfully ask for instructions to enable me to meet all questions promptly. As they assemble, unless instructed before their arrival, I will use my best judgment and report at once my action. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY B. CARRINGTON, Colonel Eighteenth Infantry, Commanding Post.

FORT MONROE, October 25, 1862.

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

Mr. Wood, keeper of [Old] Capitol Prison, remains at Richmond. Major Barney, who just came from there, proceeds to Washington to report to you facts in reference to him which you ought to know. The papers necessary for the exchange will be ready on Tuesday and I will await your orders in reference to Mr. Wood before I go up to Aiken's Landing.

WILLIAM H. LUDLOW.

JACKSON, TENN., October 26, 1862.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

Captain Swan, of the Fifty-seventh Illinois, in charge of transport carrying exchanged prisoners and under a flag of truce, brought back with him six Confederate deserters and two negroes from Vicksburg and delivered them to General Tuttle, to whom I have telegraphed to hold them till further orders. Is not this a violation of a flag of truce? U. S. GRANT, Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS, Louisville, Ky., October 26, 1862. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington.

SIR: I beg leave to call your attention to within paragraph clipped from a newspaper and to state to you that Major Jordan, of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, is one of our best volunteer officers, and a true gentleman incapable of outrages, whatever some of his men may have done. The rebel Colonel Morgan offered to parole him at time of his capture but he declined to take it, the impression being that Morgan was an unauthorized guerrilla chief. Such was the impression in Kentucky.

I trust something may be done for the relief of this valiant officer and man. If allowed I would retaliate upon them.

Respectfully,

[Inclosure.]

J. T. BOYLE,
Brigadier-General.

[From the Richmond Dispatch, October 17, 1862.]

ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM PRISON.

A conspiracy on the part of a number of the prisoners to escape from Castle Thunder was discovered on Wednesday night. The parties had made a long rope of cotton sheets and had gotten everything ready to let Rogers (who is condemned to be shot on Saturday) out of a window, when they were discovered and put in the dungeon. One fellow who

proved very obstreperous was undergoing the bucking process yesterday evening. It is not certainly known that Rogers initiated the movement, but it is believed that his friends in the prison did so to help him. We learn that efforts are constantly being made to escape from this prison and that it is only by unceasing vigilance that they are prevented. The next party discovered trying to get out are to be shot. Col. [Maj.] Thomas J. Jordan, of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, who was detained from going North on the last flag of truce because charges had been preferred against him by the citizens of Sparta, Tenn., that he allowed his men to commit the most unheard of atrocities on the citizens of that place, was yesterday removed from the Libby Prison and put in Castle Thunder, in company with four Yankees belonging to the First Maryland Cavalry, who are charged with committing a willful murder on an unarmed citizen of the Valley of Virginia. Colonel [Major] Jordan was captured at Tompkinsville, Ky., on the 7th of July. Yesterday seventeen deserters were received into the Castle from the South, sent thither by Major Mallett. Among the other inhabitants there is Capt. Arnold Harris, a Yankee. The cage was empty last night, the city police having made no arrests.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, October 26, 1862.

Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General.

COLONEL: The particular paper called for by the General-in-Chief is the order of General Thomas of July 20, 1862, referred to in Colonel Mulligan's communication. Please furnish and return the papers. Respectfully,

[Indorsement.]

J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, October 26, 1862.

No order of July 20 was made by the Adjutant-General, and I do not know to what Colonel Mulligan refers unless to the indorsement of Assistant Secretary Wolcott on Colonel Hoffman's letter of July 12, which is dated July 19. Instead of calling on Colonel Mulligan for a report in accordance with Assistant Secretary Wolcott's directions it was afterwards decided to arrest him on the distinct charges exhibited in Colonel Tucker's letter. The charge against him was not violation of an order of July 20.

Respectfully,

Major-General SCHOFIELD,

E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, Camp at Yellville, Ark., October 26, 1862.

Comdg, the Combined Federal Forces in Kansas and Missouri, Springfield, Mo. SIR: I have this day paroled the following-named prisoners of war belonging to your command, to wit:*

I expect you to return to me as early as practicable as many Confederate prisoners in your possession. By Confederate prisoners I mean our soldiers who have been captured with arms in their hands,

# * Omitted.

or who have been identified as openly belonging to the armies of our Government. The reason for this particularization is that I learn you have as prisoners a number of citizens who have not openly partici pated in the war, but who have been captured at their homes on account of their political opinions and are now being employed by you in the erection of your fortifications. Not recognizing your authority, under the rules of civilized war, either to capture this class of people or to hold them in menial service, I cannot under any circumstances consent to exchange your prisoners in my hands for them. Neither shall I attempt to capture any of that class of citizens entertaining sentiments favorable to your Government for the purpose of exchange, because I regard all such acts as outside of civil and military usage.

You have as I am informed in your military service as guides and spies two free negroes, James Hall and Jesse Turner. Their families were residing on the north side of White River and their houses, as I was officially informed a few days since by my scouts, were a rendezvous for your troops engaged in military operations in this direction. Necessity required that I should break up immediately this place of aid, comfort and information to your scouts. Consequently I ordered all the members of both families to be removed to the rear of my lines. Their names are as follows: Rachel Turner, sister of James Hall, age 55, and her sons, Joel, age 14, and James, age 11; Cynthia Turner, wife of Jesse Turner, age 28, and her children, Love, age 6, Salina, age 4, and Sarah, age 2. I do not retain these people as prisoners of war. No guards are placed over them and they are supplied with subsistence from my commissary department. I am anxious that they should be transferred within your lines, with the proviso that they shall not be reinstated in their former neighborhood except by force of arms. Allow me most respectfully to suggest that in lieu of the free negroes proposed to be sent within your lines you restore to me as many slaves who have been forcibly taken from their masters within the bounds of this State and from the vicinity in which these free negroes resided. I have no authority from my Government to commence this negro exchange, but from the recent proclamation of your President I would respectfully suggest that you would be perfectly justified in acting on my proposition. Whether you accede to my proposition of restoring slaves or not, still if you desire these free negroes within your lines you will please signity it and I will send them under escort to any place you may designate.

This communication is borne by Lieutenant Lesueur, of my command, with an escort of five men under a flag of truce for the purpose of conveying the paroled prisoners of war beyond my lines and receiving in return any reply you may be pleased to make.

Very respectfully,

Adjutant-General THOMAS:

M. M. PARSONS, Brigadier-General, Commanding.

FORT MONROE, October 26, 1862.

It will be better for Lieutenant Thomas to delay coming with the rolls until Wednesday. Mr. Wood is doing most absurd things at Richmond where he now is, and Major Barney, paymaster, U. S. Army, just released from there has gone to Washington to report his misconduct to the Secretary of War. If an order be given for his immediate recall I can take it up. Exchanges of citizens were all arranged

by me before Wood came here and I so informed him. I desire instructions as to the exchange of Missouri State Guard prisoners, of the independent and partisan ranger prisoners and as to whether the Harper's Ferry prisoners are to be exchanged. Please send the rolls of Shiloh prisoners. Please show this telegram to the Secretary of War. WM. H. LUDLOW, Lieutenant-Colonel, &c.

GENERAL ORDERS,

No. 49.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,

In Camp, October 26, 1862.

I. All recruits for the rebel army captured or arrested by troops of this command will be regarded as prisoners of war and sent without delay to Vicksburg and there paroled and left subject to exchange.

II. All persons who have actively aided or abetted in the invasion of Kentucky by rebel troops within the last three months will be immediately arrested and sent to Vicksburg, Miss., and forbidden to return to Kentucky. This order will not be understood as including persons indicted or held by the civil authorities for trial nor will arrests be made on suspicion or insufficient evidence of guilt.

Brig. Gen. J. T. Boyle is charged with the execution of these orders and will give such special instructions as may be found necessary. By command of Major-General Buell:

JAMES B. FRY, Colonel and Chief of Staff.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, October 27, 1862. Adjutant-General THOMAS.

GENERAL: Direct the commissary of prisoners to release Turner S. Foster, a rebel prisoner at Camp Chase, on his parole to procure the release and exchange of Edmund Cooper, a citizen of Tennessee, now a prisoner in the hands of the rebels.

Yours, &c.,

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DepartmenNT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., October 27, 1862.

Brigadier-General MERRILL, Commanding Northeast District:

At the earnest request of many Union men in Monroe County and vicinity the punishment of death ordered by the military authorities in the case of E. D. Major is commuted to imprisonment in the Alton Prison during the continuance of the war.

S. R. CURTIS,
Major-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Lieutenant-Colonel LUDLOW,

Washington, D. C., October 27, 1862.

Acting Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners, Fort Monroe. SIR: Your telegram of the 26th instant was received and submitted to the Secretary of War. I have telegraphed to you that the Secretary

42 R R-SERIES II, VOL IV

« PreviousContinue »