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WASHINGTON, November 18, 1862–9.45 p. m.

Lieut. Col. MARTIN BURKE, Fort Hamilton, N. Y.:

The Secretary of War directs me to say in reply to your telegram of to-day that you will take measures to prevent any communication with the prisoners in Fort Lafayette for the purpose of procuring their release on civil process. You will be held responsible for any difficulties which may result from any such intercourse, and are authorized to restrict or entirely prevent it as you may deem necessary in order to prevent any interference whatever.

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, November 18, 1862.

Major-General MCCLERNAND, Springfield, Ill.:

Entire regiments of Western exchanged prisoners will be sent to Memphis. Fractions will rejoin their regiments wherever they may be. Eastern exchanged prisoners will be sent East or to their regiments.

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, November 18, 1862.

Count MEJAN, Consul of France.

SIR: Mr. Gustav Laselle, who now claims to be a French subject, has been provost-marshal of the Confederates at Pass Christian. He has imprisoned and destroyed the property of Union citizens. The proof against him is ample and he will be tried and punished at my earliest convenience.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

Colonel HOFFMAN:

BENJ. F. BUTLER, Major-General, Commanding.

CINCINNATI, November 18, 1862.

All prisoners here have been sent to Vicksburg via Cairo and list sent you by military commander of Cincinnati. General Granger, at Lexington, and General Boyle, at Louisville, have been instructed to give you the number they have on hand, if any. Their lists are sent direct to you.

H. G. WRIGHT,
Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF MEMPHIS,
Memphis, November 18, 1862.

Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON,

Commanding Confederate Forces, Jackson, Miss.

SIR: Your letter of November 12, dated Jackson, Miss., is before me. General Grant commands the department which embraces Memphis and I will send him your letter that he may answer it according to the interests and honor of the Government of the United States.

You recite the most aggravated parts of the story of Mrs. White concerning the killing of her husband by a party of the Sixth Illinois Cavalry but you do not recite the attending circumstances. In the early part of September last the public highway hence to Hernando was infested by a parcel of men who burned the cotton of the people and depredated on their property. A party of the Sixth Illinois Cavalry was sent to capture them, but on approach they fled and only ten prisoners were taken. These were dispatched back toward Memphis in charge of a lieutenant and ten men. As this party was on the road near White's they were fired on from ambush. The lieutenant and the · Confederate soldier at his side were killed, one man wounded and the party scattered. As soon as the intelligence reached camp of the Sixth Illinois Cavalry in Memphis Captain Boicourt started to the rescue with a small detachment of men. On the way out they met the dead body of the lieutenant being brought in, punctured by six balls, from which the story was started of barbarous treatment, viz, his being shot while lying on the road. They also heard enough to connect the people of the neighborhood with this firing from ambush and mutilating their dear lieutenant. The taking of White, the accusation of his being concerned, his resistance, his attempt to escape, are all matters asserted and denied, and no one more deplores than I do that you have torn to pieces the fabric of our Government so that such acts should ever occur, or if they did that they should be promptly punished. White's home is almost on the line between Mississippi and Tennessee, but this affair occurred on the Mississippi side of the line. If the State of Mississippi were in a condition and should make due inquiry and demand the parties for a fair trial there would be some appearance of law and justice. But what shadow of right you have to inquire into the matter I don't see.

White was not a Confederate soldier, not even a guerrilla, and some contend he was a good Union man. I assert that his killing was unfortunate, but was the legitimate and logical sequence of the mode of warfare chosen by the Confederate Government by means of guerrillas and partisan rangers. Captain Boicourt has answered for his conduct to the Government of the United States, and it may be will to the civil authorities of Mississippi when peace is restored to her but not to the Confederate Government or its officers.

You now hold for retaliation four U. S. soldiers whose names you say were ascertained by lot. We hold here thirty-odd wounded Confederate soldiers left by your companions on the field at Corinth. They receive kind treatment at the hands of our surgeons. I expect a boat-load of other prisoners in a day or two from above en route for Vicksburg, to be exchanged according to the solemn cartel made between the two contending parties. Under the terms of that cartel we shall expect at Vicksburg the four men you have named, and should they not be at Vicksburg the officer in charge of your prisoners will have his orders. Our armies now occupy many Southern States. Even North Mississippi is in our possession. Your guerrilla and partisan rangers have done deeds that I know you do not sanction. Do not make this war more vindictive and bloody than it has been and will be in spite of the most moderate counsels. If you think a moment you will admit that retaliation is not the remedy for such acts as the killing of White, but the same end will be attained by regulating your guerrillas. This I know you are doing, and for it you have the thanks of your Southern-rights people who were plundered and abused by them.

General Grant commands this department and you had better await his answer before proceeding to extremities. All I can do is to see that the terms for the exchange of prisoners of war be faithfully executed by your exchanging the four men you have in custody for four we will send to Vicksburg.

I am, with respect, your obedient servant,

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General, Commanding District.

NOTE. The killing of young White and the burning of the residence of his mother occurred on or about 11th September, 1862, in De Soto County, on the Hernando and Memphis plank road, about thirteen miles from Memphis.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, November 18, 1862.

Governor SALOMON, Madison, Wis.:

The disposition of the persons arrested in your State was some days ago submitted to the President, who has the matter under consideration, and his determination will be immediately communicated to you. C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA,

Maj. Gen. B. F. BUTLER,

Jackson, Miss., November 18, 1862.

Commanding U. S. Forces, New Orleans, La.

GENERAL: I have received your communication by return of flag of truce; also what purports to be a copy of an incomplete and unaltered record of the proceedings of a court-martial supposed to have been held somewhere in Louisiana west of the Mississippi River. As the limits of my command do not embrace that district of country, and as I have no information official or otherwise that any such court does now or ever has existed, I do not deem it advisable to discuss its supposed action. I may, however, properly recall to your recollection the somewhat similar proceedings on the part of the U. S. authorities not very long since in Missouri.

In reference to the two lieutenants of Indiana regiments for whose exchange you inform me you sent Captain Murphy, of the Confederate Navy, I beg leave to say that I immediately made inquiry of Maj. N. G. Watts, Confederate agent for exchange of prisoners of war, as to the facts so far as within his knowledge. Major Watts replies by telegraph as follows:

I have the two lieutenants. They are not pledged for Captain Murphy. He is now at large on furlough by agreement with Captain Davis, assistant adjutant-general with General Butler. The lieutenants are to be disposed of as other prisoners.

As you have notified me of your intention to retain Brigadier-General Clark and thirteen others of the most considerable Confederate prisoners of war in your possession awaiting instructions from your Government, &c., I am compelled to decline releasing any more U. S. prisoners until I am informed of the views of my Government on the same subject. It is with great regret that I find myself compelled to this course but I have no alternative.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. PEMBERTON, Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, November 18, 1862.

Col. J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General.

COLONEL: I inclose to you for information in advance of the pub lication in general orders the exchanges effected by me-10, 11, and 12 were declared by me during my late visit to Washington at the request of the Secretary of War-all the papers and rolls connected with the above exchanges, except 10, 11 and 12, were handed by me to Lieut. L. Thomas, jr., for file in the office of the Adjutant-General. The Harper's Ferry capture rolls are here.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. H. LUDLOW,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.

[Inclosure.]

FORT MONROE, VA., November 18, 1862.

The following officers and men are duly exchanged, viz:

1. All officers and men both of the U. S. and Confederate service who have been captured and paroled in Virginia and Maryland up to November 1, 1862, except the U. S. officers and men captured and paroled in September, 1862, at Harper's Ferry, and all deliveries of prisoners up to November 11, 1862, made to the U. S. authorities in the Peninsula and its adjacent waters, are included in this exchange.

2. All officers and men captured and paroled at Santa Rosa Island October 4, 1861.

3. All officers and men captured and paroled at Chambersburg October 4, 1862.

4. The Seventy-first Regiment Ohio Volunteers captured at Clarksville, Tenn.

5. Officers and men captured at South Mills, N. C.

6. One hundred and four non-commissioned officers and privates belonging to Second U. S. Cavalry, First U. S. Infantry, Sixth U. S. Cavalry, Second U. S. Artillery, Third U. S. Infantry, Sixth U. S. Infantry, Eighth U. S. Infantry, Tenth U. S. Infantry, Eleventh U. S. Infantry, Twelfth U. S. Infantry, Seventeenth U. S. Infantry, Fourth and Fifth U. S. Artillery, sent from Annapolis, Md., to Fort Columbus, N. Y., October 4, 1862.

7. All officers and men captured at or near Richmond, Ky., and Lexington, Ky., by the forces under command of General E. Kirby Smith. 8. All officers and men delivered to Captain Lazelle and Captain Swan, U. S. Army, near Vicksburg on the 1st, 5th, 7th, 12th and 26th of September, 1862, and the 18th of October, 1862.

9. All officers and men paroled at Cumberland Gap on the 2d and 11th of October, 1862.

10. All officers and men of Indiana troops captured at Munfordville, Ky., September 17, 1862.

11. All officers and men of Rigby's and Von Sehlen's Indiana batteries captured at Harper's Ferry.

12. All officers and men of the Thirty-ninth, One hundred and eleventh, One hundred and fifteenth, One hundred and twenty-fifth and One hundred and twenty-sixth Regiments New York Volunteers captured at Harper's Ferry.

WM. H. LUDLOW,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.

WHEELING, VA., November 18, [1862.]

Hon. DAVID TOD, Governor of Ohio.

SIR: As far as you have any influence over the management of the prison camp at Camp Chase, Governor Peirpoint directs me to request you to use it in preventing the return to this State of the prisoners sent from Western Virginia whose release has not been recommended on the terms dictated by him. We learn that efforts will be made to send back Dr. Alfred Hughes, of this city, without his taking the prescribed oath administered here. If this is done it will scarcely be of any use to call on any one to take the oath.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOS. DARR, JR., Major and Provost-Marshal-General.

CAMP PAROLE, Annapolis, Md., November 18, 1862.

Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

Cannot something be done to lessen the perpetration of crime by the paroled soldiers kept at Annapolis? Drunkenness, fighting, burglary, robbery, gambling, &c., are witnessed by us daily, and even murder is not of unfrequent occurrence. A person is not safe to step out to meeting or anywhere else after dark. There are probably fifty gambling stands in full blast every day. A great deal of liquor is smuggled into camp and its disgraceful effects are daily seen. If we are not soon to be exchanged-and it is still thought to be an injury to the Union cause to allow paroled soldiers to return to their homes-there ought to be something done to put down the reign of rowdyism here, and I believe that you only need to become acquainted with the condition of things here to do something in this matter.

Respectfully, yours,

M. SHAW,

Company D, Forty-fourth Regiment New York Volunteers.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, November 19, 1862.

Maj. Gen. H. G. WRIGHT, Cincinnati, Ohio:

Entire regiments of Western exchanged prisoners will be sent to Memphis; fractions will rejoin their regiments wherever they may be. Eastern exchanged prisoners will be sent East or to their regiments. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, November 19, 1862.

Count MEJAN, Consul of France.
SIR: Your note of November 7, 1862, calling my attention to the
imprisonment of Charles F. Pelot and others has been received. I take
leave to invite your attention to the inclosed copy of a communication
received by me from the Swiss consulate, in which Pelot is claimed as
a citizen of Switzerland, and to beg that the French and Swiss consuls

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