He will then repair to Atlanta and ascertain what surgeons and chaplains are held by the Confederate States as prisoners of war, and will proceed with them to Huntsville, Ala., or to some other practicable point within the lines of the enemy, under a flag of truce, and deliver them to the Federal authorities under parole, taking a receipt for the same. He will cause complete rolls of all the prisoners to be made out at Selma, Tuscaloosa and Atlanta who are or have been detained at said places, and if discharged or sent from thence to set forth by what authority and to what points. Captain Graham will report to these headquarters his action in the premises. The quartermaster will furnish transportation. I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, NOTE.-Should Surgeon Carey, Forty-eighth Ohio Volunteers, be found among the prisoners you will deliver him in exchange for Surg. L. H. Hall, First Mississippi Regiment, taken at Donelson by the U. S. forces. MURFREESBOROUGH, N. C., June 17, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. DEAR SIR: Having recently heard that a general system for an exchange of prisoners had been or soon would be adopted I beg to call to your attention the fact that three of the Hatteras prisoners still remain under parole. All the others have been released of the number captured last August at Hatteras. The three persons referred to are Maj. H. A. Gilliam, of Plymouth; Lieutenant Biggs, son of Judge Biggs, of Williamston, and Dr. William E. Pool, of this place, all of whom were attached to the Seventh ([afterwards] Seventeenth) Regiment of North Carolina Volunteers. You will recollect the case of Major Gilliam, whose release I asked in a personal interview during the late sitting of Congress. A few weeks since he was rearrested at Plymouth by a Federal force sent from one of their boats in the Roanoke and carried off on a charge, as I hear, of having violated his parole by his influence and conversation in supporting our cause and encouraging the volunteer spirit. He has, however, been since discharged, as I suppose, by Stanly. He has been very anxious to re-enter the service, and I presume is so still, though I have not seen him for many weeks. I am very desirous that he should be restored to full liberty. The case of Lieutenant Biggs presents claims quite as strong. Doctor Pool would have long since been exchanged but for the fact that a physician by profession he acted as surgeon (assistant) to the regiment and was so treated in the capitulation but had never been commissioned by the Confederate Government nor by this State as such. During your predecessor's term I showed him an ordinance or resolution passed by our convention in which he is called assistant surgeon and payment of his salary as such for a part of his service directed to be made. This I regarded, emanating as it does from the depositary of the sovereignty of the State, as equivalent to the issuing of a commission. So Mr. Benjamin seemed also to regard it. This act of our convention in a small printed pamphlet I left with him. Another copy can be obtained if desired. He is very desirous of a release that he may enter the public service again. I beg to ask that these cases omitted in the other exchange and of such duration may be early arranged. I find on reflection that there are some other cases of Hatteras prisoners. There were a number sent home early on the ground of ill-health, part of the sixty released in answer to a discharge by us of that number. I do not know the terms of their release nor have I been consulted in their behalf; but for the three mentioned I have been requested to ask the favorable consideration of our Government. I suppose the Roanoke Island prisoners may also hope for a speedy end of the restraints of their parole. I am, very respectfully, &c., your obedient servant, W. N. H. SMITH. HDQRS. FORTY-SECOND REGT. NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS, Fair Grounds, Lynchburg, Va., June 18, 1862. Brig. Gen. J. H. WINDER, Commanding Department of Henrico, Richmond, Va. GENERAL: I wrote to you on the 15th instant. In obedience to your order (telegraphic) of same date I proceed now to make to you a detailed report of the condition of the prisons and prisoners. On yesterday I received from Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham, then commanding, 30 commissioned officers, 2,230 non-commissioned officers and privates, making 2,260 prisoners, exclusive of three negroes, one of whom is said to be a slave. I inclose list* of officers. The premises occupied as a prison are entirely unsuited to the purpose, but the assistant quartermaster at this post reports that he can obtain no other. The sleeping quarters of the prisoners are vacant (open) stalls, or such tents as they can construct with their blankets or oil-cloths. The officers are in a different part of the grounds from their men. With a large and vigilant guard, two companies of which have been performing this duty for four and one-half months, I hope to prevent escape, but if the premises had been constructed for the express purpose they could not have been better contrived to permit the escape of prisoners. Lumber cannot be had to repair the fences, gates or sheds. There is no hospital, and for the reason stated one cannot be erected. There are several sick among them, but no death since their transfer to me. I have no prison surgeon or assistant. In consequence of some misunderstanding between captain and assistant quartermaster and captain and assistant commissary of subsistence the prisoners were without food for the twenty-four hours ending at noon to-day, and up to this time neither fuel nor well or water buckets have been supplied. The latter officer, Captain Galt, signs himself as commanding the post. I have directed that no person be permitted to enter the inclosure except by my order. To prevent the possibility of unpleasant feeling (as I cannot obey orders from Captain Galt) please cause an order to be issued on the subject. Meantime I consider myself in command of the post. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. C. GIBBS, Colonel Forty-second North Carolina Troops, Commanding Post. [Indorsement.] Telegraph to Colonel Gibbs to appoint quartermaster immediately for the prisoners; to call on the commissary at Lynchburg for rations such as are issued to our own soldiers. Inform the Quartermaster *Not found. General that he will be dropped unless he feeds and shelters the prisoners and explains his failure heretofore to do so. Order commissary at Lynchburg to furnish rations on the requisition of Colonel Gibbs' quartermaster for prisoners. G. W. R. His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, ATLANTA, June 18, 1862. President of the Confederate States of America. SIR: We are the survivors of the party that took the engine at Big Shanty on the 12th of April last. Our commander, Andrews, and seven of our comrades have been executed. We all (with the exception of Andrews) were regularly detailed from our regiments in perfect ignorance of where we were going and what we were to do. We were ordered to obey Andrews, and everything we did was done by his orders, he only telling his plans when he wished us to execute them. In this we are no more to blame than any Northern soldier, for any one of them in our circumstances would have been obliged to do just as we did. For fuller details we refer to the evidence in the cases that have been tried. No real harm was done, and as far as thought and intention is concerned we are perfectly innocent. Oh, it is hard to die a disgraceful and ignominious death; to leave our wives, our children, our brothers and sisters and parents without any consolation. Give this matter your most kind and merciful consideration. Give us that mercy you yourself hope to receive from the Judge of all. We will all take an oath not to fight or do anything against the Confederacy. If this cannot be done at least spare our lives until the war is closed, if we have to remain in prison until that time. Wilson [W.] Brown, Company F, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; William Bensinger, Company G, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; Elihu H. Mason, Company K, Twentyfirst Ohio Volunteers; John A. Wilson, Company C, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; John R. Porter, Company G, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; Mark Wood, Company C, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; Robert Buffum, Company H, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; William Knight, Company E, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers; William Pittenger, Company G, Second Ohio Volunteers; Daniel A. Dorsey, Company H, Thirty-third Ohio Volunteers; Jacob Parrott, Company K, Thirty-third Ohio Volunteers; William [H.] Reddick, Company B, Thirty-third Ohio Volunteers; M. J. Hawkins, Company A, Thirtythird Ohio Volunteers. ORDNANCE OFFICE, Richmond, June 19, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: I am requested by Maj. M. Lewis Clark, C. S. Army, to bring to your notice the capture of Mr. Broadwell whilst on duty in Missouri recovering lead which had been stored near the lead mines in Mis * See Series I, Vol. X, Part I, p. 630 et seq. for Railroad Raid into Georgia, ། souri, and of his son, William H. Clark, both of whom are now at Camp Chase, Ohio, and to ask that means be taken to procure their exchange as early as practicable. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. GORGAS, Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Richmond, June 20, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va. SIR: Col. Richard Thomas Zarvona applied to me in June, 1861, for service, being a graduate at West Point from Maryland. I extended to him the same courtesies I extended to other gentlemen from the State and authorized him to raise a regiment for the State service. Before he could do this I sent him upon an expedition in conjunction with the War Department, arranged with the Secretary of War, which resulted in the capture of the Saint Nicholas and other vessels. Immediately thereafter he with my approval went upon a mission of great importance, in the attempt to perform which he was captured and has been held in close confinement by the enemy ever since, and from all reports which have reached me has been subjected to cruelty unexampled among civilized nations. When Zarvona was captured he held a commission of colonel of active volunteers from the State of Virginia, and though I have requested the Confederate Government to interfere in his behalf I have been unable to effect his exchange or produce any amelioration in his condition. Upon my own responsibility I took an occasion to inform Colonel Zarvona that if the threat of Lincoln's Government to hang him upon the charge of piracy and treason was carried out I would see that two of his grade should hang for him. Captain Alexander, assistant adjutantgeneral and acting provost-marshal, informs me that the contents of this note were made known to the commandant at Fort McHenry, and in a few days Colonel Zarvona was informed that he would not be hung and his treatment was much ameliorated until after Captain Alexander's escape. I have caused funds in specie to be supplied for the comfort of Colonel Zarvona, but am unable to say whether he has received any of the benefits thereof. I earnestly trust that after twelve months' confinement some steps may be taken to effect his speedy release. No act is better calculated to endear our men to the cause than the earnest, zealous efforts of the Government to relieve our prisoners' wants and speedily to effect their exchange. I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN LETCHER. [Indorsement.] Inform Governor Letcher that the efforts of the Department to procure a fair exchange of prisoners have been unremitting; that at length it has reason to hope that a cartel of exchange is about to be commenced and from the facts now stated by the Governor will be able to claim the benefit of it for Colonel Zarvona. G, W. RANDOLPH. SPECIAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, VII. Col. George C. Gibbs will immediately appoint a quartermaster for the prisoners to call on the commissary at Lynchburg for rations such as are furnished our own soldiers. The commanding officer at Lynchburg will order the commissary at that post to furnish rations on the requisition of Colonel Gibbs' quartermaster for the prisoners. By command of the Secretary of War: Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH. JNO. WITHERS, Assistant Adjutant-General. ABERDEEN, MISS., June 20, 1862. DEAR SIR: I received a few days ago a communication from the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, proposing an exchange on parole of certain prisoners from my district for an equal number from his. I send you herewith the letter and the list of persons from my district for your consideration. I have no recommendation to make in regard to it. I would of course be gratified if an exchange could be effected. If you should determine to act in this matter and make the exchange I desire you will include in the list Lieut. Francis M. Nabers, of the Fourteenth Regiment Mississippi Volunteers. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, [Inclosure.] REUBEN DAVIS. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Hon. REUBEN DAVIS, or if absent, DEAR SIR: I have stated to friends of your constituents that I had some fifty or sixty of my constituents of the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers captured at Hatteras and now in confinement in South or North Carolina. If on the receipt of this letter these captured Indianians are still unexchanged I am authorized by Secretary Stanton to say that on their discharge on parole an equal number of your constituents from the inclosed list will be similarly released. Respectfully, yours, [Sub-inclosure.] SCHUYLER COLFAX. List of officers and privates* of Third Mississippi Regiment held as prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill. John C. Turner, first lieutenant; William H. Gwyn, second lieutenant; B. H. Estes, third lieutenant. CONFEDERATE HOSPITAL, Richmond, Va., June 21, 1862. General G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. GENERAL: I most respectfully ask that I may be paroled and sent home. The erysipelas is in the hospital and if it gets in my wound * Nominal list of seven non-commissioned officers and fifty-seven privates omitted. |