death will ensue. Grant my request for God's, humanity's and my family's sake, and that God's choicest blessings may rest on you and yours will ever be my prayer. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Colonel Eighty-seventh New York Volunteers. [First indorsement.] Referred to the Surgeon-General. If this officer's situation renders a removal to another hospital proper and advisable I wish it done. G. W. RANDOLPH, [Second indorsement.] Secretary of War. Inspector of hospital will examine this officer. I will go with [him] at about 1.30 p. m. [Third indorsement.] [S. P. MOORE.] OFFICE OF INSPECTOR OF HOSPITAL, June 25, 1862. I have examined this officer and find his wound in a healthy condition. Erysipelas has occurred in several cases in the hospital. He objects, however, to being removed to another hospital, preferring to remain where he is if not paroled. F. SORREL, Surgeon and Inspector of Hospital. PRAIRIE LEA, CALDWELL COUNTY, June 21, 1862. General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. SIR: By order of Brig. Gen. H. H. Sibley I am authorized to report myself to you a paroled prisoner for exchange. I was wounded in the battle of Valverde on the 21st of February last. I was left at the hospital at the town of Socorro and put upon hospital parole by the Federals about the 14th of April, together with all the hospital. About the 21st of April I was taken prisoner and (as you will see per date of parole) put on general parole on the 23d of April: FORT CRAIG, N. MEX., April 23, 1862. I, N. D. Cartwright, lieutenant of Company A of the First Regiment, Sibley's brigade, Confederate Army, do solemnly swear that I will not bear arms against the Government of the United States or in any other manner, either directly or indirectly, serve against the Government unless duly exchanged or otherwise released by proper authority from the obligations of this parole: So help me God. N. D. CARTWRIGHT, Brevet Second Lieutenant, Company A, First Regiment, Sibley's Brigade. I hereby certify that the foregoing is a correct statement of the facts concerning my imprisonment and parole. Also the part in brackets on the reverse side hereof a correct copy of the parole taken by me and signed as above indicated. N. D. CARTWRIGHT, Bvt. Second Lieut., Company A, First Regt., Sibley's Brigade. P. S.--SIR: [Will] you please attend to the above business with as much dispatch as possible as I am anxious to rejoin my company and avenge a wrong done to our brigade that none but our present enemies would have stooped to? Yours, fraternally, N. D. CARTWRIGHT. GENERAL ORDERS, } HDQRS. DEPT. OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, # III. By arrangement with the enemy medical officers of either side will be regarded as non-combatants and free from capture when engaged in attending the sick or wounded. * * By command of General Lee: R. H. CHILTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS, Chaffin's Farm, June 22, 1862. Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War: SIR: I beg leave, at the risk of seeming importunate, to press upon your consideration a class of cases for special exchange, to wit, the officers and men, and officers, if not men, of the war companies on parole. The late General Orders, No. 44, that twelve-months' companies at the expiration of their terms will be dropped and the commissions of these officers expire, leaves the war officers in a position of comparative hardship. They cannot serve the States and cannot look out for themselves in private occupation. Of this class are Captain Wallace, of the Fifty-ninth, and Lieutenant Carter, of the Forty-sixth Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and others. Captain Wallace will present you this and thinks if exchanged he can raise his company to 125. Lieutenant Carter's company, the Richmond Blues, paroled and in the field, now exceeds 100. I hope you will pardon my anxiety to get back my tried and seasoned men. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY A. WISE, Brigadier-General. LYNCHBURG, VA., June 23, 1862. Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith an extract* from the Hannibal (Mo.) Herald of the 10th instant, in which it will be perceived that Col. John L. Owen, of the Second Division, Missouri State Guard, who was an officer duly commissioned in accordance with the laws of the State of Missouri, and recently under my command, was recently captured near his late residence by the enemy, and although he demanded to be treated as a prisoner of war, according to the rules of civilized warfare, it was unhesitatingly refused him, and he was summarily executed without the form or pretense of trial. I have therefore to invite your attention to this subject again. The Confederate States now have as prisoners of war several colonels and officers of lower grade from the State of Missouri. These prisoners are treated with every leniency and consideration, whilst officers of like grade captured by the enemy, who have large families, estates and influence at home, such as Colonel Owen, are inhumanly murdered. Cannot some retaliatory measures be instituted which will afford some equality, if not protection, to the loyal men of Missouri? E 1 I have also to request a reply to my communication* of the 10th instant at your earliest convenience, as I have quite a number of applications and inquiries to answer from constituents. I have the honor to be, &c., your obedient servant, THOS. A. HARRIS. P. S.-Address to Lynchburg, Va. HEADQUARTERS HUGER'S DIVISION, June 23, 1862. General R. E. LEE, Commanding. GENERAL: I inclose you a letter, which no doubt is from General John E. Wool, dated 13th instant, but he has omitted to sign it, and with it a copy of his letter to me of 1st of June, at which time, supposing I was at Petersburg, he forwarded a number of our privateersmen to be exchanged. As I had left Petersburg I never received this .. letter and any arrangement made was done by others. As I am now out of position to attend to these matters I beg to refer these letters through you to the War Department for its action. Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, Maj. E. F. GRAY, BENJ. HUGER, HEADQUARTERS CAMP BEE, Near San Antonio, Tex., June 23, 1862. Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters Sub-Military Dist. of the Rio Grande, San Antonio, Tex. MAJOR: I have the honor to report for the information of the brig adier-general commanding the district that agreeably to Special Orders, No. 242, I broke up my camp at this place on the morning of the 28th of May ultimo and took up the line of march for Gillespie County. I reached Fredericksburg, the county site, on the morning of the 30th, and immediately proclaimed martial law as existing within the limits of the county, and in Precinct No. 5 of Kerr County, giving six days to enable the citizens to report to the provost-marshal and take the oath of allegiance. I found the people shy and timid. I visited with a part of my company several of the settlements and explained to the people the object of our visit to their county. In a few days they displayed much more confidence in us, and in a corresponding ratio more desire to serve the Government. At first I found it impossible to obtain forage for the horses of my company from the fact that the people who were favorable to the Confederate States Government had sold, whilst those who still had corn would not sell for paper money. I therefore directed Lieutenant Lilly to wait on Mr. F. Lochte, a wealthy merchant of the place who had bought largely the produce of the country, and who would not sell for paper currency, and inform him that I required fifty bushels of corn. After some little hesitation he agreed to furnish it. After this I had no difficulty in getting forage and all other necessary supplies. On the night of the 3d instant I received an order from the adjutantgeneral's office to cause the arrest of certain citizens of Medina County, and to endeavor to break up the chain of communication between the disaffected by private express. As to my action under this order I refer to my report dated the instant. On my return to Fredericksburg I found beyond doubt that the few citizens of the place who were friendly to this Government did not possess moral courage enough to give information to the provost-marshal of the sayings and doings of those who are unfriendly, and upon consultation with Lieutenant Sweet I determined to summon them to meet him and myself. They obeyed the order and made affidavits in regard to certain citizens of the county, viz: Sheriff Branbach, Captain Keuchler (State troops), F. W. Dobbler, a grocery keeper, and Mr. F. Lochte, merchant. The affidavits made were sufficient basis on which to warrant the arrest of these men. I detached parties for this pur pose and succeeded in arresting Mr. Dobbler. The others had all left the town. Branbach was afterwards arrested in Austin by Corporal Newton, of my company, and Mr. Lochte at Fredericksburg by Lieutenant Lilly, when he thought my company sufficiently distant to insure his safety. Captain Keuchler I did not succeed in arresting. He was the only one of the four who had not taken the oath of allegiance. These men are all inimical to our country and possess a vast amount of influence among the laboring and agricultural classes. Lochte, Dobbler and Branbach are now in the guard-house at San Antonio and their absence from Gillespie County will tend more to make the people of that county united in favor of our Government than anything else. In connection with this subject I may be allowed to suggest that steps should be taken to arrest Captain Keuchler. He is a man of great influence; a German enthusiast in politics and a dangerous man in the community. In Kerr County there are a few men who are bitterly opposed to our Government. These men are headed by an old man by the name of Nelson. I took care that he and his party should be notified in good time to report to the provost-marshal. This they failed to do and Nelson sent me a defiant message. I then sent a detachment of State troops kindly placed at my disposal to arrest him, but he had taken to the cedar brakes and escaped. The most of the inhabitants of that county are frontiersmen. Some of them, if not all, renegades from justice from other States, and men who will not fail to injure a political or personal enemy whenever an opportunity offers. A party of them burned the entire fences of an old man because his sons had gone to the war and because he was a good Southerner. On the 11th instant I moved my company from Gillespie County to Blanco County and declared martial law in existence there. Here I found the great majority of the people friendly, enthusiastically so, to the Confederate States Government. I ascertained, however, that there exists a small clique who are bitterly opposed to our cause in the eastern part of the county bordering on Travis. The names of the leaders of this party are Prescott, King, Howell, and two brothers, or father and son. by the name of Snow. Information reached me which led to the conviction that these men, or a majority of them, with some of the rabble. had gone to Fredericksburg armed and equipped to endeavor to raise a party to fight my command, but on arriving at Fredericksburg they found that they could do nothing so returned home, and through one of their understrappers, a man by the name of Eaton, endeavored to creat a feeling in the community against my company by manufacturing and circulating the basest falsehoods in regard to it. This Eaton acknow edged to me to have done, but the fellow was evidently so worthless that I took no steps in the matter. On the return of their party from Fredericksburg, Mr. King, one of their number, immediately started for Austin, where it is generally supposed by the citizens of Blanco the headquarters of the traitorous clique exists. A few days afterwards General Jack Hamilton was in that section of country, and although I have no positive evidence to that effect I have every reason to believe that King was dispatched by his party to report to Hamilton the state of affairs in the upper country, and that in consequence of the information thus conveyed he repaired to the disaffected settlements to attempt in them the creation of a military organization. I have undoubted information that strangers in large numbers have been gathering within the last few weeks at Guy Hamilton's ranch in Travis, near the Blanco County line. As many as twelve have passed Captain Cleveland's house in two or three days, all inquiring the way to Hamilton's. I am assured by the best citizens of Blanco that the disaffected of Kerr, Gillespie, Llano, Travis, Blanco and neighboring counties are organizing and that the rendezvous of the party is at or near Hamilton's ranch. On the 18th instant I broke up camp at Blanco City and moved my command to Kendall County. On the evening of the 19th I made camp near Boerne. Here I caused the arrest of Julius Schlicum, a merchant, who has been bitterly opposed to us and who I have reason to believe took an active part in forwarding expresses and information to Federal prisoners at Camp Verde and the disaffected citizens of his own and adjoining counties. He has been almost always in possession of news from the seat of war at least two days in advance of the mail. He controls from 100 to 150 votes in Kendall County. Mr. Schlicum is now a prisoner in the guard-house at San Antonio. On the morning of the 20th instant I received Special Orders, No. 299, directing me to repair with my company without delay to San Antonio. On the same day I took up the line of march for this place where I arrived on the 21st instant at noon. I have the honor to be, major, your obedient servant, Captain, Commanding Company of Texas Partisan Dragoons. LYNCHBURG, VA., June 24, 1862. Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. DEAR SIR: If you will pardon the intrusion of a suggestion I will without further ado proceed to make it. I have visited in person the breach in the canal about a mile above this city. It is a mere crevasse and could be repaired in twenty-four or forty-eight hours with proper force. The want of sufficient force I learn is the cause of the delay in making this important repair. I learn that provisions are daily lessened in the supply in Richmond. The completion of the canal and putting it in working order may become a military necessity. The 2,000 or 3,000 Yankee prisoners at this point could in forty-eight hours put the canal in operating condition. My suggestion is that they be put to the work. Many would volunteer at 15 or 30 cents per day. In Missouri prisoners are put to work on intrenchments, &c., without respect to persons. Believing that you will take the suggestion in the spirit it is intended, |