We have seen in the Northern papers that Mr. William B. Mumford, of New Orleans, and Col. John L. Owen, of the Missouri State Guard, have been executed by the U. S. authorities-Mr. Mumford for having pulled down the U. S. flag in New Orleans, and Colonel Owen upon the charge of bridge burning in Missouri. The former was hung, the latter was shot. We are informed that Mr. Mumford pulled the flag down when the enemy were not yet in possession of the city, but had merely anchored their vessels before it and had made a demand for a surrender which had not been complied with. A party landed, hoisted the flag and retired. The city was not in their possession nor subject to their jurisdiction. Under such circumstances the execution of Mr. Mumford was the murder of one of our citizens. I inclose* the account of his execution from the New Orleans Delta. We are informed that Colonel Owen was shot without trial. Such is the account given in the Missouri papers, as you will perceive from the inclosed slip containing an extract from the Hannibal [Mo.] · Herald. He was a duly commissioned officer of the Second Division 1 of the Missouri State Guard. We have executed private individuals for burning bridges and persons in military service for coming disguised within our lines to destroy railroads, but we have given them fair trials. If Colonel Owen entered the enemy's lines in disguise and burnt bridges, we could not consistently deny their right to try and punish him, but an execution without trial is not justifiable under any circumstances, and if he acted in obedience to orders and without entering the lines of the enemy in disguise his execution is a palpable murder committed by a U. S. officer. Supposing Mr. Mumford, a citizen of the Confederate States, to have been executed for an insult to the U. S. flag hoisted in a city not in their possession, and Colonel Owen to have been executed without trial, we deem it our duty to call on the authorities of the United States for a statement of the facts, inasmuch as we do not intend to permit outrage of that character to be perpetrated without retaliation. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, June 29, 1862. Hon. T. A. HARRIS, Lynchburg, Va. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23d instant and to inform you that in consequence of the information in your letter of the 10th instant I directed General Lovell to inform the United States Government through General Butler of our intention to retaliate in case members of the State Guard of Missouri were executed under circumstances not justified by the laws of civil warfare. We ourselves have exercised the right of hanging persons not in military service who burned bridges, and we have hung persons in military serv ice who entered our lines disguised for the purpose of destroying a railroad. We cannot therefore retaliate without accurate knowledge of the facts of the case. I directed General Lovell to inform General Butler that we claimed the right of fair trial in such cases and that we reserved the right to † See page 134. * *See page 135. determine whether such trial had been allowed. I will make the same communication here and call special attention to the case of Colonel Owen. I submitted your views in reference to the guerrilla war said to be going on in Missouri to the President and informed him that you desired an expression of opinion from the Government on the policy of such warfare. He is inclined to agree with you in opinion, but does not consider himself sufficiently informed of the state of things in Missouri to express an opinion upon the matter. Generals Magruder and Price will soon repair to the Trans-Mississippi Department, and we hope that a system of regular warfare will soon be initiated which will render a guerrilla war unnecessary. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. RICHMOND, June 29, 1862. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War, Richmond. DEAR SIR: Release on parole the men and keep the officers here or at Salisbury, N. C. I have had many chances to observe these people and find the officers bitter. The privates to a man say: "Let us go and we will never fight again." God bless you. Your old friend, [Indorsement.] W. W. GILMER. Inform that the Department was engaged in doing so when the recent operations commenced and had sent off about 2,000 privates and noncommissioned officers. [G. W. R.] HEADQUARTERS, [DepartmeT No. 2,] June 30, 1862. Col. P. B. STARKE, Commanding, Jackson, Miss. COLONEL: You may inform Captain Nase (Federal prisoner of war) that the general commanding has made repeated efforts to induce the Federal authorities to recognize and square their conduct with the usages of war in relation to prisoners of war, but General Halleck has failed to reply to the efforts made to ameliorate the condition of prisoners and has violated in effect his own voluntary promises, hence the general at present does not feel authorized to parole Captain Nase, but will propose his exchange at an early day for Capt. M. T. Polk, one of our wounded officers in possession of the enemy at Respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH. THOMAS JORDAN, NEAR ASHLAND, June 30, 1862. MY DEAR SIR: By this mail I send you officially a notification of the facts that on the 29th ultimo I was captured by a party sent for that purpose by General Emory to my father's where I was too ill to get out of the way. I add this private note to beg your good offices in getting me released as soon as practicable from my parole not to bear arms against the United States until exchanged. Robertson's promotion makes me particularly anxious to be enabled to rejoin the regiment, which sadly needs my care. I feel confident that both for my sake and the sake of the service you will do what you can for me. Yours, truly, WMS. C. WICKHAM. NEAR ASHLAND, June 30, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: I beg leave to call your attention to the fact that on the 29th of May (I being at that time lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry), being at my father's wounded and in a state of health in which my surgeon told me my life would be endangered by any attempt at removal, I was by order of General Emory, of the U. S. Army, put upon my parole not to bear arms until exchanged. I find myself now so far better that I think I could join my regiment in a few days could I procure the release from my parole. I am very desirous to do so and there are reasons why I should be as soon as practicable with the regiment. I hope therefore that I may look forward to an early exchange. Your obedient servant, WMS. C. WICKHAM, Colonel Fourth Virginia Cavalry. GENERAL ORDERS, No. 46. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, II. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 44, current series, is hereby rescinded and the following paragraph is substituted in lieu thereof: Persons under eighteen and over thirty-five years of age who have re-enlisted for three years or the war are not entitled to their discharge under the conscript act. Persons of the ages above mentioned who enlisted for twelve months or for a shorter term will be entitled to their discharge ninety days after the expiration of their term of service. III. All chaplains taken prisoners of war by the armies of the Confederate States while engaged in the discharge of their proper duties will be immediately and unconditionally released. By command of the Secretary of War: S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, July, 1862. Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill, Commanding Division. GENERAL: I find on inquiry that there will be some difficulty in delivering the released prisoners at City Point. It will be best to march them down by the Varina road (a branch of the New Market road) to A. M. Aiken's, a point on the river below Dutch Gap, where they can be received by their own boats. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General. General S. PRICE, MILITARY PRISON, Alton, Ill., [July 1, (?)] 1862. Commanding First Division, Western Department, C. S. Army. DEAR GENERAL: We, the undersigned, members of the C. S. military corps and citizens of the Confederate States of America, respect fully ask through our Government to immediately consider separately and collectively our situations as prisoners of war, now held as criminals by the United States Government and incarcerated in the Alton Penitentiary for executing the orders of the Confederate Government as directed by her commissioned officers. Our treatment by the Federal authorities is and has been of such a nature that we deem it absolutely necessary to appeal to our Government to throw around us her safeguard and relieve us from the horrors of a long imprisonment and the execution of our sentences. Subjected to great indignity, basely insulted by fiendish outlaws, tortured by threats of death and punished with a felon's decree, by being shut up in a cell day and night for boldly assist ing the Government we love in resisting the encroachments of a bloodthirsty mobocracy-after undergoing this fiery ordeal we firmly believe we merit from the Confederate States Government her fullest protection and that cognizance should be taken of our cases at the earliest possible moment. With the earnestness of much-wronged citizens and soldiers we append to this the names* of— Surgeon in Harris' Division, Missouri State Guard. JOHN W. OWEN, JAMES STOUT. WILLIAM J. FORSHEY. Recruit. FREDERICKSBURG, July 2, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: The undersigned, citizens of Fredericksburg, have obtained information that Brigadier-General Reynolds, of the U. S. Army, is among the prisoners of war captured by our forces in the recent glorious *For the trial and conviction of all these men as guerrillas, &c., see Vol. I, this Series, p. 282 et seq. success of our army before Richmond. We deem it a simple act of justice to General Reynolds to state for the information of our Government that for a portion of the time during which Fredericksburg has been occupied by the U. S. forces General Reynolds was the military 2 commandant here. In discharging his functions as such the citizens and civil authorities of the town were necessarily brought into personal intercourse with him touching matters involving the rights of private property and the domestic order and peace of the town. We feel called upon to testify that General Reynolds exhibited in a marked and effi›cient manner a desire and determination so to conduct his military command here as to conserve and protect as far as practicable the personal rights and domestic comfort of the citizens, and thus to mitigate, so far as his action could avail, the evils and annoyances which are incident to such an occupation. Your own military experience will readily suggest to you how materially such conduct as this on the part of a commanding officer could avail in saving our citizens from the › countless ills which an unbridled and licentious soldiery might inflict on a helpless population; and while, sir, neither this kindness and consideration nor any other act or line of conduct pursued by the military authority now occupying our homes can avail in the slightest degree in modifying our sentiments touching the heinousness of our invasion or our devotion to our beloved cause and Government, yet we do feel that inasmuch as when we were prisoners in the hands of General Reynolds we received from him a treatment distinguished by a marked and considerate respect for our opinions and feelings, it becomes us to use our feeble influence in invoking for him, now a prisoner of our Government, a treatment as kind and considerate as was extended by him to us. We would therefore hope that he might be placed upon parole. We are aware that there are grave considerations of public policy and duty which may enter into this question and which may restrain and hinder our Government from consulting its feelings and instincts in determining such a matter. Certainly we are far from desiring that any measures of leniency should prevail in particular instances toward Federal captives if it weakens in any degree the power of our Government to demand and secure the comfort and rights of our own brave men now captives in Federal hands. With great respect, &c., SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 153. M. SLAUGHTER, Mayor. [And 26 others.] ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Richmond, July 3, 186. * XIV. Drill-master C. C. Trabue is relieved from duty at Camp Lee and will report to General John H. Winder, commanding, &c., for duty at the C. S. military prisons in this city. * By command of the Secretary of War: JNO. WITHERS, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS, Doctor Poindexter's House, July 3, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War, Richmond. SIR: The number of prisoners taken during the last week make it necessary that some provision be made both for their security and |