enemy will require regular officers in exchange unless their status be arranged in the cartel. Hoping that I have not trespassed upon your valuable time, I am, yours, most respectfully, M. JEFF. THOMPSON, Brig. Gen., Missouri State Guard, on Special Service, C. S. Army. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH. PETERSBURG, July 27, 1862. MY DEAR SIR: I have this morning heard that my father and some others of the most reputable citizens of Fredericksburg have within a few days been arrested and carried to Washington, to be held it is said as hostages for some Union men arrested by our military authorities. It is rumored here that Major-General Hill, our commissioner for effecting an exchange of prisoners, has insisted upon the unconditional release of all non-combatants arrested by the enemy and a stipulation against further arrests as a sine qua non to any negotiation and that the enemy are now holding that under advisement. I trust that it is so and that it will be insisted upon by our Government. Invaded as we are, with those near and dear to almost every soldier in our service from every State in the Confederacy exposed to seizure and imprisonment, it is a matter in which we all feel the deepest solicitude. Better far, infinitely better, to have no exchange of prisoners at all than to have our families thus exposed and to have an old man left to be seized and imprisoned at the pleasure of a cruel and unscru pulous enemy. I hope that some means will be taken to effect their speedy release. I know you will excuse my troubling you when, besides the concern that a son would always feel under such circumstances, I tell you that my father is a man of seventy years of age and very infirm health, to whom daily exercise in the open air is a necessity and who will be killed-murdered-by confinement. My mother is nearly as old. My sisters, my wife and little children are left without any one to look after them in Fredericksburg. I know you will do what may be in your power. May God prosper your efforts. Very truly and faithfully, yours, W. S. BARTON. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., July 28, 1862. Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: I present for your consideration some questions of much interest and importance to the people of Virginia and will be pleased to have your views at as early a day as practicable. 1. The Code of Virginia (edition of 1860), chapter 190, page 783, treats of offenses against the sovereignty of the State. The first sec tion of this act defines treason, declares how the offense is to be proved and affixes the punishment of death. The second section relates to misprision of treason and affixes the punishment. The third section relates to attempting or instigating others to establish a usurped government within the limits of this Commonwealth. Under this act John Brown and his associates in crime were indicted, tried. convicted and executed. I am informed and believe it to be true that General Jackson captured quite a number of men raised for the Lincoln army in Northwestern Virginia, with the approbation and under the authority of the usurped government which has been inaugurated in that section of the State. Many of the men so captured are native Virginians and all of them are citizens owing allegiance to the lawful government of the State. These men thus found in arms have been guilty of treason against this Commonwealth and richly deserve the punishment which the law attaches to their crime. I request therefore that these men be turned over to the State authorities to be tried for treason under this act of the General Assembly. 2. The fourth section of this same act declares the punishment for advising or conspiring with a slave to rebel or make insurrection. For more than a year past the officers and soldiers of Lincoln's army have been within the limits of Virginia stimulating slaves to resist the laws of the Commonwealth and encouraging them to abscond from their lawful owners. They have used every appliance to array them in hostility against the people of Virginia and to induce them to aid in the prosecution of this wicked and infamous war which is being carried on against us, violating both in letter and spirit this section of our statute. At this time we have a large number of officers captured in the recent battles on the Chickahominy, all of which I believe took place in Henrico County. There can be no question therefore in regard to the question of jurisdiction in these cases. I request therefore that some of the more prominent officers may be turned over for indictment and trial for violating the fourth section of the act referred to. If these persons have violated our State law and a jury shall so find, then they deserve and should receive such punishment as the law prescribes. There is an additional question. Private citizens engaged in agricultural, mechanical and professional pursuits who have not taken up arms during the war have been seized, torn from their homes and families and carried to remote points where they have been imprisoned and many of them have been harshly treated. In the negotiations now pending for an exchange of prisoners could not a clause be inserted which would prevent the repetition of such outrages? Respectfully, JOHN LETCHER. OLD CAPITOL PRISON, Washington, July 30, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: We, the undersigned, are held here by the Federal Government of the United States (having been arrested for that purpose) as hostages for Charles Williams, of Fredericksburg, and Peter Couse, Moses Morrison and Thomas Morrison, of Spotsylvania County. We are all citizens of Fredericksburg, having families at home who are rendered very uncomfortable by our absence. If therefore no important policy of the Confederate authorities would be violated by the release of said Charles Williams, Couse and the two Messrs. Morrison we would respectfully ask that they be released that we may also be released by the Federal authorities. We are assured that in case Williams, &c., should be released we will be. A petition in behalf of several of us was sent to Richmond from Fredericksburg. The last one of the list was arrested after that petition was forwarded, and besides we are not sure that the petition reached your Department as the messenger has not been heard from. We shall try to forward this by a flag of truce and hope our application will be considered at your earliest convenience. Permit us to refer to Rev. J. B. Jeter, D. D.; Rev. T. V. Moore, D. D.; Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, Hon. D. C. de Jarnette, Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D.; Commander M. F. Maury, Dr. John P. Lit tle, Dr. B. R. Wellford, B. R. Wellford, jr., and D. H. Gordon, esq., and Hon. William Smith. III. Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 44, current series, is hereby revoked, and all paroled prisoners whose regiments are in the East will report at Richmond, Va., and those whose regiments are in the West, at Vicksburg, Miss. IV. All seizures and impressments of any description of property whatever and especially of arms and ordnance stores belonging to the States of the Confederacy are hereby prohibited, and officers of the C. S. Army are enjoined to abstain carefully from such seizures and impressments, and in case they are made by mistake such officers are ordered to make prompt restitution. By command of the Secretary of War: S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. RICHMOND, VA., July 31, 1862. General ROBERT E. LEE, Commanding, &c. SIR: On the 22d of this month a cartel for a general exchange of prisoners of war was signed between Maj. Gen. Ď. H. Hill, in behalf of the Confederate States, and Maj. Gen. John A. Dix, in behalf of the United States. By the terms of that cartel it is stipulated that all prisoners of war hereafter taken shall be discharged on parole until exchanged. Scarcely had that cartel been signed when the military authorities of the United States commenced a practice changing the character of the war from such as becomes civilized nations into a campaign of indiscriminate robbery and murder. The general orders issued by the Secretary of War of the United States in the city of Washington on the very day that the cartel was signed in Virginia directs the military commanders of the United States to take the private property of our people for the convenience and use of their armies without compensation. The general orders issued by Major-General Pope on the 23d of July. the day after the signing of the cartel, directs the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies if found quietly tilling their farms in his rear, even outside of his lines, and one of his brigadier-generals, Steinwehr, has seized upon innocent and peaceful inhabitants to be held as hostages to the end that they may be murdered in cold blood if any of his soldiers are killed by some unknown persons whom he designates as "bushwhackers." Under this state of facts this Government has issued the inclosed general orders* recognizing General Pope and his commissioned officers to be in the position which they have chosen for themselves-that of robbers and murderers and not that of public enemies entitled if captured to be considered as prisoners of war. We find ourselves driven by our enemies by steady progress toward a practice which we abhor and which we are vainly struggling to avoid. Some of the military authorities of the United States seem to suppose that better success will attend a savage war in which no quarter is to be given and no [age or] sex to be spared than has hitherto been secured by such hostilities as are alone recognized to be lawful by civilized men in modern times. For the present we renounce our right of retaliation on the innocent and shall continue to treat the private enlisted soldiers of General Pope's army as prisoners of war, but if after notice [has been given] to the Government at Washington of our confining repressive measures to the punishment only of commissioned officers who are willing participants in these crimes these savage practices are continued we shall reluctantly be forced to the last resort of accepting the war on the terms chosen by our foes until the outraged voice of a common humanity forces a respect for the recognized rules of war. While these facts would justify our refusal to execute the generous cartel by which we have consented to liberate an excess of thousands of prisoners held by us beyond the number held by the enemy a sacred regard to plighted faith, shrinking from the mere semblance of breaking a promise, prevents our resort to this extremity. Nor do we desire to extend to any other forces of the enemy the punishment merited galone by General Pope and such commissioned officers as choose to participate in the execution of his infamous orders. You are therefore instructed to communicate to the Commander-inChief of the Armies of the United States the contents of this letter and a copy of the inclosed* general orders, to the end that he may be notified of our intention not to consider army officers hereafter captured from General Pope's army as prisoners of war. Very respectfully, yours, &c., JEFFERSON DAVIS. HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT, Brig. Gen. H. H. SIBLEY, C. S. Army, Commanding Army of New Mexico. GENERAL: There are in this military district some 284 Federal prisoners subject to exchange or being placed under parole. Should it meet with your approbation, immediate measures can be taken to exchange a number of them against such of your command as may be prisoners in New Mexico or elsewhere under parole. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, *Reference is to General Orders, No. 54, August 1, p. 836. [Form 2.] Abstract of provisions issued from the 1st of July, 1862, to the 31st of July, 1862, to prisoners of war stationed [confined] at Lynchburg, Va., by Capt. J. V. L. Rodgers, acting assistant quartermaster and assistant commissary of subsistence. (NOTE. The fractional parts of a pound must be stated in reducing to bulk.) Rations. drawn for. July 1 July 4 July 7 July 10 July 13 July 16 July 19 July 22 July 25 123456789 2,260 2, 335 2, 335 2,346 2,354 2, 408 2, 461 2,502 July 28 10 2, 502 I hereby certify that I have carefully compared the above abstract with the original returns now in my possession and find that they amount to 33,484 rations of fresh beef, 40,651 rations of bacon, 74,135 rations of flour, 33,714 rations of beans, 40,421 rations of rice, 400 rations of coffee, 59,805 rations of sugar, 10,000 rations of vinegar, 3,000 rations of candles, 5,500 rations of soap, 74,135 rations of salt. GEO. C. GIBBS, Colonel Forty-second North Carolina Regiment, Commanding. Candles. Soap. Salt. |