HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. THOMAS JORDAN, Chief of Staff, Chattanooga, Tenn.: The lists of Federal prisoners were forwarded by Major Clay to General Winder, Richmond. Will send by mail the few names we have. J. F. BELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. THOMAS JORDAN, Chief of Staff, Chattanooga, Tenn. GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose all the papers* relating to the Federal prisoners that can be found in this office. The lists sent here have been merely the signatures of the prisoners, which owing to their illegibility it was impossible to transcribe correctly and they were sent to General Winder as received. Respectfully, your obedient servant, SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 155. J. F. BELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, I. All exchanged prisoners will be restored to their old companies and regiments, which will be reorganized and distributed as soon as practicable as follows: One-third will be sent to Chattanooga, Tenn.; one-third to Tupelo, Miss., and one-third to such points as MajorGeneral Van Dorn may designate. Kentuckians and Tennesseeans as a general rule will be sent to Chattanooga. II. Regiments enlisted for twelve months will be reorganized under the provisions of the "Act to provide for the public defense," approved April 16, 1862, as soon as they can be brought together. During the impending campaign men properly belonging to these regiments cannot be restored to them but it will be done as soon as the exigencies of the service shall permit in all cases where it is the desire of the men. III. Furloughs cannot be granted at this time. Pay-rolls will be prepared as soon as possible and the proper officers of the quartermaster's department will provide means for the prompt payment and comfortable clothing of all exchanged and paroled men of our service. IV. Brigadier-General Tilghman will have the military command of the camps of rendezvous and instruction for exchanged and paroled men of this department. V. Brig. Gen. Thomas Jordan, chief of staff, is charged with the responsible duty of supervision of the exchange of men, their reorganization into regiments and assignments of regiments to their several commands, indicated herein before, and in the discharge of his duties is authorized to issue all necessary orders in the name of the commander of the department. VI. When all prisoners of war of the enemy and exchanged and paroled men of our Army shall have been disposed of Brigadier-General Tilghman will report for duty to Major-General Van Dorn. *Not found. VII. Rolls of exchanged and paroled prisoners will be rigidly scrutinized to the end that none but those persons actually entitled to military exchange may be imposed upon us. VIII. Paroled men of regiments enlisted for twelve months not yet exchanged subject to remain in service will be assigned to their old companies and regiments for the purpose of reorganization under the law of 16th of April, 1862, but will not be called upon for duty except for police and guard at camps of instruction and rendezvous. IX. All officers and men captured at Fort Donelson, Madrid Bend and Island No. 10 between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five who are not at present on duty with other regiments will repair at once to Jackson, Miss., to report to Brigadier-General Tilghman. X. All prisoners of war within the limits of the department taken from the enemy will be forthwith sent under proper escort to Jackson, Miss., to be turned over to Brigadier-General Tilghman. XI. A duplicate list of all prisoners of war will be transmitted to Brigadier-General Jordan, chief of staff, at Jackson, Miss. By command of General Bragg: THOMAS JORDAN, Chief of Staff. Extracts from message of Jefferson Davis to Confederate Congress August 18, 1862. To the SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: Within a recent period we have effected the object so long desired of an arrangement for the exchange of prisoners which is now being executed by delivery at the points agreed upon and which will it is hoped speedily restore our brave and unfortunate countrymen to their places in the ranks of the Army from which by the fortune of war they have for a time been separated. The details of this arrangement will be communicated to you in a special report when further progress has been made in their execution. ** Two at least of the generals of the United States are engaged unchecked by their Government in exciting servile insurrection and in arming and training slaves for warfare against their masters, citizens of the Confederacy. Another has been found of instincts so brutal as to invite the violence of his soldiery against the women of a captured city. Yet the rebuke of civilized man has failed to evoke from the authorities of the United States one mark of disapprobation of his acts, nor is there any reason to suppose that the conduct of Benjamin F. Butler has failed to secure from his Government the sanction and applause with which it is known to have been greeted by public meetings and portions of the press of the United States. To inquiries made by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States whether the atrocious conduct of some of their military commanders met the sanction of that Government answer has been evaded on the pretext that the inquiry was insulting, and no method remains for the repres sion of these enormities but such retributive justice as it may be found possible to execute. Retaliation for many of them in kind is impracticable for I have had occasion to remark in a former message that under no excess of provocation could our noble-hearted defenders be driven to wreak vengeance on unarmed men, on women or on children. But stern and exemplary punishment can and must be meted out to the murderers and felons who disgracing the profession of arms seek to make of public war the occasion for the commission of the most monstrous crimes. Deeply as we may regret the character of the contest into which we are about to be forced we must accept it as an alternative which recent manifestations give us little hope can be avoided. The exasperation of failure has aroused the worst passions of our enemies. A large portion of their people, even of their clergymen, now engage in urging an excited populace to the extreme of ferocity and nothing remains but to vindicate our right and to maintain our existence by employing against our foe every energy and every resource at our disposal. I append for your information a copy of the papers* exhibiting the action of the Government up to the present time for the repression of the outrages committed on our people. Other measures now in progress will be submitted hereafter. * JEFFERSON DAVIS. General VAN DORN, Vicksburg: RICHMOND, August 18, 1862. Fifteen thousand prisoners are expected to be delivered by the United States Government to our agent at Vicksburg. The Secretary of War desires you will order them to their regiments and corps for the field as speedily as possible. Meantime cause the desired care to be taken in provisioning them by the commissariat of your army. S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Richmond, August 19, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: I inclose for your consideration a letter from William Skeen, esq., attorney for the Commonwealth for Alleghany County, in regard to Rucker, recently captured by Major Bailey at Nicholas Court-House, and respectfully request that Major-General Loring be instructed to deliver Rucker to the sheriff of Alleghany, that he may be indicted and tried for violations of the laws of this State. I am, truly, JOHN LETCHER. [First indorsement.] Respectfully submitted to the President for instructions. General Loring has informed me that Mr. Price, a leading citizen of Greenbrier County, has been seized and is held as a hostage for Doctor Rucker. G. W. R. [Second indorsement.] The allegation of hostility to the Government of Virginia and Confederate States is sustained by the arrest, but it would not serve a good purpose to indict for treason those citizens who may have chosen to adhere to the enemy. If the prisoner had been a soldier of the hostile army he would be entitled to the treatment due to a prisoner of war, which might prevent his delivery to be tried for a civil offense. Not being taken in arms and not being avowedly in the employment of the enemy, he may be subject to a claim for trial for a specific crime. [Inclosure.] J. D. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY FOR THE Governor LETCHER, Richmond, Va. August 11, 1862. GOVERNOR: Immediately after the arrest of Dr. William P. Rucker I demanded in writing from Major-General Loring his surrender to the civil authorities to be tried for treason, murder and larceny. I had no warrant against him for treason, but had abundant evidence to establish his guilt. For the other crimes the warrants are in my hands. General Loring has not yet decided what to do and may conclude to treat him as a prisoner of war. I therefore place the matter in your hands. I am of the opinion that every Virginian taken in the Yankee army ought to be prosecuted for treason and every Yankee who has stolen a negro made to answer the laws of Virginia, but of this you are the judge and I only make the suggestion. If wrong you will pardon the suggestion. In haste, I am, Governor, very truly, yours, W. SKEEN, Attorney for Commonwealth of Alleghany and Provost-Marshal. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S Office, No. 59. Whereas, information has been received that certain peaceable citizens of the Confederate States have been seized and put to death by order of General Fitch,* commanding the army of the United States which had invaded the State of Arkansas, upon the ground that one of the said invading army had been shot by some unknown person who, whatever his condition, had an unquestionable right to defend his home; and whereas, inquiry has been made of the Government of the United States as to the correctness of the said information, and whether the action of General Fitch has the sanction of the said Government, to which inquiry the authorities of the United States have refused to answer; and whereas, our Government is driven to retaliatory measures as the only means to protect the lives of the peaceable citizens of the Confederate States who may fall into the hands of General Fitch, or any person acting under his authority: It is hereby ordered that general officers commanding the troops of the Confederate States shall forthwith ascertain and report to the President whether such acts have been committed, and upon being certified [satisfied] thereof shall forth with set apart by lot, from among any prisoners taken from the army under the command of General Fitch, a number of officers equal in number to the persons who have been put to death as aforesaid, and place them in close confinement for execu tion at such time thereafter as may be ordered by the President, aud * Reference is to Col. Graham N. Fitch, Forty-sixth Indiana. shall regard the said General Fitch, if captured, not as a prisoner of war, but place him in confinement as a felon until the further order of the President. By order: S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS, Hon. HORACE CONE, Recorder, &c., Houston, Tex. SIR: In reply to your communication of the 13th of August in regard to authority of the military commission at Houston I am directed by the general commanding to say that the commission was organized for the purpose of trying all cases of seditious and traitorous persons against whom charges are preferred, without regard to time or place of committing the offense. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 60. I. Whereas, Major-General Hunter, recently in command of the enemy's forces on the coast of South Carolina, and Brigadier-General Phelps, a military commander of the enemy in the State of Louisiana, have organized and armed negro slaves for military service against their masters, citizens of this Confederacy; and whereas, the Government of the United States has refused to answer an inquiry whether said conduct of its officers meets its sanction and has thus left to this Government no other means of repressing said crimes and outrages than the adoption of such measures of retaliation as shall serve to prevent their repetition: Ordered, That Major-General Hunter and Brigadier-General Phelps be no longer held and treated as public enemies of the Confederate States, but as outlaws, and that in the event of the capture of either of them, or that of any other commissioned officer employed in drilling, organizing or instructing slaves with a view to their armed service in this war, he shall not be regarded as a prisoner of war but held in close confinement for execution as a felon at such time and place as the President shall order. By order: S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General. SPECIAL ORDERS, Į HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, * VI. Paragraph V, Special Orders, No. 155,* current series, from these headquarters, is revoked and the several duties therein assigned * See p. 853. |
