SERIES II.-VOL. V. CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM DECEMBER 1, 1862, TO JUNE 10, 1863. UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. Extract from Annual Report of the Secretary of War, December 1, 1862. The Adjutant-General's Office has also had charge of the exchange of prisoners. In the month of July a cartel of exchange was arranged by General John A. Dix, on the part of the United States, and General [D. H.] Hill, of the rebel army, under which large numbers of prisoners of war have been exchanged. There still remain some paroled prisoners belonging to the U. S. Army whose exchange will be effected at the earliest opportunity. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Maj. Gen. W. S. ROSECRANS, Commanding U. S. Forces, Nashville, Tenn. GENERAL: I am in receipt of your communication of the 29th* [ultimo] in reply to mine in reference to the case of Adjutant Hawkins. The cir cumstances which formed the basis of complaint occurred in a distant part of my department and I have no information in regard to the matter other than that transmitted you in my last. I concur fully with you in your suggestions in regard to the uses of the flag as a means of communication between the opposing armies. Official courtesy no less than a precaution against the improper use of the flag requires that it should come from the commanding general and follow the most direct route. Entertaining these views I was surprised to receive a communication of equal date with yours from one of your subordinates, MajorGeneral McCook, addressed to me directly and sent by a circuitous route. The selection of the Franklin pike for a flag was certainly singular, as no one desiring to reach this place in ordinary times would make choice of that road. On the same day I also received a communication from another of your subordinate officers, General Negley, who sought by flag to effect an object highly unpleasant to me, and which he afterwards accomplished contrary to my expressed and imperative regulations. I can only account for these discrepancies by presuming *See Series I, Vol. XX, Part II, p. 109. 1 R R-SERIES II, VOL V (1) that these violations of courtesy were without your knowledge or approval. I cordially reciprocate your views in making known your intention to conform in this as in all other things to the laws and usages of war. It shall be my aim strictly to conform to such a line of policy, and should any deviations inadvertently occur the errors shall be promptly corrected when brought to my attention. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Maj. Gen. W. S. ROSECRANS, Commanding U. S. Forces, Nashville, Tenn. GENERAL: Inclosed I send you a communication for Major-General Wright in reply to one from him received under cover from MajorGeneral McCook. Hereafter I must insist that all communications from your lines intended for me shall come from the commander of the forces and not as in this instance from a subordinate officer. Respectfully, your obedient servant, [Inclosure.] BRAXTON BRAGG, General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Maj. Gen. H. G. WRIGHT. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 23d ultimo* proposing an exchange of a citizen of Kentucky, now a prisoner in your hands, for another represented to be held by our forces as a hostage. As the party is not within my control and I am without any information as to the circumstances or cause of his arrest the matter will be referred to my Government. I cannot refrain in this connection from calling your attention to the action of your Government in its treatment of citizens of Kentucky and other States who are simply suspected or who express sympathy with the Confederate cause. Numbers of individuals, non-combatants, are daily arrested and sent to Ohio prisons for acts which the Confederate forces commit and for which they alone should be held responsible. Though strongly urged when in Kentucky to retaliate upon Union men by similar treatment in order to procure the release of the true and loyal Kentuckians in Federal prisons I resolutely declined to recognize or countenance such a principle as that practiced by your authorities. If any arrests were made they were unauthorized, and the isolated instances in which they occurred were but exceptions to a positive rule to the contrary. The Confederate authorities, military and civil, have uniformly observed the principle of the exemption of non-combatants from molestation for the acts of the organized forces of the United States. It would be a gratifying feature in a war full enough of horrors without such unnecessary adjuncts if the Federal Government would observe a similar action. Instead, however, of such being now the practice private property is destroyed or confiscated and citizens are mulcted and retaliated upon even unto death. It is * Omitted. not to be denied that the patience of the Confederate Government is becoming threadbare. It has in vain resorted to every resource recognized by civilized warfare in retaliation of such outrages, but with no avail except in individual cases. It has failed to elicit any disavowal of the principle on which the Federal Government acts, and it is to be apprehended that as a natural result a system of retaliation in kind will be resorted to. It will rest chiefly with the Federal Government to decide hereafter the character which the contest shall assume. These acts of retaliation upon individuals, together with the indig nities to our clergy at different periods and more recently in a Southern city, are steeling the hearts and nerving the arms of our people to the last degree of desperation. Union-social association with a people guilty of such acts-is henceforth an impossibility. Destitution, the prison-death itself-is preferable. Respectfully, your obedient servant, [Indorsement.] BRAXTON BRAGG, General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Cincinnati, December 9, 1862. Respectfully referred to the assistant adjutant-general, Headquarters of the Army, for the information of the General-in-Chief. The within is in reply to my letter of the 23d ultimo* to General Bragg relative to the exchange of A. H. Townly, a citizen of Campbell County, Ky., captured by a party of General Kirby Smith's command in September last, and reported to be held as a hostage for one L. C. Norman, of Boone County, Ky., and now a prisoner of the United States. The matter of their exchange was referred to me to negotiate by the commissary-general of prisoners, Colonel Hoffman. H. G. WRIGHT, Major-General, Commanding. JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL'S OFFICE, December 1, 1862. On the application of Capt. Benjamin P. Walker, late assistant commissary of subsistence, to be restored to the service from which he was recently dismissed by order of the President: The grounds on which this officer was dismissed are in the order stated to be "habitual absence from his post and gross and willful neglect of duty." These charges rest upon a report made to Colonel Hoffman, Third Infantry, U. S. Army, commissary-general of prisoners, by Capt. H. M. Lazelle, Eighth Infantry, U. S. Army, under date of 7th of August, 1862, and on a letter addressed to the latter on the 27th of July, 1862, by Col. C. W. B. Allison, temporarily commanding at Camp Chase. The report goes very much in detail and professes to be the result of an examination made into the administration of Captain Walker at Camp Chase. Captain Lazelle seems to have found nothing. to commend but very much to condemn. The points which he presents against Captain Walker are principally: 1. Continued absence without leave from his post. 2. Inefficiency or unfaithfulness in receiving from the contractors and issuing to the troops inferior provisions. * Omitted. 3. In charging to the department the expense of issuing the rations and the wastage which occurred and in unnecessarily keeping on hand large quantities of provisions at the risk of the Government. As Captain Lazelle was at Camp Chase but a short time his own testimony in support of the charge of habitual absence without leave cannot be regarded as entitled to much more weight than belongs to the expression of an opinion formed from rumor or from the statements of others. The same remark may be made in reference to the letter of Colonel Allison, who in speaking of Captain Walker says, "He is absent three-fourths of the time. He has never asked or obtained my authority for his absence." It is ascertained that Colonel Allison who certifies so emphatically was in command at Camp Chase but for three or four weeks. Against these statements, based upon such limited opportunities for acquiring correct information on the point, we have the positive averment of W. J. Holmes that for eight months preceding the 19th of November, 1862, he had acted as military secretary of the post and had as such written leaves for Captain Walker by order as well of Colonel Moody as of Colonel Allison during their administrations. He adds: "I have no recollection of the captain ever being absent without leave or overstaying his leave of absence." John W. Sayre, Captain Walker's clerk through the entire time of his service, swears that to his knowledge the captain was never absent except on leave and that he never neglected his duties. This charge of absence without leave is fully refuted by various other persons of unquestiouable credibility. The proof on the point is entirely satisfactory and removes all doubt as to the groundlessness of the imputation. Captain Lazelle seems to have based his report on a very cursory and superficial examination. Several of the witnesses state that he came "with kid gloves" and did not cut or handle anything but condemned everything on sight alone. It is but charitable to infer from the mistakes he made that he accepted as true complaints and hearsay which reached him without giving himself the trouble of scrutinizing them and ascertaining whether they were true or false. For example he states that "rock salt" alone was furnished by Captain Walker to the troops, whereas the proof is ample that not a pound of rock salt was ever issued to them. Again he says he was told that the "necks" of the beef had been habitually issued before his arrival at the post, and that he learned from one of the contractors that the shanks "to just below the knee" were also issued, whereas it is shown and by witnesses speaking under oath that neither shanks nor necks had ever been issued. His allegations as to the inferiority of the provisions and the complaints made of them are completely swept away by a mass of testimony, the greater part of it given under oath, which establishes that the beef was first quality and the flour extra superfine and the provisions such as were used by the citizens of Columbus at their own tables; that they were of good quality and that the rations were as good as are generally served and better than those frequently accepted by the Government. Little or no complaint at all was heard. On these points the testimony comes from men of high character and occupying high official positions, many of whom from their immediate connection with the service had abundant opportunities of knowing personally the truth of the statements they have made. Brigadier-General Garfield passed three months at the post with his regiment, and he says: "My owu regiment was well served, nor did I hear of any complaints from others." I regard the evidence offered as showing beyond any reasonable ground for question that Captain Walker is a man of integrity and good business habits; that as an officer he was faithful and efficient and that his duties were discharged in a manner entirely satisfactory to the troops and to the Government. The report of Captain Lazelle was the first impeachment of his official conduct that had been made. Among the persons who have borne testimony to the effect which I have stated may be mentioned the quartermaster-general and the adjutant-general of Ohio; Captain Burr, assistant quartermaster, U. S. Army; John H. Wheeler, deputy U. S. marshal of Ohio; Samuel Galloway, special U.S. commissioner; Captain McClung, assistant quartermaster; Major Kilburn; Capt. Franklin Ernst, assistant quartermaster; N. B. Maple, post sutler; Capt. S. F. Allen; John E. Darby, assistant surgeon; Thomas J. Kerr; Thomas Jones, who supplied a large part of the flour; Alexander McBride, late post surgeon; Charles H. Goss, postmaster at Camp Chase; Louis Zettler, one of the contractors; John M. White and James R. Rusk, who supplied the beef, together with many others. It is not possible to suppose that all the witnesses-most of whom had personal knowledge of Captain Walker's administration from its beginning to its close-were deceived and that Captain Lazelle and Colonel Allison, who observed it for a few weeks, were alone acquainted with its true character. The wastage which is made so conspicuous a feature in the complaint lodged against this officer does not appear to have exceeded what the Army Regulations allow. That this as well as the expense of issuing the rations should have been borne by the Government was in accordance with previous usage at the post and with the interpretation given to the contract by the parties to it and seems to have been acquiesced in without objection by the Commissary-General. The proof is conclusive that instead of keeping large amounts of provisions on hand only so much was received each day from the contractors as was required to be issued. Captain Lazelle no doubt mistook the warehouse of the contractor for that of the commissary. It is another evidence how superficial and unreliable was his examination. Without further going into particulars I will state in general terms that could the testimony now on file be submitted to the consideration of a court-martial I believe that Captain Walker would be unhesitatingly acquitted of all the charges made against him, and so believing I cannot but recommend his restoration to the service. J. HOLT, Judge-Advocate-General. [First indorsement.] DECEMBER 2, 1862. On authority of this report I direct that Capt. Benjamin P. Walker be restored if practicable without detriment by the dismissal. A. LINCOLN. [Second indorsement.] DECEMBER 2, 1862. Report of Judge-Advocate-General approved and restoration ordered. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. |