OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. Gen. DAVID HUNTER, Washington, D. C., June 16, 1863. Commanding Department of the South, Hilton Head, S. C.: GENERAL: The following are extracts from a letter some days since addressed to Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow, agent for exchange of prisoners, in relation to paroling of prisoners of war, to be laid before the Confederate commissioner as the rule which will govern the U.S. armies in the field: I inclose herewith General Orders, Nos. 49 and 100, current series, announcing regulations and instructions for the government of the U. S. forces in the field in the matter of paroles. These, together with the stipulations of the cartel, will govern our army. By the cartel all prisoners of war are to be delivered at certain named places, there to be exchanged or paroled, and all paroles exacted or accepted by the enemy from our troops in violation of its stipulations, except in the case provided for by the cartel, are null and void, and troops so paroled will be ordered to duty as if no parole had been given. Officers or soldiers who give paroles in violation of General Orders, No. 49, commit an offense for which they are liable to trial by a court-martial; but the enemy have, nevertheless, no right to claim that the parole is binding. Orders will be immediately issued from commanders to permit no paroles to be taken from the enemy except as provided for by the cartel, and all paroles now in force not so taken will be declared of no effect. Paroles given before the publication to the army of General Orders, No. 49, though deliveries were not made as required by the cartel, will, under the usage prevailing at the time, be considered as valid. * * # There may be cases of a subsequent date where, from peculiar circumstances, it would be advisable to recognize irregular paroles, but in all such cases a special report, with full rolls of the parties, should be forwarded to this office as early as practicable. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners. (Same to Maj. Gen. J. G. Foster, commanding Department of North Carolina, New Berne, N. C., and Maj. Gen. John E. Wool, commanding Department of the East, New York City, N. Y.) HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI, General S. COOPER, Shreveport, La., June 16, 1863. Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose you two letters, addressed to Major-General Taylor, in regard to the disposition to be made of negroes and their officers captured in arms. Unfortunately such captures were made by some of Major-General Taylor's subordinates. I have heard unofficially that the last Congress did not adopt any retaliatory legislation on the subject of armed negroes and their officers, but left the President to dispose of this delicate and important question. In the absence of any legislation and of any orders except those referred to in the inclosed letters, I saw no other proper and legal course for me to pursue except the one which I adopted. I have the honor to be, general, your obedient servant, [Inclosure No. 1.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI, Maj. Gen. R. TAYLOR, Commanding District of Louisiana: GENERAL: I have been unofficially informed that some of your troops have captured negroes in arms. I hope this may not be so, and that your subordinates who may have been in command of capturing parties may have recognized the propriety of giving no quarter to armed negroes and their officers. In this way we may be relieved from a disagreeable dilemma. If they are taken, however, you will turn them over to the State authorities to be tried for crimes against the State, and you will afford such facilities in obtaining witnesses as the interests of the public service will permit. I am told that negroes found in a state of insurrection may be tried by a court of the parish in which the crime is committed, composed of two justices of the peace and a certain number of slave-holders. Governor Moore has called on me and stated that if the report is true that any armed negroes have been captured he will send the attorney-general to conduct the prosecution as soon as you notify him of the capture. I have the honor to be, general, your obedient servant, [Inclosure No. 2.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI, Maj. Gen. R. TAYLOR, Commanding District of Louisiana: GENERAL: In answer to the communication of Brigadier-General Hébert, of the 6th instant, asking what disposition should be made of negro slaves taken in arms, I am directed by Lieutenant-General Smith to say no quarter should be shown them. If taken prisoners, however, they should be turned over to the executive authorities of the States in which they may be captured, in obedience to the proclamation of the President of the Confederate States, sections 3 and 4, published to the Army in General Orders, No. 111, Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, series of 1862. Should negroes thus taken be executed by the military authorities capturing them it would certainly provoke retaliation. By turning them over to the civil authorities to be tried by the laws of the State no exception can be taken. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Lieut. Col. W. H. LUDLOW, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners, Fort Monroe, Va.: COLONEL: In reply to your letter of the 14th instant I am directed by the General-in-Chief to say that section 8 of Mr. Ould's declaration of exchange should be confined to civilians delivered at City Point or otherwise specially declared exchanged or released, and delivered at other points across the lines. I use his own words: Section 8 of your declaration is not quite so comprehensive as this. Will it not be necessary to give another notice? Besides the prisoners now at Fort Delaware, some 2,500 left Camp Morton for that fort on the 11th instant, and they will be ready for exchange as soon as the rolls are prepared. The prisoners from Alton should have been at Baltimore on Sunday last, and I did not know until yesterday after I telegraphed to you that they had not arrived. They must have been delayed by some interruptions of the railroad communications. Captain Mulford reported to me, and I directed him to ask Colonel Donaldson to inquire for the whereabouts of the pris oners. I inclose a letter containing a small amount of Confederate money belonging to a rebel soldier who died at Pittsburg for you to return through Mr. Ould, if you think proper. I send by this mail roll of paroled troops at Benton Barracks whose names have not yet been reported. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners. CINCINNATI, June 18, 1863. SECRETARY OF WAR: Can I have authority to arrest Judge Trimble, of Kentucky, candidate for Congress? Declares himself opposed to the war, and if elected will oppose furnishing supplies of any kind. A. E. BURNSIDE. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, June 18, 1863. Major-General BURNSIDE, Cincinnati: The President, to whom your telegram has been submitted, directs me to say that if Mr. Trimble is found encouraging desertion from your ariny or in any way interfering with or endangering your military operations you will be authorized to place him in arrest; but the mere declaration of his opposition to the war or that if elected he will oppose furnishing supplies of any kind is a good reason why loyal men should not vote for him but is not sufficient ground for military arrest. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Hon. GIDEON WELLES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, accompanying a descriptive roll of 113 soldiers of the rebel army captured and paroled at the Yazoo hospital on the 21st May last. I have the honor to inclose herewith General Orders, No. 49,* of the 28th February, and No. 100* of the 24th April, 1863, from the War Department, establishing rules for the government of the armies of the United States under which paroles are to be given or received, and I have also the honor to submit extracts from a letter which, by authority of the General-in-Chief, I addressed to Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow, agent for the exchange of prisoners of war, instructing him how said orders are to be put in force.t It is now understood by Colonel Ludlow and the agent for the rebel Government that with the exceptions provided for in the foregoing * See Vol. V, this series, pp. 306 and 671, for these orders. For full text of letter, see ibid., p. 670. instructions and in some few cases when from peculiar circumstances commanders of departments were permitted to recognize paroles given by our men after the publication of General Orders, No. 49, no paroles are considered as binding but those given preparatory to delivery at the places agreed upon under the provisions of the cartel. It does not appear by the descriptive rolls of the prisoners paroled at the Yazoo hospital that they were delivered at either of the designated places or that there was any exchange of authenticated rolls giving names, &c., and without these formalities the paroles cannot be held as valid, nor can an exchange for the parties be demanded. I respectfully submit the matter for your consideration. W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. Gen. E. A. HITCHCOCK, Washington, D. C., June 18, 1863. Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners, Baltimore, Md.: GENERAL: I forward the inclosed letter from Colonel Chandler to you in order that he may be the more satisfactorily informed of the cause of his detention at the Old Capitol Prison. I have in my possession an official paper from Mr. Ould stating that "no such person as D. T. Chandler holds a commission in the Army of the Confederate States of America," and they are therefore not likely to hold an officer as a hostage for him. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners. Colonel HOFFMAN: I return Colonel Chandler's letter with a note, which if you think proper you may informally send him. Yours, [Inclosure.] E. A. HITCHCOCK. OLD CAPITOL PRISON, June 14, 1863. Maj. Gen. E. A. HITCHCOCK, U. S. Army, Commissioner for Exchange, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: I have the honor to invite your attention to the following statement: I was arrested in the Lower Potomac and within the jurisdiction of the State of Maryland on the 9th of February last, in company with three other civilians and brought to the Washington Jail, where after a short sojourn I was transferred to this prison. About the 15th of March last, there being no charges against me, I was sent with 305 other civilians (including those arrested in company with me) to Fortress Monroe en route to City Point to be exchanged as required by the agreement entered into between the Government of the United States and that of the Confederate States. On arriving at the former place I was informed that an order had been received from Colonel Hoffman, Commissary-General of Prisoners, directing me to be brought back to this place, which was done, and I have since been kept continuously in confinement in this prison. No reason has ever been assigned to me for my prolonged detention, and in reply to my frequent inquiries I have been told that there is not and never has been any charge against me. Colonel Hoffman has steadily and persistently refused to allow me to be sent off when parties of prisoners, both of war and state, were being forwarded hence to City Point, striking my name from every list that is made out, and in consequence I have for a long time been the oldest inmate of this place. From long confinement, restricted to unaccustomed food and deprived of the exercise necessary to me, my health has become seriously impaired, and I fear that I shall again be compelled to subject myself to the surgeon's knife. My case has been examined by Captain Parker, assistant adju tant-general to the military governor of this city, and no grounds for detention found by him. You will find on inquiry that the Confederate Government has made an offer to exchange me, and is keeping a Federal officer as a hostage for me, and I cannot see why I should be debarred from the privilege of exchange accorded to all others. Colonel Hoffman has not condescended to inform me or any of my friends his reason for detaining me, and I am at a loss to know what consideration of a public nature can actuate his conduct. I am therefore induced to make this appeal to you. I was appointed in the army from Louisiana, of which State I had been a resident for several years, and have never forfeited any right as a citizen of that State. As such I claim to be exchanged in conformity with the agreement entered into respecting all persons who have been in confinement over ten days without charges being preferred against them. I beg respectfully to ask your early attention to this matter, and am, sir, your obedient servant, Col. W. HOFFMAN, &c., Washington: D. T. CHANDLER. BALTIMORE, June 21, 1863. MY DEAR COLONEL: I have received Colonel Chandler's letter of the 14th instant, and hardly know what to say about it or about him. He was once, as you know, one of the officers of the old Third, for all of whom I always had a special regard, and I particularly valued him in early life, for he was young when with me and was a promising officer. It is now many years since I have seen him except at a glance, and I find him among the enemies of the Government that nourished and fostered him. As commissioner for the exchange of prisoners I have in reality nothing to do with him, confined as he was for attempting to run the blockade. He is not a prisoner in such a sense as brings him as such under my notice. He claims, I see, to be a Louisianian, having been appointed from there, but I had supposed he looked upon Maryland as his State. In either case his position is a bad one. As the latter, he was taken attempting to go South-attempting to communicate with the enemy. As the former it might be considered as still worse, for what has a Louisianian to do in Maryland at this time, and after observing everything attempt a return to Louisiana, if that was his destination? The cartel does not apply to him in any event, for he was not arrested within the limits of what the South claims; was not in the army, and if claimed by the South as a Louisianian he might be considered in a most dangerous position here. Besides, for a long time the commissioner from Richmond has refused to pay any attention to the cartel except as it suited his own convenience, and has declared even that he will pay no attention to it until the North agrees to terms which, if accepted, would be |