Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, DEPOT PRISONERS OF WAR, Near Sandusky, Ohio, September 12, 1862. Commissary-General of Prisoners, Detroit, Mich. COLONEL: Major Pierson has informed me that you desire me to state why transportation was not procured sooner for the prisoners that were sent away from here. In answer I have the honor to state that every effort was made by both the major and myself to get transportation as soon as possible after you left. The superintendent of the Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati Railroad told us that that road did not have a sufficient number of cars to carry 1,200 men and we were delayed until he could get cars from the connecting roads. The major and myself went together every day to urge forward the preparations. I desired the major to assist me because be knew the men with whom we had to deal better than I did, and also from the fact that he had more experience in all matters connected with railroad transportation. We were unable to get cars sooner than Monday. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, E. W. H. READ, Captain, Eighth Infantry, U. S. Army, Actg. Asst. Qmr. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Col. WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Detroit, Mich. : Send the rebel prisoners taken in New Mexico, and supposed to be at Fort Riley or Leavenworth, to be released in the West. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. HDQRS. MILITARY DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON, September 13, 1862. Mr. G. H. C. Rowe is released on parole and will be permitted to go to Fredericksburg, Va., to negotiate for the exchange of state prisoners on giving his parole not to communicate any information, aid or comfort to them in arms against the United States. He will be permitted to cross the Federal lines between Alexandria and Fredericksburg. [JAMES S. WADSWORTH,] Brigadier-General, Military Governor District of Columbia. HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, DEPT. OF EAST TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. G. W. MORGAN, Commanding U. S. Forces, Cumberland Gap. GENERAL: I received your letter of [12th] to-day in which you state that you had received my letter of yesterday "informing me (you) that there are no such companies in the Confederate service as 'Jessee's,' 'Nelson's Rangers' or 'Dudley's."" If you will refer to my letter you will find my words to be as follows, viz: The list referred to contains the names of eighty-six whom I cannot at present receive as prisoners of war. I know of no such companies as "Jessee's," "Nelson's Rangers" or "Dudley's" in our service, and I cannot therefore recognize them until I can ascertain if they have been organized by proper authority. 33 R R-SERIES II, VOL IV Never having heard of those companies I preferred to decline to receive them until I could ascertain if there were any such, and have sought the information from the proper source. If you are not disposed to construe my letter of yesterday properly I state to you here that I neither expressed nor intended to express to you that there were no such companies in the C. S. service. It is probable there are such and at the proper time your Government shall be informed of it. The following is an extract from your letter, viz: I am glad to find, general, that you desire an example to be made which will hereafter be a warning to marauders who commit murder and robbery under the pretext of war. A military commission will at once assemble to determine upon the guilt or innocence of these parties, and it is proper that I should inform you that your letter will be submitted to the commission as proving that "the eighty-six persons" whom you decline to recognize as prisoners of war are mere outlaws and as such must be treated. I cannot believe that on so flimsy a pretext and so manifest a distortion of my words and with the full knowledge of what must inevitably result you meditate any such action against these men. General, when you threaten you offer an insult. Our official intercourse, general, has been such as to have induced me to believe that you were incapable of tendering unprovoked so offensive a letter as that which I unsuspectingly received to-day. I believe that upon reflection you will withdraw it. I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. GENERAL: Prisoners of war belonging to the Confederate Army continue to be sent to Camp Chase, though provision is made in the cartel as I have seen it published in the papers for their immediate release on parole. I have called the attention of General Wright to this matter that he may take such steps as he may think proper. I beg again to call your attention to the subject of political prisoners confined at Sandusky who claim to be loyal Union men and assert that the charges against them are unfounded or frivolous. These cases should be acted on at once and the innocent set free. All I believe are willing to take the oath of allegiance and give bond for good conduct. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, General H. G. WRIGHT, Detroit, Mich., September 13, 1862. Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio. GENERAL: By the terms of the cartel as I have seen it published in the papers all prisoners of war belonging to the Confederate Army are to be paroled if practicable within ten days after their capture. As yet no understanding has been had how far State and irregular organizations are embraced in this arrangement, but recently prisoners of war who clearly belong to the Confederate Army have been sent to Camp Chase. I call your attention to this matter as it is not according to the cartel and leads to much expense. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. FORT MONROE, VA., September 14, 1862. Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief: The accounts we have of the suffering of our prisoners of war at Richmond have decided me to send for them, the agent, General Thomas, not being here. Transports have gone up the river and I expect some of them back to-night. I shall send the prisoners, probably 5,000 or 6,000, to Annapolis. Mr. Ould expressed a desire ten days ago to parole and deliver them to us. Major Ludlow, one of my aides, has gone to Aiken's to receive them. JOHN A. DIX, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Major-General HALLECK, * Commanding Armies of the United States. GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose to you copies of correspondence between General Richard Taylor and myself upon the subject of exempting certain prisoners from the operations of the cartel for exchange. The correspondence will explain itself and I trust you will approve the terms of the reply. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, BENJ. F. BUTLER. HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, DEPT. OF EAST TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. G. W. MORGAN, September 14, 1862. Commanding U. S. Forces, Cumberland Gap. GENERAL: I have received satisfactory information that "Jessee's" company and the "Nelson Rangers" belong to the C. S. service, and I respectfully request that you will discharge on parole agreeably to article 4 of the cartel such prisoners of those companies as are now held by you. I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, DEPT. OF EAST TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. G. W. MORGAN, Commanding U. S. Forces, Cumberland Gap. GENERAL: I have had the honor to receive the following information from you with regard to the detention by the United States of Private L. Brown, of Captain Rhodes' company, Third Tennessee Volunteers [Ashby's First [Second] Tennessee Cavalry], who was captured by part of your forces at Rogers' Gap on 31st of August. It is to the effect that L. Brown was tried by a military commission charged with breach of parole and "has been found guilty." Í respectfully transmit herewith a statement of Colonel Ashby with regard to the charges against Private Brown. I ask that you will consider it and discharge Brown on parole as prisoner of war agreeably to the terms of the cartel. I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, [Inclosure.] HEADQUARTERS THIRD CAVALRY BRIGADE, Brigadier-General STEVENSON, Commanding, &c. September 9, 1862. GENERAL: By your request I respectfully submit the circumstances connected with the so-called parole of Private Brown, of the First Tennessee Cavalry Regiment [Ashby's First Tennessee Cavalry]. About July, 1861, said Brown went over to Williamsburg, Ky., to try to recover a horse which had been stolen from him either by a party of renegade East Tennesseeans or a marauding party from Kentucky. While at Williamsburg he was arrested by Mr. Cooper, now Colonel Cooper, Sixth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, U.S. Army. Brown was kept in close confinement by Cooper and others, not at that time in the U. S. Army, and only obtained his release by paying Mr. Horace Maynard (formerly a Representative in Congress from Tennessee) the sum of $300 or thereabouts. They demanded that he should subscribe to the oath of allegiance to the United States. Knowing that Mr. Cooper who read the oath was unauthorized to administer it he apparently acquiesced. His Government subsequently claimed his services and he joined the company to which he now belongs. Respectfully, your obedient servant, H. M. ASHBY, Colonel, Commanding Third Cavalry Brigade. NEW ORLEANS, September 14, 1862. Ordered, The commanding general having learned that the further imprisonment of Mrs. Phillips may result in injury to the wholly innocent directs her to be released if she chooses to give her parole that in nothing she will give aid, comfort or information to the enemies of the United States. By command of Major-General Butler: A. F. PUFFER, Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp. [SEPTEMBER 15, 1862.-For reports, orders, correspondence, &c., relating to the surrender of Harper's Ferry, Va., see Series I, Vol. XIX, Parts I and II.] The PRESIDENT: LOUISVILLE, Ky., September 15, 1862. I find great dissatisfaction and I fear injury to the Union cause in Kentucky from an irregular and changing system of military arrests which as now organized and administered does more harm than good. I am of opinion it should all be subordinate to the Executive of the State. The PRESIDENT : JAS. F. ROBINSON, LOUISVILLE, KY., September 15, 1862. Annoying arrests continue very much to our detriment. The good of the cause requires that you should direct Boyle to leave this whole matter to our loyal Governor. Order Boyle to the field. He is a good man there. In his present position he is doing more harm than good. Our cause is weakening under his management. J. F. SPEED. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, September 15, 1862. Brigadier-General BOYLE, Louisville, Ky.: Complaints are made of injudicious military arrests made by your order. There now being a loyal Governor the necessity for the exercise of military power for such purposes no longer exists. You will therefore abstain from making any more arrests except upon the order of the Governor of Kentucky. Please acknowledge the receipt of this order. EDWIN M. STANTON, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, September 15, 1862. Governor ROBINSON, Louisville, Ky.: General Boyle has this day been instructed to abstain from making military arrests henceforth except upon your order. E. M. STANTON: EDWIN M. STANTON, LOUISVILLE, KY., September 15, 1862. I have not ordered the arrest of twenty persons in the State excepting those arrested here recently during the first excitement of defeat of our forces at Richmond, Ky. The representations made to you are false and made by weak-backed Union men who hope to so act as to secure rebel protection. I would be glad to know who makes them. There is a bounty of absolute security and protection to be a rebel in Kentucky. If the Government does not intend to put down the rebels in our midst and enforce the President's proclamation by depriving them of their property the war will have to be fought over in Kentucky |
