Lieut. C. O. WOOD, Commander Fort Lafayette. SIR: Mr. Soulé having been released I request that such letters as may have come to your hands addressed to him while a prisoner in Fort Lafayette will be sent him under cover at the New York Hotel. Very respectfully, MARTIN BURKE, Colonel, OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. THOMAS M. VINCENT, MAJOR: In answer to your reference of Governor Salomon's letter to me I would respectfully state that furloughs are not granted to paroled prisoners from any State. A great many are absent without leave. I do not know by what authority the paroled troops from Indiana were assembled at camps in that State. All prisoners taken and reported previous to November 11, except a part of those taken at Harper's Ferry, have been exchanged, as will be announced in orders as soon as the printers can complete the printing. Those yet to be exchanged will be taken in the order most conducive to the interest of the public service. I am informed by General Ketchum that the compensation of commissioners for drafting militia is fixed by General Orders, No. 99, at $4 per day. The rates of compensation for other persons engaged in drafting have not yet been established. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. THOMAS M. VINCENT, Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C. MAJOR: I beg leave to offer the following comments on the inclosed* papers: Besides giving orders that there should be a reduction of the ration to Colonel Mulligan, Colonel Tucker and Captain Christopher I explained to all of them personally my wishes, and from all received assurances that my instructions should be carried out. So confident was I that this had been done that in my latter visits to the camp I continually directed expenditures to be made from this fund, and I only learned that my orders had been wholly neglected, except in the reduction of the flour ration, at the closing of the accounts when the prisoners were ordered away. My printed instructions required Captain Christopher to furnish monthly accounts of money received and expended to the commanding officer, who was to forward them to me. Captain Christopher presented no such accounts. On the 14th July, in reply to a special call made on him by Colonel Tucker, by my order, he furnished to Colonel Tucker a memorandum of what had accrued in the month of June. On the 8th of August he again furnished the same *Not found. memorandum to Colonel Tucker. Captain Christopher's letter to Colonel Mulligan is very satisfactory, but it is to be regretted that he contented himself with writing this letter. I am satisfied that if he had exercised the right of commissary to urge the immediate adoption of the scale I sent him it would not have been rejected; at all events, he should have informed me of his failure to carry out my wishes, and the consequent great waste of provisions and loss to the Government. He failed to communicate with Colonel Tucker on this important subject, and it was only after he was called upon for it that he gave him a brief report of what money was on hand. Captain Freedley's report of the relations existing between Colonel Tucker and Captain Christopher agrees perfectly with the impressions I gathered from conversations with Colonel Tucker, and the colonel's letter to Captain Christopher goes to confirm them. He never gave any orders to Captain Christopher to reduce the ration in accordance with my instructions, but from time to time he directed Captain Christopher's agent to withhold what he could with propriety, to which Captain Christopher's agent did not pay the slightest attention. On the 29th of June, soon after Colonel Tucker assumed command of Camp Douglas, I called on him for a report of the condition of the fund, to which he replied on the 9th July that Captain Christopher had made no report, though one had been called for. On the 4th August I again called for a report, but none was made. the 14th August the colonel says: In reply on I have not received from Captain Christopher the account of the prisoners' fund and hospital fund called for in your letter of August 4. I have made the proper demand but am informed by him that the accounts for July are not yet made up. The accounts showing the amounts accruing in June, July, August and September were handed to me by Captain Freedley on the 25th of September instead of passing through the hands of Colonel Tucker, thus violating my orders and treating his commanding officer, Colonel Tucker, with disrespect. This act of itself was enough to satisfy me that Captain Christopher was unwilling to recognize the authority of Colonel Tucker. From the foregoing facts, notwithstanding the explanations of Captain Christopher, I must still entertain the opinion that with proper attention on his part thousands of dollars would have been saved the Government. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. HEADQUARTERS DEPOT OF PRISONERS Of War, Col. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners: I have seen a notice in the papers of an order from the Secretary of War discharging political prisoners. The information I have in this office would not enable me to decide who is entitled to a discharge under the order. Shall I have particular instructions as to individuals? Very respectfully, your obedient servant, WM. S. PIERSON, Major Hoffman's Battalion, Commanding. DEPOT PRISONERS OF WAR, Near Sandusky, Ohio, November 26, 1862. Col. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners: I send you by this day's mail the roll* of prisoners from Alton. I also inclose a roll* of prisoners released on the order of Judge Turner. There have just arrived thirty-seven prisoners from Kentucky, under guard of Capt. E. A. Baker, Sixty-fifth Regiment Indiana Volunteers. sent from Henderson, Ky., by order of Col. John W. Foster, commanding post. I desire to call your attention to the subject of transporta tion. None is provided for the return of these guards and Captain Read has to provide it as well as rations. There was a guard of over 200 men came from Alton. It will make a very heavy item if all [is] paid at this post. Those prisoners from Alton were in wretched condition. About fifty had to go to the hospital at once, and without stopping to be accurate I should think eight or ten have died, more than usual for two months. Most of the deaths at this post have been of those who came here to die, and would have died very soon anywhere. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, WM. S. PIERSON, Major Hoffman's Battalion, Commanding. P. S.-I would like to hear what became of General Barrow. I have forwarded some letters to him at Washington but do not know as he received them. I am this day in receipt of a bond for him to execute from Governor Johnson, of Tennessee, who requests his dis charge, &c. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Lieut. Col. M. BURKE, Commanding, &c., Fort Hamilton, New York: The Secretary of War directs that if Mr. Soulé has not yet been released you take his parole to reside in Boston. Lieut. Col. M. BURKE, E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Commanding, &c., Fort Hamilton, N. Y.: The Secretary of War directs that Adolphe Mazureau be released from Fort Lafayette on giving the same parole exacted from Mr. Soulé. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. FORT HAMILTON, N. Y. Harbor, November 27, 1862. Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army. SIR: Inclosed you will please find the parole of honor accepted by Adolphe Mazureau and released to-day as per order of the Secretary of War. I have the honor, sir, to be, very respectfully, MARTIN BURKE, Lieutenant-Colonel Third Artillery. *Omitted. tNot found. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. SIR: I have the honor to refer to the Secretary of War for his consideration several orders from General Grant for the release of prisoners confined in the military prison at Alton, Ill., amounting to eighty-six. This prison is not within the command of General Grant, and the orders which he has issued are in violation of the rules which have been established by your authority. I would respectfully call your attention to his order for the release of W. H. Hawkins, Company G, Twenty-second Tennessee, who it appears was arrested while under the protection of a flag of truce. Hawkins' protest is with the order. I would also call your attention to the letter of Captain Freedley reporting the escape of prisoners from the Alton prison through the gross negligence of the guard. A ladder was used to scale the wall on the inside and ropes made of bedding, &c., were used to descend on the outside. I have urged on General Curtis to detail a more compe tent officer for the command than Colonel Hildebrand, Seventy-seventh Ohio, but he informs me that he has no better available, and I therefore respectfully recommend that Capt. H. W. Freedley, Third Infantry, be placed in command. There are three prisoners at this prison who are lunatics, and they should at once be sent to an asylum. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. Approved. [Indorsement.] E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Lieut. Col. W. H. LUDLOW, Washington, D. C., November 27, 1862. Agent for Exchange of Prisoners, Fort Monroe, Va. COLONEL: I inclose herewith all the complete rolls* of our paroled troops not exchanged that I can find among the papers in my office after a careful examination. I have copied from the Benton Barracks rolls all those which do not seem to have been exchanged. I have rolls of men captured at places in Kentucky and elsewhere, as Perryville, Mount Vernon, Crab Orchard, Lebanon Junction and James Island, which are not mentioned among the exchanges and I assume that they have not been exchanged. Some of these rolls I send you. In other cases the names are mingled with names of men exchanged. There are many names scattered through the rolls from Annapolis of men who seem not to have been exchanged, but I have not time now to call them out. I have also rolls of 400 or 500 rebel prisoners which I will have copied and forwarded to you immediately. The printers are very slow in getting out the order announcing the exchange and it may be some days yet before it is published. The exchange of the Indiana troops will be mentioned. Your report did not say that the exchange had been arranged here and I thought they were included with the others. * Omitted. Officers will not be mentioned by name as they are included in the several classes unless there is some understanding that it shall be done for the information of both parties, and in that case they can be pub lished in a separate order. I have retained no copies of the rolls sent to-day, and it will be desirable if practicable that they should be returned to this office when the exchanges are effected. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-Genera! of Prisoners. SAINT LOUIS, November 27, 1862. Col. J. HILDEBRAND, Commanding Alton Prison. COLONEL: I send you to-day about 400 prisoners. The precise number I cannot this moment state, as the list is not corrected, but with them will be a list stating names and numbers. These prisoners have not been disposed of by this office and I request that you will retain them subject to my order. I send them to you now for the reason that our prisons are overcrowded. Gratiot Street [Prison] has nearly 1,000 prisoners in it, and of this number over 200 are sick. It is impossible to dispose of the cases of the prisoners sent you to-day for some time to come, and it therefore is a matter of necessity that I send them to Alton, where, as you informed me, you have now room for a much larger number than I now send you. By the letter of Colonel Hoffman to Colonel Gantt of 29th of October, 1862, a copy of which I inclose herewith, you will see that I am authorized to release from the Alton prison all such prisoners as are sent there from this office upon charges which upon investigation prove to be unfounded. You will also observe that Colonel Hoffman writes that as far as practicable that such prisoners be held here until their cases are decided. For the reasons above stated it is not practicable to hold these prisoners here until their cases be decided. Arrangements are on foot to procure another prison here and I hope it will be ready in ten days, when if you are overcrowded I can order these prisoners to be sent back to Saint Louis. They are men captured by General Merrill and many of them were enlisted and sworn into the rebel service and on their way to the South. I understand from MajorGeneral Curtis that he is about to ascertain if they cannot be exchanged as prisoners of war. It is also supposed by General Curtis that a part of these prisoners should after a short imprisonment be released. This, however, he cannot determine until he consults with Brigadier-General Merrill in relation to it. I have entered into this long statement to show that according to the instructions of Colonel Hoffman I can send these prisoners at this time to Alton and still retain control over them. I wish to guard against their being sent from Alton to Sandusky, in which event they get beyond the reach of my orders. I ask that prisoners now at Alton sent from this office whose cases have not been decided will be retained by you until a final decision can be made of their cases. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, F. A. DICK, Lieutenant-Colonel and Provost-Marshal-General. * Omitted here; see p. 666. |
