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to Brig. Gen. Thomas Jordan, chief of staff, are hereby assigned to Brig. Gen. J. E. Slaughter, inspector-general of the forces, who will repair to Vicksburg or such place or places as he may find necessary. By command of General Bragg:

GILES B. COOKE, Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA,
Salt Sulphur Springs, August 21, 1862.

Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose herein the sequel to a former correspondence sent you with the commanding officer of the enemy's forces at Meadow Bluff in reference to the alleged shooting of one of my men after he was captured. There is no doubt but that the statement of the officer bearing the enemy's flag is stated correctly by our officers and that Harrison's company (of the enemy's forces) is guilty as alleged. The examination into the fact by the enemy is evidently evasive, but I know of no way of reaching a redress of the case the wrongdoer being in the enemy's camp and sheltered by their uncandid search for evidence.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

[Indorsement.]

W. W. LORING, Major-General, Commanding.

The statements are so improbable as to prevent credence.

Maj. Gen. W. W. LORING.

[Inclosure.]

J. D.

CAMP NEAR UNION, August 16, 1862.

GENERAL: I have not much of importance to communicate-some idle rumors and country people's stories, which amount to but little. A spy was sent into the enemy's camp on Thursday, who reports that they have burned their breast-works and were preparing to fall back. I sent this morning two scouts in citizens' dress to Meadow Bluff to ascertain what was going on there. I send you copies of Colonel Crook's answer to my letter and of some accompanying papers. I will see you in the morning.

Yours, respectfully,

[Sub-inclosure.]

JOHN S. WILLIAMS,
Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD PROVISIONAL BRIGADE,

General JOHN S. WILLIAMS,

Commanding C. S. Forces, Monroe County, Va.

August 15, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 13th instant. Captain Powell informs me that he made no such statement to your officers that Private Robinson was shot by Captain Harrison's men; that he informed your officers that he was not present when the man was shot, and only had the statement of Captain Harrison's men, which was substantially the same as stated in the inclosed papers.

As regards the allegiance of Dr. William P. Rucker and Mr. Samuel Price I shall not discuss with you, but have merely to say that the

intentions of the general commanding this district as expressed in his former communication will be strictly carried out.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEORGE CROOK,

Colonel, Commanding Brigade.

Capt. G. M. BASCOM,

[Inclosure No. 1 to sub-inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE,
Meadow Bluff, August 4, 1862.

Assistant Adjutant-General, U. S. Army.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to inclose certain papers* received by a flag of truce from the rebels in Monroe in reply to a letter from me asking an explanation for their taking from Lewisburg by force certain prisoners whom I paroled upon condition of their joining me here as soon as their health would permit.

The case of the soldier who is reported as having been shot by one of Captain Harrison's men I think should be investigated. The poisoning case I think is without foundation and very likely a mere fabrication for the purpose of throwing the onus of the act upon our troops to screen themselves.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEORGE CROOK, Colonel, Commanding Brigade.

[First indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE KANAWHA,
Flat Top Mountain, August 8, 1862.

Respectfully referred to Col. E. P. Scammon, commanding First Brigade, who will investigate and report on the complaints made within. By command of J. D. Cox, brigadier-general:

G. M. BASCOM,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant General.

[Second indorsement.]

In regard to the poisoning of bread it is supposed by Captain H[arrison] to be a sheer fabrication. He knows nothing of the fact or the circumstances likely to give rise to the suspicion beyond this, that horses eating freely of dry bread and then drinking would be likely to die without the presence of poison. Respectfully submitted.

E. P. SCAMMON,

Colonel, Commanding First Provisional Brigade.

[Third indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS FIRST PROVISIONAL BRIGADE,

Camp Jones, August 8, 1862.

On referring this and the accompanying statementst in regard to the shooting of Alex. Robinson to Captain Harrison, he makes the following statements:

1. Captain H[arrison] was in the advance, the whole party being under Captain Powell, Second Virginia Cavalry.

*See McCausland to Crook, August 1, with inclosures, p. 845.
+ See testimony of Alex. Robinson, p. 846.

2. The man killed, holding his gun in his left hand, raised his right hand in token of surrender. Captain H[arrison] passed and told his men to take care of that man. After going about one mile and a half Captain H[arrison] was obliged to halt; returned to this place, where Robinson] was, and was told by him that some of our men had shot him after he had surrendered. H[arrison] said it was a cowardly act, and if the man could tell who had done it he would have him punished to the full extent of the law. He replied that he did not know the men. H[arrison] then called up the men and inquired who had shot Robinson. Three of them informed him that R[obinson] after he had surrendered raised his gun, and was in the act of shooting when they fired upon him. Captain H[arrison] returned to camp and informed Colonel Crook of the fact.

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Commanding Third Brigade, Meadow Bluff.

COLONEL: I have the honor herewith to send you copies of the reports of Colonel Scammon on the complaint made by Colonel McCausland, rebel army, that some of Captain Harrison's company, First Virginia Cavalry, had shot Private Robinson, of Eighth Virginia (rebel) Cavalry, after he had surrendered as a prisoner. These reports of Colonel Scammon are reasonable and probably contain the facts in the case. In your communication with the enemy you should disclaim all conduct on the part of officers or men of this command which is contrary to the rules of civilized warfare, but at the same time notify them that while we thus disavow and punish barbarous acts we do not recognize their right to demand or expect the enforcement of a stringent rule since their conduct in countenancing and employing partisans who are notoriously mere robbers and murderers of Union men, in permitting robberies to be perpetrated by soldiers on prisoners (as was recently done in the case of assistant surgeon of the Ninth Virginia who was not liable to be treated as a prisoner of war at all), and in pursuing a barbarous and cruel course toward citizens of the country who adhere to the Government takes away the claim which belligerents carrying on war according to civilized rules would have. We shall be strict with our troops out of respect to ourselves, and protest against the irregularities of which their troops are frequently guilty and the reign of terror among citizens which they have labored to inaugurate. By command of J. D. Cox, brigadier-general:

G. M. BASCOM,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

FREDERICKSBURG, August 21, 1862.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President Confederate States of America.

SIR: The undersigned, citizens of Fredericksburg, beg leave to rep resent to you the following facts: Some few months past the following

persons were arrested upon charges of disloyalty by the military commander of the Confederate Army, then at Fredericksburg, and were sent to Richmond, viz: Charles Williams, a resident of Fredericksburg, Moses Morrison, Thomas Morrison and Peter Couse, residents of Spotsylvania County. These persons we learn have for some time past been in confinement at Salisbury, N. C. The following-named citizens of Fredericksburg have been arrested and placed in confinement at Washington under an order of the Secretary of War of the United States to be held as hostages for the release by the Confederate States of the four prisoners aforenamed, viz, Messrs. Thomas S. Barton, Charles C. Wellford, Beverly T. Gill and Thomas F. Knox, who were arrested on the 22d of July last; Messrs. James H. Bradley and James McGuire, who were arrested on or about the 26th of July last, and the Rev. William S. Broaddus, who was arrested on or about the 29th of July last. These citizens have been kept in confinement at Washington since the date of their several arrests, except Mr. Barton, who was discharged on parole to remain in Baltimore because of infirm health. On the 13th of the present month Messrs. Montgomery Slaughter (mayor of Fredericksburg), John Coakley, Michael Ames, John F. Scott, John J. Berry, John H. Roberts, James Cooke, William H. Norton, Lewis Wrenn, George H. C. Rowe, Benjamin Temple and Abraham Cox, citizens of Fredericksburg, were arrested under a like order from Washington, and have been committed to prison in that city. The latter order declared that they would be held as hostages for the four persons first named herein and for three other persons who were held as prisoners by the Confederate Government, viz, Burnham Wardwell, A. M. Pickett and Squire Ralston. The nineteen persons thus arrested as hostages are among our oldest and most esteemed citizens. Some of them are in advanced age and in very infirm health. We ask leave to submit to the consideration of Your Excellency the following facts and suggestions: Among the seven persons so stated as held in custody by the Confederate States four are well known to the people of Fredericksburg, viz, Thomas and Moses Morrison, Peter Couse and Charles Williams. The Messrs. Morrison emigrated some five or six years past from Delaware and bought lands in Spotsylvania County on which they resided at the time of their arrest. They were reputed as honest, industrious and inoffensive men. When the war occurred they continued at their homes and neither gave offense to nor aroused the suspicions of their neighbors until shortly before their arrest, when charges were preferred by two or three of their neighbors that they had expressed disloyal sentiments. When they were arrested the prevailing judgment of this community was that the step was an unwise and harsh one, the general conviction of those who had known them well being that they would not prove in any respect enemies of the Confederate cause. In reference to Peter Couse, he had emigrated Ito Spotsylvania County from Pennsylvania some fifteen years past. It was alleged that he was making his arrangements to remove back to Pennsylvania at the time of his arrest. He had maintained a character in his neighborhood for honesty, industry and general good conduct, and many of the more intelligent of his neighbors expressed their belief that he would not attempt any injury to the Confederate cause and that no consideration of public policy required his arrest.

In reference to the case of Charles Williams, he had lived in Fredericksburg from his birth; was a man who actually held or affected to hold opinions opposed to the common judgment of the community on most topics, especially those of religious, social or political import; was prone to controversial talk on such subjects; assumed oddity and

originality of views, and was commonly reputed a wild talker, but a kind-hearted man. He avowed that he was still under the obligations of allegiance to the United States, yet was active both in the contribution of money, time and labor in promoting the comfort and efficiency of the Confederate soldiers while our army occupied Fredericksburg. Among those citizens who best knew the real sentiments, motives and purposes of Williams, a majority deemed it a needless step to confine him as an enemy to the Confederate cause. We know nothing as to the cases of Burnham Wardwell and A. M. Pickett. We learn that they were residents of Richmond City when arrested. We know but little of the case of Squire Ralston. We hear he has been discharged from custody. We are informed he was arrested upon the charge of seeking to depreciate the Confederate currency while a laborer in the woolen factory of Kelly, Tackett, Ford & Co., at this place. We desire especially to call your attention to the fact that there are many citizens of Fredericksburg now sojourning in and near Richmond who are personally familiar with the reputation, character and the causes of arrest of Messrs. Morrison, Couse and Williams. Among them are Majs. Seth B. French and John S. Hayes, in the commissary service, Maj. M. H. Crump, quartermaster, Maj. William S. Barton, W. Yates Downman, in the Treasury Department. We respectfully but urgently ask that the cases of the prisoners aforenamed be brought to investi gation before the proper officers of the Confederate Government. The citizens of Fredericksburg last named can readily be called to testify in the matter and we are sure can furnish adequate information upon which a fair judgment may be reached as to whether the public good requires their continued detention in custody. We are of opinion from personal knowledge that no consideration of public policy calls for the continued custody of the Messrs. Morrison, Couse and Williams, If this should prove to be true upon a proper investigation the release of those persons would procure the return to their homes of many of our friends now in custody as hostages for them. We feel assured that you will cause all such steps to be promptly taken for this end as you may deem consistent with the public interests and an enlightened sense of official duty.

We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants,

GEORGE ALER.

J. HARRISON KELLY. [And 45 others.]

CULLUM'S SPRINGS, BLADEN, ALA., August 22, 1862.

Brig. Gen. W. W. MACKALL, Macon, Ga.

MY DEAR GENERAL: I have just received your kind favor of the 8th instant.* I am happy to hear of your safe return to the Confederacy and hope you will soon receive a command commensurate with your merit. I hope you are aware that immediately after the battle I made an effort to have you and the whole force under your orders at Madrid Bend exchanged for a like number of prisoners taken from the enemy, but "Proclamation Pope" refused to do so. I always intended as soon as practicable to renew again my application but I found Halleck not more disposed to make an exchange of prisoners than his worthy lieutenant. I am delighted that at last you are out of their hands.

Sincerely, your friend,

**

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

*Not found,

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