OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. PETER ZINN, Commanding Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. MAJOR: Your letter of the 28th has been received. Deserters from the rebel army cannot be considered as prisoners of war; but as spies may come in under that garb or it may be assumed as a ground for release, great caution must be observed that no imposition is practiced. You will refer to this office all cases where this claim is set up, with all the circumstances which are given to sustain them, in order that a decision may be made. All soldiers taken in arms whether recruits or conscripts are prisoners of war, and if they desire not to be exchanged but to be released on bond a special report should be made in each case with a recommendation for or against. Make a special report in all cases where prisoners have entered the rebel service in violation of their oath. Parole bonds do not seem to come within the meaning of the law requiring stamps and I presume no such stamp will be necessary. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Col. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners. COLONEL: I inclose to you to-day various papers with indorsements. Some of them are old references to me by General Thomas, but they can now be acted on by you. I must have the list of General Rosecrans' paroled prisoners before meeting with Mr. Ould. It will be worth the while if not otherwise speedily obtained to send a special agent for them. Have the Confederate prisoners, members of irregular organizations, been released and sent to Vicksburg? Yours, very respectfully, WM. H. LUDLOW, Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. ON BOARD TRANSPORT METROPOLITAN, Maj. N. G. WATTS, C. S. Army, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners : In reply to your communication of the 3d instant I beg leave to state that I have no personal knowledge of or participation in the detention from prisoners of war of any money or other property on the part of my Government except such as is authorized by the usages of war, but that the statement of any specific cases of a different nature which you may be pleased to make together with your note will be by me laid before the proper authorities for examination. With great respect, I remain, your obedient servant, Captain, U. S. Army, and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. [DECEMBER 4, 1862.-For General Orders, No. 31, Department of the Cumberland, relating to the return to their homes of those Kentuckians who had abandoned the rebel armies. see Series I, Vol. XX, Part II. p. 122.] Resolution adopted by the United States Senate December 5, 1862. Resolved, That the President be requested to inform the Senate if not incompatible with the public service the number and the names of citizens of Kentucky who have been and who are now confined in the military prisons and camps of the United States outside the limits of said State, and what are the charges against them, by whom made and by whose order the arrest was made. HDQRS. 13TH ARMY CORPS, DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE, Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, Commanding Confederate Forces. GENERAL: I have now several hundred Confederate prisoners who by the Dix-Hill cartel will have to be sent to Vicksburg for exchange unless by agreement they will be received elsewhere. I propose to deliver them at such point on the Mississippi Central road as you may suggest and where an officer of your command may be to receive and receipt for them. Or I will parole and release them here, sending rolls certified to for an officer of your army to receipt if you prefer it. Please inform me of your pleasure in this matter and I will conform to it. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT, Major-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose a communication from Brig. Gen. J. T. Boyle, commanding District of Western Kentucky, in reference to the course to be pursued toward rebel deserters who have delivered themselves up to the military authorities in Kentucky. The views presented by General Boyle upon this subject are so entirely in accordance with my own that I would ask that his letter be presented to the Secretary of War for his information and such action as he may deem proper. I do not clearly understand why General Boyle desires or has looked for further instructions. Those he has are ample to meet all the various requirements so far as they can be foreseen, and I have therefore instructed him in replying to his letter to carry out the orders already given him from these headquarters. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, H. G. WRIGHT, Major-General, Commanding. [Inclosure.] HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WESTERN KENTUCKY, Maj. Gen. H. G. WRIGHT, Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio. GENERAL: I have received no orders or instructions for execution of General Orders, No. 49, modified by you, since I reported to you the action under the existing orders. Colonel Hoffman telegraphs, "Send rebel deserters to Camp Chase." Now, general, the execution of Orders, No. 49, and its modifications with all errors that may be committed were infinitely better than to send all rebel deserters to Camp Chase. The expense to the Government will be very great, and the evils resulting from such a policy will be incalculable, to say nothing of the great injustice to individuals. Many of these new recruits deserting are small boys from under fourteen to eighteen years of age-foolish, deluded youths, who should not be confined with a pack of scoundrels. Many of them are ignorant men, made to believe they were conscriptedsome forced into the service and some inveigled into the rebel army. Nearly the whole of them are deserters, some being paroled at their request supposing it released them from rebel obligations. If extreme measures are taken forcing these men to Vicksburg we convert our State into a recruiting field to fill the thinned and decimated ranks of the rebels. If they are forced to prison they will never surrender themselves but make their way South, or form bands in our State rather than be immured in prisons. I feel sure I would prefer anything rather than be sent to prison, and I doubt not these men will; whereas a lenient policy compared to this will recover these men from their fallen condition and win them to allegiance to the Government and restore them to good citizenship. There are a good many of these men who ought to be sent North and some who should be confined in prison. But the great body of them are better men, better citizens and deserving more leniency than hundreds in the city and thousands in the State who enjoy the protection of the Government in their lives and property and business. The Secretary of War has repeatedly complained as I understand his communications against arrest of this class of citizens who are tenfold more guilty than these deserters. I have a very large acquaintance throughout this State and I think I can form a pretty correct judgment in regard to these men and can separate pretty justly between the classes who should be released and those who should be sent to Vicksburg or to prison. Besides these rebel recruits deserting there are a good many deserters of Northern birth and foreigners belonging to Northern States. Surely these men should not be sent to prison or to Vicksburg. There are yet in the rebel army hundreds of them who will desert if opportunity offers. Shall all inducement to desert be withdrawn? Shall we punish for desertion from the rebel army? Shall we announce to them that they shall have a felon's cell in our prisons or be sent to Vicksburg to a rebel gallows? What then shall be done with discharged rebels-with those who served their time out, who wish to remain at home or go North? I beg, general, that you will submit this subject with this letter to the Government if you do not feel authorized to give orders for execution of the modified orders on this subject. I cannot doubt that these views will meet your approval as they are in perfect harmony with the modifications made by you. I regret very much to be placed continually in a position to subject me to censure at one time for extreme rigor and severity and at another for inactive leniency. I can be relieved of this if full instructions are given on these subjects. I believe I understand this subject and our people and the true interests of the Government, and I could administer the matter to the real interest of the whole country. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. T. BOYLE, Brigadier-General. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 5, 1862. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. COLONEL: General Orders, No. 191, directing the assembling of paroled U. S. prisoners at the general camps at Benton Barracks and Indianapolis does not finally dispose of them by ordering them to their respective commands. The General-in-Chief directs that special orders be sent to the commanding officers of the general camps through department commanders to forward the exchanged prisoners there assembled to the armies to which they belong with the least delay. They will be distributed to their respective regiments by army commanders. They will be sent in all cases under charge of commissioned officers, who before leaving the camp will have rolls of the detachment of each regiment, battery, &c., made out. Prisoners belonging to regiments in the Department of the Missouri will be forwarded by orders from the department commander, Saint Louis. Those belonging to the Department of the Tennessee will be sent to Memphis, touching at Columbus, Ky., for orders. Those belonging to the Departments of the Ohio and the Cumberland will be sent to Louisville, Ky., reporting to the commanding officer at Louisville, who will forward to Nashville the men whose regiments are serving in the Department of the Cumberland. Commanders of camps can ascertain where regiments are serving by applying to the Adjutant-General's Office at Washington, D. C. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Maj. W. S. PIERSON, Commanding Depot of Prisoners, Sandusky, Ohio. MAJOR: S. B. Greenfield and G. C. Bronaugh, political prisoners from Kentucky, so far as the books show come under paragraph II of General Orders, No. 193, of November 22, from the War Department, and if there are no other charges against them they and all others similarly situated in your charge are entitled to release on parole under the above order. Those who go to Kentucky should be required to report to the provost-marshal at Louisville; those to Tennessee to the provost-marshal at Nashville; those to Missouri to the provost-marshal at Saint Louis, and those to Virginia to the provost-marshal at Wheeling. In other Western States they should report to the nearest military authority to their homes. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners. FORT MONROE, December 5, 1862. Col. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners: All of the Shiloh prisoners, officers and men, wherever found are exchanged. The rolls of exchanges were left by me in the AdjutantGeneral's Office. Many Shiloh prisoners were delivered on Commodore. WM. H. LUDLOW, the Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Col. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners. All COLONEL: In addition to the lists of paroled men it will be necessary for me to have the original paroles or a receipt or something to show that they have been delivered within the Confederate lines. the Indiana troops captured at Munfordville, Ky., are exchanged. The order covers all. I return the lists* sent to me and I will arrange the difference in the sum total with Mr. Ould, whom I cannot meet until I have the rolls of General Rosecrans' captures. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. HEADQUARTERS PAROLED PRISONERS, Col. W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners. SIR: Yours of yesterday in relation to officers visiting Washington without proper authority is received, and in reply I would say that in all cases where officers have applied to me for permission I have informed them that the authority rested entirely with the War Department. I know that officers are in the habit of going to Washington and to other cities without any authority, and I have been very anxious that some measures be adopted to prevent it. Frequently when officers have been absent without authority and I attempt to reprove them for it they inform me that they were at the Adjutant-General's Office; that he did not say anything to them about it and that they thought the Adjutant-General was my superior officer. There is not an officer at this camp that has not been informed that they are disobeying orders by going to Washington, but some having gone and transacted their business with the Department it has encouraged others to go, and I do not think there is a day that there are not some of them at the capital. All officers upon their reporting here are assigned to duty with companies. We have quarters now in camp for all the officers, and if the provost-marshal at Annapolis had instructions to arrest all officers in that city without proper authority it would be a great assistance in conducting the business of this camp. Their presence with the men would have a salutary effect upon their discipline. There are a number of officers who are attentive to their duties and are good officers. There are also a large number who are scarcely ever in camp and who seldom do any duty. These officers we have reported to you. * Omitted. |