I
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE
BETWEEN THE
AGENTS OF EXCHANGE,
TOGETHER WITH
MR. OULD'S REPORT.
RICHMOND:
SENTINEL JOB OFFICE,
1864.
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE
BETWEEN THE
AGENTS OF EXCHANGE,
TOGETHER WITH
MR. OULD'S REPORT.
RICHMOND :
SENTINEL JOB OFFICE.
1864.
EEP5 OPLT
of
COMMISSIONER OF EXCHANGE.
Confederate States of America, )
War Department, >
Richmond, Ya., Dec. 5th, 1863. )
lion. Jas. A. Seddon,- Secretary of War :
Sir : I have the honor to submit the accompanying correspondence
between the Federal Agent of Exchange and myself:
I have selected from the mass of correspondence, such letters as
relate to matters of general interest, and (specially to the subjects of
controversy between us.
1. Papers from one to twelve, inclusive, relate the arrest and deten-
tion of non-combatants. The Federal authorities have persistently
refused to observe any reciprocal rule as to such parties. Their mili-
tary commanders seem to have been permitted to make arrests of non-
combatants without regard to their age, sex or situation. After
arrest, they have been thrown into prison and there indefinitely
retained, in most cases, without charges. I have persistently coni-
tended that the whole subject of their capture of non-combatants,
should be determined by rule, and not by arbitrary practice. This
reasonable proposal, not receiving the assent of the enemy, the Con-
federate authorities have been forced, in some instances, to retain
Fedeial non-combatants as a measure of retaliation.
2. Papers from thirteen to sixteen, inclusive, relate to the retention
of exchanged and unexchanged officers, and men. There are officers
and men now in Federal prisons, who have been there ever since the
adoption of the cartel. I have brought to the attention of the United
States authorities again and again the names of some of the parties
who were confined in violation of the exchange agreements. In some
cases, after long delay, the parties were released. Others, however,
are still languishing in confinement.
3. Papers from seventeen to forty, inclusive, relate to the general
orders of the enemy and their connection with declarations of ex-
change. tSo anxious has the Confederate Government been to remove
all obstacles to a general exchange of prisoners, That "when the
64
computation and adjustment of paroles was made a subject of difficulty
by the enemy, we promptly agreed to determined the whole matter in
accordance with the general orders, issued at Washington. This very
liberal proposition has not been accepted by tbe Federal authorities,
I have, however, by virtue of the provisions of the cartel, proceeded
to make declarations of Exchange, upon the basis of those general
orders. In those declarations of exchange, I have not exceeded the
valid paroles, which are on file in my office. The reply of the
Federal agent to my letter of October 31st, 1863, was so personally
offensive, that I was compelled to return it to him without any an-
swer.
4. Papers from forty-one to forty-seven, inclusive, relate to the
confinement of Gen. John H. Morgan and his officers in the peniten-
tiary, at Columbus, Ohio. Though the Federal agent on the 30th of
July, 1863, notified me that Gen. John 11. Morgan and his officers
would be placed in close confinement, he informed me two months af-
terwards, that "the United States authorities had nothing to do with
the treatment that General Morgan and his command received when
imprisoned at Columbus."
5. Papers from forty.eight to fifty-seven, inclusive, relate to the
detention of surgeons. Before the date of the cartel, surgeons were
unconditionally released after capture. That rule was first adopted
by the Confederate commanders, and was subsequently followed by the
Federals. Some time ago, one Rucker was indicted by a grand jury
in Virginia, for several felonies. Although Rucker was never a sur-
geon in the Federal service, the enemy held surgeon Green of the
Confederate navy, in retaliation. This caused retaliation on our
part, in return, and surgeons were afterwards held in captivity on
both sides. In this instance, the Federal authorities proved that they
were ready to sacrifice their own medical officers in an endeavour to
secure the release of a felon in no way connected with their' medical
service. Rucker having recently escaped from jail, the. surgeons on
both sides have been released.
6. Papers from fifty-eight to sixty-three, inclusive,relate to persons
captured upon our rivers and the high seas. By agreement made
with the Federal agent of exchange, all such who were captured be-
fore December 10th, 1862, were declared exchanged. In spite of that
agreement, some of our pilots and sea captains were kept in confine-
taent. The correspondence will fully show the. refusal of the Federal
authorities to adopt any fair and reciprocal rule, as to the further
exchange of such persons.
7. Papers numbered sixty-four and sixty-five, show the prefcen-
sions of the enemy as to such persons as have been tried under
the laws of a sovereign State for offences against the same.
8. Papers from sixty-six to seventy-two, inclusive, embrace all the
correspondence in which Gen. E. A. Hitchcock has borne a part. It
seems there are two commissioners of exchange, on the part of the
Federal government. How far the authority of each extends, or how
far one is subordinate to the other, has not as yet clearly appeared.
The future may perhaps, explain that they may be put to separate
65
uses. The last letter of Gen. Hitchcock, hearing date November
23 1863, I returned, with the following indorsement, to wit :
"Protesting that the statement of facts contained in this paper i3 in»
correct, I return it to its author as unfit to be either written or re-
ceived."
With this brief notice of the correspondence, I respectfully submit
it as my report.
Respectfullly,
Your obedient servant.,
RO. OULD, Age/it of Exchange.
5
CORRESPONDENCE
lidiilroe to the Arrest and Detention of Non-Combatants.
[No. 1.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Confederate States of America, War Department, )
Richmond, Va., Oct. 4, 1862. >
Lieut. Col. Wm. H. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir :
* * * # * *
I also bring to your attention the case of peaceable, non-co*r»
bat ant citizens of the Confederate States, taken, in some instances,
with almost every possible indignity, from their homes and' thrown
into military prisons. I do not utter it in the way of a threat, but
candor demands that I should say, that if ibis course is persisted in,
the Confederate Government will be compelled, by a sense of duty to
its own citizens, to resort to retaliatory measures. In no one in-
stance have the Confederate authorities sanctioned the arrest of any
citizen of any one of the United States found in the exercise of a law-
ful and peaceful business. If such a case can be found, the wrong
will fee speedily righted. Such cases not being within the rules of
military capture; are not, therefore, the proper subjects of exchange
under a cartel. Hundreds of cases^ have been brought to the atten-
tdcn of the Confederate authorities, where parties in pursuit of their
ordinary occupations, fend .not bearing arms, and not being in any
military organization, Lave been arrested, dragged from their homes,
and thrown into prisons, jwhere they remain to this day, even though
the Unite^ States forces, which made the arrest, have been withdrawn
from the neighborhood where it was made. The Confederate Govern-
inent can in no way, whether by a system of exchanges or otherwise,
recognize the right of the United States to invade its territory, arrest,
carry off, and detain indefinitely its peaceable citizens. In any case
where an exchange is proposed, if the situation of the parties is the
same, it will be cheerfully made. The Confederate Government,
however, has not arrested your peaceable citizens, and has none
of that class to offer in exchange for such of the Confederacy as have
teen taken. To exchange such as we have the right to capture, ac-
cording to the usages ofiwar, for our own peaceable citizens, unlaw-
fully and unjustly taken, as we think, would be a quasi recognition of
6Y
yoiir right to make such captures. I tt-ust,'therefore, that the United
States Government will unconditionally release all citizens of the Con-
federate States belonging to the class to which I have referred.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant, ,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange,
[No. 2.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters 7th Armv Corps, )
Fort Monroe, Va , Dec. 3, 1862. \
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir: Since I wrote to you this morning, information has been
given me that some thirty or forty citizens of Pennsylvania, non-
combatants, were seized by order of General Stewart, in his late
incursion into Pennsylvania and Maryland, and were conveyed to
Richmond. This is so clearly in contravention of the positions you
have laid down, that I need only mention ;the fact to you to insure
their immediate delivery to Capt. Mulford, in charge of the flag of
truce.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM: II. LUDLOW,
Lieut. Col., and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners
[No. 3.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Richmond^ Va., Dec. 11, 1862. .
Lieut. Col. Wm. H. Ludlovv,
Agent of Exchange
Sir : With reference to the Pennsylvania non-combatants capturea
by General Stewart, and whose release you ask'in your letter of the
3d inst., I beg leave respectfully, to state that they were captured,> and are
now held only in retaliation for captures of non-combatant citizens ojf
the Confederate States. As'soon as your Government releases the
non-combatants of the Confederate States, now held by you, an(|
agrees to abandon the policy of making such ,captures in the future,
or, in other words, as soon as yo;ur (Gbverhinent agrees substantially
t:. the proposition relating to 'such captures; which I made to you at
68
our last interview, these citizens of Pennsylvania will be uneondition-
aljy released. You have in your military prisons at this time a far
larger number of persons who were arrested on Confederate soil, while
engaged in no acts of hostility to your Government, than we have in
ours. How can you claim the release of your non-combatants when
you retain ours? How can you ask us to release*your non-combat-
ants when you refuse to agree that ours shall not be captured ? In
retaining these Pennsylvanians, the Confederate Government does not
abandon its position so often reiterated, that the capture of non-com-
batants is illegal, and contrary to the usages of civilized warfare.
The Confederate Government is anxious to put an end to any such
practice. It has protested earnestly and persistently against it.
When those protests failed to accomplish the desired end, a sefise of
•duty to its own citizens demanded that the Confederate Government
should resort to other means. May I not hope that the United States
'Government will promptly settle this whole matter by a release of
such Confederate citizens as are now in prison, and who, when cap-
tured, were connected with no military organization, and by a dis-
iavowal of any'purpose to make any such arrests in the future ?
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
HO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 4.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR, OULD.
Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, )
Fort Monroe, June 2, 1863. \
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent £jr Exchange of Prisoners :
Sir : A. D. Richardson and Junius II. Browne, correspondents of
rthe New York Tribune, captured about the 4th of May last, near
Vicksburg, are said to be confined in the Libby Prison. Mr. Col-'
'burn, the correspondent of the New York World, who was captured
with them, has been released. It has been the practice to treat at-
taches of the press as non-combatants, and not to retain them. The
release of Mr. Colburn is a partial recognition of this practice. Will
you please inform me if you will release Richardson and Browne, and
if not, why not.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WH. H.LUDLOW,
•Lieut* Col., dnd Agent for Exchange of Prisoners«,
69
[No. 5.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Richmond, Va., June 5, (863.
Lieut. Col. Wm. H. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange.
Sir: In one of your communications of the 2d, you refer to the
correspondents of the press, and say it has been the practice "to treat
them as non-combatants, and not to retain them." I have been
struggling for nearly twelve months to establish just such a rule as to
non-combatants, without success. The only difficulty I met, was in
your consent. When was the rule established that non-combatants
were not to be retained ? What was the date of its adoption by Burn-
side, or Rosencrans, or Milroy ? What peculiar immunity should the
correspondents of the Tribune have over an old grey-headed grand-
father,, who never shouldered a musket, or followed in the wake of an
army ? Wherein are they privileged over delicate and noble-souled
women, who are either languishing in your prisons or "released" to
the rigors and dangers of the wilderness ?
It seems to me that if any exception be made as to any non-com-
batants, it should be against such men as Tribune correspondents,
who have had more share even than your soldiery in bringing rapine,
pillage, and desolation to our homes. I have no compassion for any
such, even if their miseries were.ten-fold greater. You ask me why
I will not release them. 'Tis because they are the worst and most
obnoxious of all non-combatants. Yet, bad as they are, deeply as
they have Pronged and outraged us, they will be released if you will
only discharge from imprisonment men and women " the latchets of
whose shoes they are unworthy to unloose."
Mr. Colburfi was released because Mr. Barr, d correspondent of the
Grenada Appeal, was held by your authorities for one of the three
correspondents, and it came within the rule of our " sovereign will
and pleasure " to release him. Moreover, if I had been disposed to
ignore Mr. Colburn, it would have given me a great deal of trouble to
make a selection between the Tribune's correspondents.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 6.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Va., August 1, 1863..
P»rig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir :
* *- # # # #
For the purpose of showing to you the position of the Confederate'
Government in relation to the imprisonment of non-combatants, I now
70
renew to you the proposal which L have frequently tendered to your
predecessor. I propose that all the non-combatants now held in prison,
on either side, be immediately and unconditionally released; and that
no captures of non-combatants shall hereafter be made. If the
latter branch of this proposition is too broad, I will thank you to sug-
gesfi any proper modification.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. QULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 7.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Department of Virginu, 7th Army Corps, )
Fort Monroe, August 27, 1863. >
Hon. Robert Ould,
•Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Fa.:
*
Sir: I would again earnestly call your attention to the case of
Messrs. Richardson and Brown, correspondents of the New York Tri-
bune. In yours of August 2ft, you state " that there is no fair and
reciprocal rule which may be proposed for mitigating the horrors of
this war, that will not be cheerfully adopted by the Confederate au-
thorities." Now, sir, I think that the Confederate authorities could
not have a better opportunity for reciprocating, than in the case of
the two gentlemen above named ; for, when Yicksburg was captured,
the editors of the Whig and Citizen fell into our hands, and were im-
mediately paroled and sent away. If you qre sincere, then, in your
offers, I call upon you to give me evidence thereof, by immediately
releasing Messrs. Richardson and Brown..
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brig. Gen., and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 8.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
f Richmond, August 28, 1863.
Brig Gen. S. A. Meredith, <
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : I still adhere'to my declaration of the 20th instant, in respect
to the release of non-combatants. To that, and almost every other
Communication involving a principle, you have not replied. Fairness
requires that you should' answer it, in some form, before you criticise
71
it. Will you agree to the unconditional release of all non-combatants ?
Your reference to the parole of the editors of the Whig and Citizen,
at Yicksburg, has no sort of force. They were paroled by the terms
of surrender, and not by any special grace of your authorities. Yon
could not have .retained them without a breach of the terms of capit a-
lation. sTheir cases are in no respect analagous to those of Rich-
ardson and Brown, except in their avocation of driving the quill.
Richardson and Brown will be released just as soon as you agree to
discharge non-combatants. I still say, there is no fair and reciprocal
rule which may he proposed for mitigating the horrors of this war,
that will not be cheerfully adopted by the Confederate authorities.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 9.}
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Department op Virginia, 7txi Army Corps, )
Fort Mar:roet Aug. 14, 1863. j
Hon. Robert Ould,
Commissioner for Exchange, Richmond, Va.:
Sir : .Mr. Daniel Gerhart, an old and wealthy citizen of Ohio, was
taken prisoner at Winchester, Va,, while attending a son dangerously
ill, and is now confined at Richmond. Can nothing be done to expe-
dite the release of this gentleman ?
Respectfully,,your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,.
Brig. Gen., and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 10.1
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richaiod, Va., August 20, 1S63.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith, .
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : Your communication of the 14th instant, respecting Mr. Daniel
Gerhart, ha3 been received. ,Y°U say he was taken prisoner at
Winchester, while attending a son dangerously ill, and inquire
whether anything can be done to expedite his release. Undoubtedly,
something can be done. Release our non-combatants, whom you
have in prison, and Mr. Gerhart is instantly free. I hope there is
enough strength in Mr. Gerhart's case, he being a " wealthy citizen
C i Ohio/' to accomplish what justice and mercy have asked in vain, for
izcre than a year.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange,
[No. 11.]
BKia GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Office Commissioner for Exchange, >
Fortress Monroe, Fa., Oct. 23, 1863. >
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Fa.;
Sir: I enclose to you herewith, a letter lrom W. P. Wood, Super-
i .tendonfc of the Old Capitol Prison, addressed to Maj. Gen. E. A.
Hitchcock, to which I specially call your attention.
Will you release our citizens, whom you hold confined in your
prisons, against whom there arc no charges ? There is no disposition
on the part of the United States authorities to harrass or annoy citi-
vena. In all cases heretofore, so far as I know, whenever southern
citizens have been arrested, it has been for special reasons, marking
the individuals as seperated from the mass of a community. I know
of no citizen of the South who is held by the United States authofi-
ties merely because he belongs to the South. If you know of any
such, name them, and they shall be sent home. Some time since, the
United States authorities arrested two citizens in Virginia, for special
cause. The Richmond authorities arrested two supposed Union men,
to answer for those mentioned above, without any charges against
them. Why are not these men released? Within twenty-four hours
after any given time, the United States authorities can arrest double
or treble the number of citizens of the South, that you hold of citizens
the North; and, though they have hitherto refrained from the arrest
cf citizens, as such, the detention of citizens in the Richmond prisons,
or elsewhere in the South, as tynion men, may necessitate a recourse
to cimilar proceedings on the part of the authorities of the United
States.
Should the infliction of such misery on the citizens of the South be
inaugurated, on their own authorities will rest the onus.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,*
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brig. Gen., and Commissioner for Exchange.
73
[No. 12.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Confederate State's _of America, War Department, ?
Richmond, Va,, Oct. 31, 1863. J
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : In relation to your communication of the 23d instant, enclos-
ing a letter from W. P. Wood to Gen. Hitchcock, I submit the fol-
lowing:
More than a year ago, recognizing the injustice of the arrest of
non-combatants, I submitted the following proposition to the Federal
authorities, to wit: " That peaceable, non-combatant citizens, of both
the United States and the Confederate States, who are not connected
with any military organization, shall not be arrested by either the
United States or Confederate armies within the territory of the ad-
verse party. If this proposition is too broad, let the only exception
be the case of a temporary arrest of parties within army lines, where
the arresting party has good reason to believe that their presence is
dangerous to the safety of the army, from the opportunity afforded of
giving intelligence to the enemy. It is to be understood, however, in
the latter case, the arrest is to cease as soon as the reason for making
it ceases, in the withdrawal of the army, or for any other cause. This
proposal is understood ft) include such arrests and imprisonments as
are already in force."
Although this proposition, so reasonable and humane in its terms,
has been before your Government for more than a year, it has never
been accepted. I now, again, invite your attention to it. If it does
not suit you, I will thank y5u to suggest any modification. I am will-
ing to adopt any fair and reciprocal rule that will settle this matter
on principle. It must, however, be settled by rule. It cannot, with
any safety, be determined by " special cases."
You ask me if I will release your citizens, against whom there are
no charges. Would it not be more liberal to make that offer on your
part, as far as our citizens are concerned, before you ask our consent ?
You have kept Confederate citizens in prison for many months, with-
out charges. Most of them ha"ve never had any charges preferred
against them, although, in the opinion of your authorities, there were
" special reasons" for their arrest. How easy is it to give or invent
a special reason ? In all probability, there has never been an arrest
and imprisonment, on either side, since this war began, for which
there was not a " special cause." An arrest for retaliatory reasons,
even, is special.
As far as the arrest of citizens of the Confederate States, by our
authorities, is concerned, we will submit to no interference, in any
way, by the Federal Government. It is a matter with which you
have nothing to do. The Confederate authorities do not interfere with
74
your arrests, of your own people, no matter what injustice has been
done to them. Any attempt, on the part of the Federal Government,
to interpose in cases which only concern our authorities, and the
people of these Confederate States, may be justly styled impertinent
and meddlesome. As far, however, as the arrests of citizens of the
adverse party is concerned, we are, at all times, ready to adopt any
fair and reciprocal rule.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
CORRESPONDENCE
Relative to the Retention of Exchanged and Unexchanged Officers
and Men.
[No. 13.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Dep't of Va., 7th Army Corps, )
Fori Monroe, Fa., April 8, 1863. >
Hqn. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir : The hest mode of Arranging all questions relating to exchange
of officers, is to revoke, formally or informally, the offensive procla-
mation relating to our officers.
-I simply ask that you say, by authority, that such proclamation is
revoked. The spirit of that proclamation was the infliction of per-
sonal indignities upon our officers, and as long as it remains unre-
pealed, it can be at a$y moment put in force by your authorities.
What assurance haye we that it will notlbe ?
I earnestly desire a return to the cartel in all matters pertaining
to officers, and until such be the case, and uniformity of rule be
thereby estabished, our exchanges Of officers must be special. Some
of our officers, paroled at Yicksburg, were subsequently placed in close
confinement, and are now so held. If, hereafter, we parole any of
your officers, such paroles will be offset against any which you may
possess. At present the exchanges will be confined to such equiva-
lents as are held in confinement on either side.
I hope you will soon be able t© remove all difficulties about officers,
by the revocation I have mentioned.
By reference to the map, you will see that Fort Delaware is en
route to Fort Monroe. It is used as a depot for collecting of prisoners,
sent from other places for shipment here, and is, from its peculiar
position, "well adapted/or convenience for exchange."
If any mistake be found in the account of men paroled by Lieut.
Col. Richards, at Oxford, Miss., on the 22d of December, 1862, it
can be rectified when we meet.
I aui, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WM. H. LUDDOW,
Lieut. Col. and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners!
I have written to Mr. Hoffman to send T. J. Dunn, company E,
18th Mississippi regiment, and now said to be at Locust Springs.
• ITo. 14.J
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW
Richmond, April 11th, 1863.
Lieut. Col. "Wm. II. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : Your letters of the 8th instant have been received.
I am very much surprised at your refusal to deliver officers for
those of your own who have been captured, paroled, and released by
us, since the date of the proclamation and message of President
Davis. That refusal is not only a flagrant breach of the cartel, but
can be supported by no rule of reciprocity or equity. It is utterly
useless to argue any such matter. I assure you that not one officer
of any grade will be delivered to you, until you change your purpose
in that respect.
You have charged us with breaking the cartel. With what sort of
justice can that allegation be supported, when you delivered only a
few days ago over ninety officers, most of whom had been forced to
languish and suffer in.prisons for months before we were compelled
by that and other reasons to issue the retaliatory order of which you
complain ? Those ninety-odd are not one-half of those whom you
unjustly holc^ in prison. On the other hand, I defy you to name the
ca^se of cne who is confined by us, whom our agreement has declared
exchanged. Is it your idea that we are to be bound by every strict-
ness of the cartel, while you are at liberty to violate it for months,
and that, too, not only in a few instances, but in hundreds ? You
know that our refusal to parole officers, was a matter exclusively of
retaliation. It was based only upon your refusal to observe the require-
ments of the cartel. All that you had to do to remove the obnoxious
measure of retaliation, was to observe the provisions of the cartel
and redress the wrongs which had been perpetrated.
Your last resolution, if persisted in, settles the matter. You need
not send any officers to City Point, with the expectation of getting
an equivalent in officers, so long as you refuse to deliver any for
those whom we have released on parole in Tennessee and Kentucky.
If captivity, privation, and misery are to be the fate of officers on
both sides hereafter, let God judge between us. I have struggled iu
this matter, as if it had been a matter of life and death to me. I am
heartsick at the termination, but I have no self reproaches.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange
[No. 15.
MR. GULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Oct. 2d, 1883
Brigadier General S. A. Meredith,
Agent for Exchange :
Sir : I am very glad that Lieuts. Baker, Pumphrey, Crutcher,
and Thorpe have at last been released. There are many other
officers yet behind, precisely in their situation. I have frequently
given a list of them to your predecessor. I will furnish you one if
you desire it. • You say the above-named have been detained by "some
unaccountable mistake." Each of their names, with the places of
confinement, has been more than once presented to the Federal agent.
Lieut. Baker was at Fortress Monroe, the headquarters of the Agent
of Exchange, for months. It is, indeed, "unaccountable."
I will make inquiry as to John W. Woolsev. Brengle did not
belong to the sanitary commission. He was arrested upon his return
from a difficult and hazardous military enterprise for which he was
specially employed and paid. If you can bring him within the rule
established as to members of the sanitary commission, I will release
him.
Charles W. Webster is at Castle Thunder. He is a citizen, abiding
in captivity until you release the non-combatants arrested on our
soil and carried off to your prisons. I will make inquiry into the
case of Henry D. Barnett. r
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent for Exchange.
[No. 16.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
C. S. A., War Department, )
Richmond, Va., Oct. 23, 1863. 5
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : Capt. Frank Battle, 20th regiment Tennessee volunteers, C.
vS. A., is now and has been for some time past in irons at Nashville,
it is alleged that he is ironed in retaliation for similar treatment
inflicted by the Confederate authorities, upon Capt. Shade Harris,
company D, 3d East Tennessee cavalry, who was captured on or about
the 26th of December, 1882. I have seen a special order, No. 5.1,
18
issued by Brig. Gen. R. S. Granger, dated August 3d, 1863, in which
it is directed that Capt. Battle shall be so treated and held.
Capt. Shade Harris, before he joined the Federal army, was a
Confederate soldier. He deserted, and was subsequently captured in
arms. For the crime of desertion, he was tried before a court martial,
found guilty, and sentenced to death. Before conviction, he was
neither closely confined or ironed. His father had access to him both
both before and after his trial. The President, in mercy, commuted
the sentence to imprisonment. For that imprisonment your authori-
ties have seen fit to put in irons and close imprisonment an officer
captured in open warfare and against whom no personal charges have
been preferred. I am very sure this statement is in entire conformity
with the facts. If so, you deny our authority to try and punish a
deserter from our army, even when the desertion is inflamed and made
more heinous by direct support and succor to the enemy. I am
strongly in hope that the mere statement of this case is sufficient to
show the manifest wrong of the proceedings against Capt. Battle. I
will thank you to inform me, if, upon the foregoing facts, your Gov-
ernment justifies its treatment of Capt; Battle, and whether you
intend, by any form of retaliation upon our soldiers, to contest our
right to punish desertion from our service, where the offending party
has subsequently joined your army and been captured by our forces.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
CORRESPONDENCE
Relative to the General Orders of the United States, and their connection
with declarations of Exchange,
[No. n.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT/COL. LUDLOW.
Richmond, June 19, 1863.
Lieut. Col. Wm. H. Luddow,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : On the 5th day of June, 1863, I requested you to inform me
when general order, No. 100, was to be considered as going into effect.
To that you have returned no answer. Its date is April 24, 1863.
You delivered it to me on the 23d May, 1863.
I perceive by a general order, No. 15, March 9th, 1863, issued by
General Schenck, that all officers and men, who had been captured in
his department, and particularly in the Shenandoah Yalley, and
released on parole, and not regularly exchanged, should return to
duty and service, on penalty of being considered deserters. When-
you delivered general order, No. 100, to me, I inquired of you as to
the date when it went into effect. I understood you to say, the date
of its delivery. You may, therefore, well imagine my surprise, when
I perceive that by the general order of one of your departmental com-
manders, the new provisions as to paroles, are not only to have effect
from and after March 9th, 1863, but are made to apply to all cases
previous to that date, without any limitation as to time. This is not
only contrary to your own declarations to me, but to our common
practice up to May 23d, 1863. You hav^ charged against ine and
received credit for several captures made by General Stoneman's com-
mand, in his recent raid. Is it pretended that you are to have credit
for captures made by your commands, while none is to be given to us
under precisely the same ciroumstances ? Is this fair, or just, or right ?
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
80
[No. 18.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters, Department of Virginia, }
Seventh Army Corps, v
Fort Monroe, July 7, 1863. )
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners :
Sir: I herewith enclose to you a copy of general order No. 207,
which contains some additional provisions to those mentioned in my
communication to you of the 22d May last. It is understood that
officers of the United States, and Confederate officers have at various
times and places paroled and released prisoners of war, not in accord-
ance with the cartel.
The Government of the United States will not recognize, apd will
hot expect the Confederate authorities to recognize, such unauthorized,
paroles. Prisoners released on parole, not authorized by the cartel,
after my notice to you of the 22d May, will not be' regarded as prison-
ers of war, and will not he exchanged.
When prisoners of war have been released without the' delivery
specified in the cartel, since the 22d May last, such release will be.
regarded as unconditional, and the prisoners released, as subject to"
orders without exchange, the same as if they had never been captured.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM. II. LUDLOW,
Lieut. nol. and A^ent for Exchange of Prisoners,
[No. 1*9.]
War Department, }
Adjutant GeneraVs Office. >
Washington, D. C., July 3, 1863. )
General Orders, 3
No. 207. J
I. The attention of all persons .in the military service of the Uni-
ted States, is called to article seven of the cartel, agreed upon on the
22d of July, 1862, and published in general orders No. 142, Septem-
ber 25th, 1862. According to the terms of this cartel, all captures
must be reduced to actual possession, and all prisoners of war must
be delivered at the places designated, there to be exchanged, or
paroled until exchange can be effected. The only exception allowed
is the case of commanders of two opposing armies, who are authorized
■81
to exchange prisoners, or to release them on parole at other points
mutually agreed upon by said commanders.
II. It is understood that captured officers and men have been
paroled and released in the field by others than commanders of oppos-
ing. armies, and that the sick and wounded in hospitals have been so
paroled and released, in order to-avoid guarding and removing them,
which, in many cases, would have been impossible. Such paroles are
in violation of general orders and the stipulation* of the cartel, and
are null and void. They are not regarded by the enemy, and will not
be respected in the armies of the United States. Any officer or
soldier who gives such parole will be returned to duty without
■exchange, and, moreover, will be punished for disobedience of orders.
It ie the duty of the captor to guard his prisoners, and if, through
necessity or choice he fail to do this, it is the duty of the prisoner to
return to the serviee of his Government. He cannot avoid thi3 duty
by giving an unauthorized military parole.
III. A military parole not to serve till exchanged, must not be con-
founded with a parole of honor to do or not to do a particular thing
not inconsistent with the duty of a soldier. Thus, a prisoner of war,
actually held by the enemy, may, -in order to obtain exemption from a
■close guard or confinement, pledge* his parole of honor that he will,
make no attempt to escape.- Such pledges are binding upon the
individuals giving them, but they should seldom be given or received,
for it is the duty of the prisoner to escape, if able to do so. Any
pledge or parole of honor extoi'ted from a prisoner by ill-usage or
•cruelty is not binding.
IV. The obligations imposed by the general laws and usages of
war upon the non-combatant inhabitants of a section of country passed
-over by an invading army, cease when the military occupation ceases,
and any pledge or parole given by such persons in regard to future
■service, is null and of no effect.
By order of the Secretary of War.
E. D. TOWNSSEND,
Assistant Adjutant General.
(Official copy,) J. 0. KELTON,
Assistant Adjutant General.
Headquarters Armv, July 8, 1863.
{No. 20.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Confederate States of America, War Department, )
Richmond, Va., July 13, 1863. )
Lieutenant Colonel Wm. H. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir: I have declared exchanged Lieutenant General Pemberton,
Majors General Stevenson, Forney, M. L. Smith, and Bowen; Brig-
6
82
adier Generals. Barton, Lee, Cumming, Moore, Hebert, Baldwin,
Vaughan, and Shoup; Colonels Reynolds, Waul, and Cockerill; and
Brigadier General Harris, of the Missouri militia; all of whom were
recently captured and paroled at Vicksburg.
You can take the equivalents out of the officers captured and
paroled by us at Chancellorsville, or from privates, as you prefer.
Respectfully,
Your obedient servant
RO. OULD,
Agent of Exchange,
[No. 21.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Dep't of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, j
Fort Monroe, July 14, 1863. y
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners :
Sir : I decline to unite with you in your declaration of the exchange
of the officers named by you in your communication of the 13th
instant, just received, and who form a part of those captured at
Vicksburg.
In violation of the cartel, you now hold, in close confinement, many
of our officers, though their release was long ago demanded, and their
equivalents tendered to you. You even permitted these equivalents
to be sent back to Fort Monroe from City Point. In this position of
affairs, and being in entire ignorance of what you propose to do with
our officers now in your hands, I must decline any special arrange-
ments until we meet. This meeting, with your consent, will take
place as soon as I shall have received the paroles of the Vicksburg
captures. •
Please, therefore, notify the officers named by you, that their
exchange cannot be recognized by our authorities, until the declara-
tions be united in by me.
In making arrangements with you for exchanges of paroles of
officers, I shall expect to exhaust equivalents of equal rank, before
we take up those of higher rank.
To settle all difficulties connected with exchanges of officers. I
again invite you to a return to the cartel, and if'you refuse, I again
ask you, why such refusal.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM. II. LUDLOW,
Lieutenant Colonel, and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
83
The declaration of exchange made by you on the 2d instant, leave
you in debt to me between eight and nine hundred men. Please make
r.o more declarations until we meet.
[No. 22.]
r
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL, LUDLOW.
Richmond, July IT, 1863.
Lieutenant Colonel Wm, H. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange;
Sir: In my communication to you of the 13th instant, declaring
ihe exchange of certain officers who had been captured and paroled at
Vicksburg, I only did what you yourself have frequently done. On
at least one occasion, you went farther than I presumed to go. You,
declared your men exchanged, when you had no equivalents to offer..
You say in your letter of the 14th instant, that you decline to unite-
with me in my declaration, and request me to notify the officers that
their exchange cannot be recognized. I call your attention to the-
fifth article of the cartel, which provides that " each party upon the
discharge of prisoners of the other party, is authorized to discharge
•an equal number of their owiuofficers or men from parole." I have
exercised a clear right under the cartel—one that you have exercised!
over and over again. I have already delivered to you the equivalents-
of these officers, which equivalents you may declare exchanged. My
right to declare these officers exchanged does not depend upon your-
assent. After I have given you equivalents, their exchange is per-
fected by my declaration, whether you "dee-line to unite" with me-
or not. I shall not, therefore, give the notice which you request.
The officers referred to are already rightfully and properly exchanged.
The right to declare officers and men exchanged where equivalents-
have been delivered, is one that I cannot yield, and I am unwilling
to bind myself by^an agreement not to,exercise that right " until we-•
meet."
Respectfully, your, obedient servant,
RO. OULD,
Agent of Exchange,-.
84
]No, 23.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
]STew York, July 22, 1863.
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners 1
Sir : Yo„ur communication of the 17th instant has been forwarded
to me here.
There is no authority in the cartel for your proposed declaration of
exchange of your officers captured at Yicksburg, in the manner you
indicate. The cartel provides for exchanges of equal rank, until such
are exhausted, and then for equivalents.
In consequence of the very much larger number of officers and
'men we hold on parole and in confinement, you can give no equiva-
dents for the general officers you desire to have exchanged. You
cannot, for a moment, assume that you can select a general officer,
and declare his equivalents in those of inferior rank, when we hold
the paroles of your officers of the same rank as the latter. But even
• supposing this arrangement #as permitted by the cartel, I do not see
how you could avail yourself of itat<this time. You will recollect
that since the proclamation of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of December
last, and more especially since the passage of the act of your Con-
gress in reference to our captured officers, both of which were in vio-
lation .of the cartel, and have caused in the one case atemporary, and
in the other a continued suspension of exchanges of officers under the
cartel that all such exchanges have been subjects of special agreement
between us. To avoid the complication and annoyance of these
special agreements, I have again and again urged ytou to a return to
•the cartel, but up to the present moment in vain. On the contrary,
^you retain in close confinement large humbers of our officers for whom
I have made a demand and tendered equivalents. ^Until you consent
to a return to the terms prescribed by the cartel for exchanges of
officers, I shall not consent to any exchanges of them, except on
special agreements.
I repeat that I decline to unite in your proposed declaration of
exchange of officers captured at Yicksburg, and if recaptured they
will be dealt with as violators of their parole.
Ougfht you not, in justice to them, to notify them of the exact
condition of their cases, and thus enable them to avoid being placed
in a false position.
If you are authorized to deliver our officers now held in close con-
"finement, and to a return to the cartel in exchanges of all officers, all
ithe complicated questions which have arisen within the last few months
can be promptly disposed of. To such a return, in the name of hu-
snanity, I again invite you. I am now only waiting the receipt of
papers, connected with the Yicksburg captures, before going to City
Point.
I ^m, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM. It LUDLOW,
Lieutenant Colonel, and Agent of Exchange of Prisoners,
[No. 2,4.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Confederate States of America, War Departmet, )
Richmond, Va., July 26th, 1863. 5
Col. Wm. II. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir: Your communication of the 22nd contests my declaration of
exchanges of officers made on the 17th instant. You say " the cartel
provides for the exchange of equal ranks, until such are exhausted,
and then for equivalents." If you had been at Fortress Monroe,
where you could have seen the cartel, instead of New York, from
which your letter is dated, you would have written no such paragraph.
There is nothing in the cartel which contains any such doctrine, or
which favors it. Every provision is against it. Your own and my
practice have been opposed to,it. I again say to you what I have al-
ready stated in my communication of the 17th instant, that your as-
sent is not needed to the declared exchange, and I shall not notify the
officers, whom I have declared exchanged, as you request. I have al-
lowed you to declare exchanges when the number of prisoners in
our hands has been the greater. This has been the ease from the day
when we first met in . the fall of last year, to the capture at Yicksburg.
Now, when you have scarcely received official advices of your supe-
riority in prisoners, you boast of the, fact, and declare that I cannot
give an equivalent for the general officers I have declared exchanged.
The point you make is worth nothing, even a3 you have stated it.
You know we have no Lieutenant Generals or Major Generals of yours
in our hands. For that reason I have declared them exchanged in
privates or inferior officers at your election. I had the right, under
the cartel, to make the choice myself, but I preferred that you should
do it, and, therefore, I gave you the notification which I did. If, at
any time, you present officers for exchange who have been paroled,
and we havp no officers of similar rank on parole, you can declare
their exchange in privates. 'If, it at this time, you have any officers
of the rank I have declared exchanged, or of any other rank, or if
you have any particular organization of privates or non-commissioned
officers whom you wish exchanged, you have only to. state such fact
and yoiir.selection will be approved. If you hold the paroles of our
officers of any yank as you state, you have only jo present them,
86
and whatever is in our hands, whetlyr on parole or in captivity, will
he freely given in exchange for them. You say you have again and
again invited me to a return to the cartel. Now that our official con-
nection is being terminated, I say to you in the fear of God—and I
appeal to Him for the truth of the declaration—that there has been
, no single moment, from the time when we were first brought together
in connectoin with the matter of exchange to the present hour, during
which there has not been an open and notorious violation of the car-
tel, by your authorities. Officers and men, numbering over hundreds,
have been, during your whole connection with the cartel, kept in cruel
confinement, sometimes in irons, or doomed to cells, without charges
or trial. They are in prison now, unless God, in His mercy, has
released them. In our parting moments, let me do you the justice
to say that I do not believe it is so much your fault as that of your
authorities. Nay more, I belieye your removal from your position
has been owing to the personal efforts you have made for a* faithful
observance, not only of the cartel, but of humanity in the conduct of
the war.
Agaip and again have I importuned you to tell me if one officer or
man now held in confinement by us, who was declared exchanged.
You have, to those appeals, furnished one, Spencer Kellog. For him
I have searched in vain. On the other hand, I appeal to your own
records for the cases where your reports have shown that our officers
and men have been held for long months and even years in violation
of the cartel and our agreements. The last phase of the enormity,
however, exceeds all others. Although you have many thousands of
our soldiers now in confinement in your prisoners, and especially in
that horrible hold of death, Fort Deleware, you have not, for several
weeks, sent us any prisoners. During those weeks yon have dis-
patched Captain Mulford with the steamer New York to City Point,
three or four times without any prisoners. For the first two or three
times some sort ©f an excuse was attempted, l^one is given at this
present arrival. I do not mean to be offensive when I say that ef-
frontery could not give one. I ask you with no purpose of. disrespect,
what can you think of this covert attempt to secure the delivery of
, all your prisoners in our hands, without the release of those of ours
who are languishing in hopeless misery in your prisons and dun-
geons ?
Respectfully,
Your obd't serv't,
ROB'T. OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
87
[No. 25.]
EXCHANGE NOTICE, No. 6.
Richmomd, September 12, 1863.
The following confederate officers and men, captured at Yieksburg,
Miss., July 4, 1863, and subsequently paroled have been dulv ex-
ihanged, and are hereb3>- so declared:
1. The officers and men of Gen. C. L. Stevenson's division.
2. The officers and men of Gen. Bowen's division.
3. The officers and men of Brig. Gen. Moore's brigade.
4. The officers and men of the 2d Texas regiment.
« o
5. The officers and men of Waul's legion.
6. Also, all confederate officers and men who have been delivered at
City Point at any time previous to July 25th, 1863, have been duly
exchanged, and are hereby so declared.
RG. OU.LD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 26.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH "TO MR. OULD.
IId. Qrs. Dept. of Va., Seventh Armv Corps. ^
Fortress Monroe, September 24th, 1863. i
Hon. Robt. Oltld, Agent, §"c .*
Sir : To meet your declaration of exchange of the 1 2th instant, I
inform you that I have this day announced the following :
"A declaration of exchange having been announced by R. Ouhl,
Esq., agent for exchange at Richmond, Va., dated September 13, 1863,
to meet the same in part, as equivalents, it is hereby declared that all
officers and men of the United States army captured and paroled at;
any time previous to the 1st September, 1863, are duly exchanged.
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brigadier General, Coimissioner, for Exchange."
The number of officers-covered by the first five sec-
tions of your declaration is - - 1,208
The number of enlisted men is - ' - 14,865
The number of officers covered by 6th section is - . 72
The number of enlisted men is 8,014
Making a total of officers, - - 1,280
And total of enlisted men, - - 22,879 —
88
Aggregate, - - - - 24,159
Reduced to enlisted men, - 29,433.
Of the Federal troops oh parole there are
Officers, - - 76
Enlisted men, - - - - 19,083
Aggregate, - - -- - 19,159
Reduced to enlisted men, - 19,409
Which gives a balance in our favor, of - - 10,024
I now claim this balance which is due us, and I demand that you
return to their paroles all officers and men for whom you have paroled
no equivalents, or that you release an equal number from the prisons
in Richmond.
Your declaration was wholly unwarranted under the cartel, and it <
might with'great propriety be set aside. In it you failed to announce
to me the Oth section, as published in the Richmond Enquirer of the
10th instant, which covers 72 officers and 8,'f 14 enlisted men. You
did not, according to the terms of the cartel, furnish me with any
''list," or even give me the number of men, by which I could declare
equivalents, nor did you give me any time to prepare my • announce-
merit. I here deem it incumbent upon me to state that I consider
your course in this matter a deliberate breach of good faith on the
part of the authorities under whom you act. The*5th article of the
cartel (General Orders, No. f42, 1862,) would have authorized you to
discharge prisoners of the Federal forces, furnishing a "list" of them,
and then you could have discharged an equal number of your own
officers and men "from parole." The cartel not only contemplates a
"mutual" exchange of "lists" (article 5), but expressly declares (ar-
ti^le 4) that no exchange is to be considered complete until the officer
or soldier exchanged for has been actually restored to the lines to
which he belongs.
As to the paroles given at Gettysburg and elsewhere, you made an •
agreement with my predecessor, Lieut. Col. Ludlow, to take effect from
May 22d, 1863, that all paroles given not in accordance with the
cartel, should be considered null and void, How, then, can you claim
as valid the Gettysburg paroles ?
If you have any rolls or lists of any men whom you have paroled
that 1 have not given you credit for, or if there should be any errors
in my account, I will be happy to rectify the same.
You declared exchanged, before my predecessor was relieved, cer-
tain officers captured at Yicksburg, in which declaration he refused to
unite. There are but two officers, I believe (Generals Stevenson and
Bowen), who are covered by your declaration of the 12th instant. If
the other officers named have not been returned to their paroles, as
requested by Lieut. Col. Ludlow, you are indebted to us for their
equivalents. The chief ground of the objection to that declaration ,
that at that time there were no equivalents of the same grade in our
89-
possession (the only condition which wmld have warranted your
making the declaration); and if we consented to it we would be obliged
to offset them by officers of inferior rank.
In miking up the number of Federal troops to be exchanged, I have
included all those mustered out of the service, all discharged, deserted
and deceased.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brigadier General aud Commissioner of Exchange.
[No. 27.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Oct. 2, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir: Your communication of the 24th ultimo, declaring that all
officers and men of the United States army, captured and paroled at
any time previous to the 1st of September, 1863, are duly exchanged,
has been received.
You are aware that when I met you dn the 24th of August last, at
City Point, I made^o you the following proposal, to wit: " I propose
that all paroles, on both sides, heretofore given, shall be determined
by the General Orders issued by the War Department%of the United
States, to wit: No. 49, No. 100, and No. 207, of this year^ according
to their respective dates, and in conformity with paragraph 131 of
General Order No. 100, so long as said paragraph was in force. If
this proposition is not acceptable, I propose that the practice hereto-
fore adopted respecting paroles and exchanges, be continued. In
other words, I propose that the whole question of paroles be deter-
mined by the General Orders of the United States, according to dates,
or that it be decided by former practice." You'have neither accepted
or declined either branch of that proposal, although I have, both in
personal interview and by letter, solicited you to do one or the other.
On the same day you submitted to me your proposition, which, unlike
mine, was prepared before hand, and which is as follows: "I pro-
pose, on behalf of the Government of the United' States, that all pa-
roles given by officers and men between the 23d day of May, 1863,
and the 3d day of July, 1863, not in conformity with the stipulations
of the cartel, shall be regarded as null and void. A declaration to
this effect to be published to both armies-" That proposition I im-
mediately declined. I then and there gave you my reasons. In the
first place, I informed you that the Confederate authorities had never,
at any time, and did not then, ask that paroles, " not in conformity
with the stipulations of the cartel," should be regarded as valid. I
rurther told you that an agreement to regard " as null and void" pa-
90
roles between certain dates, which were " not in conformity with the
stipulations of the cartel," was an implication that paroles liable to
the same objection before the first named date and after the last, should
be regarded as valid, and was, therefore, necessarily vicious on its very
face. I also told you that another reason for declining your proposi-
tion, was the one which caused you to make it, to wit: that the paroles
which had been given to us were between the dates embraced in your
proposition, while those given to you were before anc[ after. When I
made the objection to your proposal, that it intimated that paroles
" not in conformity with the stipulations of the cartel" before the 23d
of May, and after the 3d of July, of this year, were to be regarded as
valid, I asked you to state, in writing, that no such'intimation was con-
veyed. This you declined to do, saying, somewhat brusquely, that you
did not "wish to have any discussion about the matter. Upon my press-
ing the subject, however, you put a memorandum at the foot of the
proposition, saying that the proposal was in reply to my letter of
Angust 5, 1803, and in lieu of the proposition therein made by me.
You would not, did nob disclaim the implication which your proposi-
tion contained, nor have you done so since. My letter of the 5th of
August only demanded, in compliance with your own General Order,
No. 100, that if you rejected the paroles, the parties should be deliv-
ered to us.
You informed me that you would transmit my proposition to Wash-
ington, and give me a speedy answer in person or by letter. '
On the 7th of September I complained that no reply had been re
turned, although two weeks had elapsed, and two boats had been dis-
patched to Cjty Point since the date of our interview. At the same
time I informed you that the Confederate authorities would consider
themselves entirely at liberty *to pursue any course with reference to
my proposition which they might deem right and proper under all the
circumstances of the case.'
Accordingly, on the 11th of September, in pursuance of this plain
intimation, I notified you that on the following day (that being the
time when the notice would reach you) I wrould declare exchanged a
portion of the Yicksburg captures. I gave you the divisions, brig-
ades, regiments and batteries. I also informed you that I had in my
possession more valid paroles of your officers and men than would be
an equivalent for the exchange I then declared; that, in addition, I
had delivered at City Point some ten or twelve thousand men since the
last declaration of exchange; that, as it had been the practice, how-
ever, of the agents of exchange, whenever one of them declared a spe-
cial exchange, to allow the other to select the equivalents, I gave
you that privilege, and if you did not avail yourself of it, I would
name the Federal officers and men* who were discharged from their
parole by reason of the declaration of exchange then made. This
notification to you was not only in accordance with former practice,
but was sanctioned if not demanded by the fifth article of the cartel,
which, after providing for the manner in which " each party" may
discharge "their" officers and men from parole, says, " thus enabling
eachparty to relieve from parole such of their own officers and men as
91
the party may choose." I have said this course was in accordance
with former practice, and for proof, refer you to the letters of Lieut.
Col. Ludlow, former agent of exchange, of the following dates of thi^
year, to wit: April 6th, 8th, 13th, 19th and 27th; May 12th, 26th
and 311th; June 5th, 9th and 13th, wherein he declared the exchange
of Federal officers and men.
In one of Lieut. Col. Ludlow's communications of May 30, 1863,
he says : " I have declared exchanged the Holly Springs capture, the
91st regiment Illinois volunteers, captured at Elizabethtown, Ky.,
December 27, 1862, and the captures at Mt. Sterling, on the 22d and
23d of March, 1863; also, the officers and men of the Indianola. The
exact numbers I have not on hand, but they foot up some hundreds
less than the balance due. I will furnish you with the exact numbers
as soon as received." The same.boat that conveyed that communication
brought another written subsequently, but dated the same day, as fob
lows: "I have declared exchanged the 51st regiment Indiana volun-
teers, 73d regiment Indiana volunteers, and 3d regiment Ohio, volun-
tebrs. These number each less than three hundred men, and compose
a part of St'reight's brigade. I will add to the above declaration the
bllth Illinois volunteers, and fifty-eight members of the 1st Ten-
nessee cavalry."
The enlisted men alone, designated in either one of the communica-
tions, exceeded the "balance" due to Lieut. Col. Ludlow. The excess
in both communication was two thousand two hundred and ninety,
without taking into account " the captures at Mt. Sterling on the 22d
and 23d of March, 1863."
You will observe that Lieut. Col. Ludlow, in these two communica-
tions, "did not furnish me with any list, or even give me the number
of men, by which I could declare equivalents ; nor did he give me any
time to prepare my announcement." I quote from your letter of the
24th of September to me.
Not only was that the case, but he made a wholesale exchange of
the Mt. Sterling captures, by a simple reference to it as being made
" on the 22d and 23d day of March, 1863," without any designation of
corps, division, brigade, regiment or company. Further than that, I
have never, to this day, been furnished with a list of those captured
at Mt. Sterling, or even with the aggregate number.
jSuch, then, were the circumstances, and such the precedents, under
which 1 declared tile exchanges of September 12, 1863. I have pur-
posely gone into minute and faithful detail in consequence of the ex-
traordinary character of your letter of the 24th of September. Yon
state that you consider my course to be a deliberate breach of good
faith on the part of the authorities under whom I act. In a bungling
sort of way you have used language which casts an offensive aspersion
both upon myself and the Government I represent. If there had not
been subjects of very grave import to both people referred to in other
portioi.3 of your communication, I would have treated it with the silent
contempt it deserved, and returned it to you without comment. For
the first time in the correspondence of the agents of exchange has any
such discourtesy occurred. I regret it very much. Heretofore I
92
have had occasion to complain of the action of your Government, But
it has always been done with decorum. I have never written a word
personally offensive to the Federal agent of (Exchange, or insulted his
Government with a charge of " deliberate breach of good faith." It is
a matter of very little moment to me what may be your opinion of
" my course." There are some people connected with this war who,
either from ignorance or passion, seem to have no clear ideas on aiy
subject. The opinion of such, even if uttered in the language of
courtesy, is but of little avail, but, if expressed with intemperance,
only " exalts their folly." There has been no breach of faith on the
part of the Confederate States, "deliberate" or otherwise. You were
importuned to agree to some fair principle by which paroles could be
adjusted and computed. After patient waiting—after failure on your
part to respond affirmatively or negatively—the Confederate Govern-
ment, through its agent of exchange, did what was demanded by
courtesy, and justified both by former practice and the provisions of
the cartel.
I now proceed to notice the misstatements of your letter. I will
not call them " deliberate," although you had the means of* correcting
them at your hand; for such phraseology, so open to the imputation
of discourtesy and coarseness, finds m such communications as the
present only the precedent of your example.
1. Your computation of paroles is incorrect on both sides. As to
your item of 1,2(18 officers and 14,865 men, embraced by the first five
sections of my exchange notice, I have no exception to make. Some
of our Yicksburg rolls were lost, and I have not the means of making
an accurate computation as to them.
Your second item, however, of 72 officers an.d 8,014 men, embracing
the sixth section of my exchange notice, is incorrect. In the first
place, all the officers on both sides, who have been delivered at City
Point, are exchanged. They were specially exchanged. Major Mul-
ford knows that fact. All Confederate soldiers who were delivered at
City Point up to May 23, 1863, including said date, were declared
exchanged by Lieut. Col. Ludlow, while the Federal troops were only
exchanged up to May 6, 1863. The number of Confederate soldiers,
reduced to privates, delivered at City Point from May 23 to July 25,
(the date named in my notice,) is 5,831, instead of 8,014. The rolls
show this very clearly. Of the Federal troops on parole, you say there
are 76 officers and 19,083 men. If these officers are th >se deliver!!
at City Point, you make an error against yourself. They have been
exchanged. From the 6th of May, 1S63, (the time of the last ex-
change of Federal troops,,) to the 1st of September, 1863, (the time
named in your notice,) I have delivered at City Point alone, in pri-
vales, 18,610. All of these are on parole. I have other valid paroles
in my possession, amounting to at least 16,000 more. Allowing,
therefore, that your Yicksburg computation is correct, you-owe me,
upon the last notice which jou have published, more than 7,000, in-
stead of my owing you 10,024, as you claim. Many of the 16,000
paroles to which I have referred, have been acknowledged by Lieut.
93
Col. Ludlow in his correspondence. So much as to your computation,
and your exchange- notice based upon it.
2. You say I failed to announce to you "the sixth section of my
exchange notice, as published in the Richmond Enquirer of the 10th
instant, which covers 72 officers and 8,014 enlisted men." This is
not so. On the 1st of August last I informed you in writing that I
had declared exchanged all Confederate soldiers who had been deliv-
cred at City Point up to July 20, 1863. No deliveries were made afc
City Point between July 20 and July 25, and therefore one announce-
raent was the same as the other. I did not inform you of tjie exchange
. f the City Point men in my letter of the 11th September, because I
had already notified you on the 1st of. August.
3. You say I did not funtish you with any list, or even give the
number of men, by which you could declare equivalents, nor did I
give you any time to prepare your announcement. You were fur-
nished with the lists of all paroled men delivered at City Point, num-
bering up to September 1, 18,610 men. As to other paroles held by
me, you failed to accept or decline the terms upon which they were to
he computed and adjusted, and therefore it was useless to send them.
You had, or ought to have had, duplicates of many of them in your
possession. If there was any particular capture on parole, or any
special class of paroled men whom you wished to declare exchanged,
you had only to announce that fact, and the lists would be furnished
jf I had them and you had not. With what propriety could I send
you lists which I-believed to be in accordance with the cartel, but
which you intimated you would decline to acknowledge ? Moreover,
according to my interpretation of the cartel, that instrument very
clearly gives the right to you to select what Federal officers and men
shall be relieved from their parole, whenever I discharge our officers
and men from their parole. I claim the same right when you declare
an exchange of your paroled men. If I had sent you lists of such of
your officers and men as were relieved from their parole by my declar-
aticn of exchange, I would, in effect, have violated that provision of
die cartel which giv§s the right to "each party to relieve from parole
*uch of their own officers and men as the pai-ty may choose." It was
••ntirely unnecessary for me to give you the number of men whom my
notice declared exchanged. They were all Viclcsburg captures or
City Point deliveries. You had the rolls of both. You had in your
possession as much information as I could communicate, even if I had
held the Vicksburg rolls, which I did not. I have already" proved to
you by the record that the'former Federal agent, when he declared ex-
rhanges, gave neither lists nor the number of men. There is, how-
over, a more recent case. You yourself have just declared a sweeping
exchange. You have not furnished me with any lists or."designation
of corps, division, brigade, regiment, or company, notwithstanding
the clamor you have raised about my omission in those particulars.
Your objection as to want of time for the preparation of your an-
nouncement, is a small one at best. The cartel does not make it
incumbent upon me to give you time. Your predecessor did not give
it to me. The correspondence, however, between us, before the 12th
D4
of September, 'was of such a nature as must have prevented a sur*
orise.
4
4. I did not make any such agreement with your predecessor, Lieut.
Col. Ludlow, as you state, nor did I ever make any agreement with
any one, by which I renounced the right to claim the paroles given
at Gettysburg. The first official letter which I ever addressed to you
was in relation to this very subject. ' It bears date August 1, 1863,
and is as follows :
" Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
" Agent of Exchange :
"Sir : In the Army and Navy Official Gazette of the date of July
14th, 1863, I find a letter from Lieut, tJol. Wm. II. Ludlow, of the
date of July 7th, 1863, addressed to Col. J. C. Kelton. In it is the
following paragraph, to wit:
" 4 I have the honor also to state that since the 22d of May last, it
has been distinctly understood between Mr. Ould and myself, that all
captures must be reduced to possession, and that all paroles are to be
disregarded unless taken under the special arrangement of command-
ing officers of armies in the field, as prescribed in section seven of
the cartel.'
" If Lieut" Col.JLudlow means that he had declared to me that such
was the rule which had been adopted by the United States in relation to
captures and paroles, to go into effect from and after May 23d, 1863,
he is entirely right. If he means that I at any time consented to
adopt or acquiesce in any such rule, he is entirely wrong. All that
passed between U3 on that subject is in writing. The correspondence
will interpret itself.
" Respectfully, your ob't. serv't.,
" Rob't. Ould,
" Agent of Exchange."
Thefgeneral order, No. t100, issued at Washington, which Lieut.
Col. Ludlow communicated to me on the 23d May, 1863, in its 131st
paragraph provides, that " if the Government does not approve of the
parole, the paroled officer must return into captivity ; and should the
enemy refuse to receive him, he is free of his parole." In no com-
munication, in no interview with either Lieut. Col. Ludlow or your-
self, where the subject was under consideration, did I ever fail to de-
mand that, if your Government rejected the paroles, the parties should
return into captivity. I had the warrant of your own general order
for that demand, but pleaded it in vain. So far from carrying out its
own general order, your Government, on the 30th June last, while
the order was in force, and before the publication fcof general order,
No. 207, convened a court of enquiry, and required the court to give
its opinion on the following point, to wit: whether Major Duane and
Captain Michler^ captured and paroled on the 28th June, 1863, should
be placed on duty without exchange, or be required to return to the
enemy as prisoners of war. The general order required the latter,
but the court found that the Government was free to- place those offi-
95
cers on. duty without exchange. The reason given, by the court was,
not that the Federal agent and myself had agreed, to regard such pa-
roles as invalid, but that I had been notified they would not be recog-
nized. It is true that I was informed that certain paroles would not
be considered as valid, but I was also notified at the same time, by the
same hand, and through the same instrument, that the " paroled
officer" must return into captivity if bis parole was not approved.
In other words, on that day (May 23d, 1863,) Lieut. Col. Ludlow,
with little or no comment, delivered to me general order, No. 100,
as the rules adopted for the government of the Federal army. I never
had any intimation that all the provisions of general order, No. 100,
did not continue in .force, until I received, on the 8th of July, 1863,
the following letter from Lieut. Col. Ludlow :
" Fort Monroe, July 7th, 1863.
(t Sir : I herewith enclose to you a copy of general order, No. 207,
which contains some additional provisions to those mentioned in my
communication to you of the 22d May last. It is understood that
officers of the United States and Confederate officers have, at various
times and places, paroled and released prisoners of war, not in'accor-
dance with the cartel.
" The Government of the United States will not recognize, and will not
expect the Confederate uthorities to recognize such unauthorized pa-
roles. Prisoners released on parole not authorized by the cartel, after
my notice to you of the 22d May, will not be regarded as prisoners
of war, and will not be exchanged.
" Where prisoners of war have been released without the delivery
specified in the cartel, since the 22d of May last, such release will be
regarded as unconditional, and the prisoners released as subject to
orders without exchange, the same as if they had never been captured.
" I am, very respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
"Wm. H. Ludlow.
•" Lieut. Col. and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
" Hon. Rob't. Ould, Agent, §"c."
The " notice^' referred to in Lieut. Col. Ludlow's letter was the
delivery of general order, No. 100, with its 131st paragraph. That
paragraph was set aside by the provisions of general order, No. 207, t
which bears date July 3, 1863, three days after the submission of the
question of the paroles of Duane and Michler to the court of inquiry,
two days after its finding, and several days after our captures in the
Gettysburg campaign. On the 7th of July, 1863, Lieut. Col. Lud-
low substantially informs me that although he notified me on the 22d
of May, that paragraph 131 of general order, No. 100, was to be
continued in forceyet, under the circumstances of the case, and in
view of what had taken place in Maryland and Pennsylvania, said
paragraph was not to be considered as being in force at any time after
the 22d of May,-and general order, No. 207, although it was issued
July 3, 1863, should be construed as bearing date the 22d of May,
preceding!
"96
It will be observed that Lieut. Col. Ludlow, in hi3 letter to me of
the 7th of July, no where says I had made any agreement with him,
and yet it bears the same date as his letter to Col. Kelton. It is ap-
parent on the face of the paper that he is conveying to me certain
information for the first time, and that this information is the " addi-
tional provisions" of general order, No. 207, one of which set aside
paragraph 131 of general order, No. 100. The court of enquiry, in
its finding, (see Army and Navy Official Gazette, July 14, 1863,)
says I was 0 notified§~c. Lieut. Col. Ludlow, in his letter to Col.
Kelton, says it was distinctly " understood" between Mr Ould and
himself, &c. You, in your letter of the 24th of September, say I
made an agreement" with your predecessor. The notification first
rises to an understanding, and is then elevated into an agreement.
What further promotion it will receive remains to be seen.
You have charged a deliberate breach of good faith upon the part
of the Confederate States. Let me bring to your attention an.inci-
dent connected with this matter of release from paroles. On March
•9, 1863, General Sehenck, of immortal memory, issued a general
order,*No.*15, requiring all officers and men who had been captured
and paroled in his department, and particularly in the Shenandoah
Valley, but who had not been exchanged, to return to duty on penalty
of being considered deserters. Your general order in force at that
time—No. 49, February 28, 1863—in section 8, provided that if the
engagement which a prisoner made was not approved by his.Govern-
merit, he was bound to return and surrender himself as a prisoner of
war. The same general order, No. 49, in the same section 8, uses thtsse
memorable words, which I now set up against your present extraordinary
claims, to wit: "His own Government cannot, at the same time, dis-
own his engagement and refuse his return as a prisoner." In spite
of those honest words, General Schenck issued his order, wThich to this
day has not been countermanded, in effect directing not only that such
as were captured and paroled after March 9th, 1863, should
return to duty, but also all who had been captured and paroled,
under the circumstances named,.since the beginning of hosilities,
on penalty of being considered deserters. At that very time
and afterwards, even to as late as Stoneman's raid, the former agent
of exchange was charging against me, and receiving credit for captures
and paroles siralar to those repudiated by Schenck's order. It is due to
Lieut. Col. Ludlow that I should say that, when thematter was brought
to his attention, he declared that Schenck's action was without proper
authority, and that I would have credit for such as reported for duty
under the order. Still the order was not countermanded, but, on the
contrary, has been followed and sustained by general order, No. 207.
I have received no returns of such as have reported under Schenck's
order, and never will.
In your letter of the 24th of September, and others, you refer, in
connection with our Gettysburg captures, to " paroles not in accor-
dance with the cartel." The phrase figures not only in your corres.
pondence, but in; the findings of your courts and in some of your
97
general orders. Let me here, in the most formal manner, assure yon
that the Confederate Government considers the cartel to be binding
and imperative to.the fullest extent pf any and all of its provisions.
I have never asked you to respect a parole which is inconsistent with
that instrument, Xou say the Gettysburg paroles are in contraven-
.tion of the cartel.. Let me give you some of them—all, or nearly all,
of them belong'to one or the other class :
" I, the subscriber, a prisoner of war, captured near Gettysburg,
Pa., do give my parole of honor not to take up arrets against the Con-
federate States, or to do any military duty-whatever, or to give any
information that may be prejudicial to the interest of the same, until
regularly exchanged. In the event this parole is not recognized by
the Federal authorities, I give my parole of honor to report to Rich-
mond, Ya., as a prisoner of war within thirty days.
" John E. Parsons,
" 1 si Lieut, and Adft. 149th Pa. Vols"
" I, the subscriber, a- prisoner of war, captured near Gettysburg,
Pa., do give my parol© of honor not to take up arms against the Con-
fedsrate States, or to do any military duty whatever, or to give any
information that may be prejudicial to the interests of the same, until
regularly exchanged. This parole is unconditional, and extended to
a wounded officer for the sake of humanity, to save a painful and te-
dious journey to the rear.
"Roy Stone, Col. 149th P. VP
" We, the undersigned, of the company and regiment opposite our
names, do solemnly swear that we will not take up arms, against the
Confederate States of America until regularly exchanged in accor-
dance with cartel, even if required to do so by our Government."
" The following named prisoners, captured near Gettysburg, Pa,,
are paroled on the following conditions, namely, not to take up arms
against the Confederate States, or to do any military duty whatever,
or to give any information that may be prejudicial to the same, until
regularly exchanged; this parole is unconditional, and if not recog-
nized by the authorities of the United States Government, all pledge
themselves to repair to Richmond, as prisoners of war, at the expira-
tion of twenty days from this date."
Does the cartel contemplate that these officers and men should be
returned to duty without exchange ? It no where says so upon its face.
When we were without any cartel, ail such paroles, and, in fact, all mili-
tary paroles, were respected. The very first act of the agents of ex-
change was to adjust mutual accounts as to the officers and men who had
been captured and paroled before the cartel was signed. If it had been
intended by the cartel to repudiate such paroles as were given at Get-
tysburg, or upon any battle field, a provision to that effect, in Gis-
tinct terms, would have been incorporated in it. That instrument was
intended to apply To ''all prisoners of war held by either party "—to
such as! were in military depots or prisons, to such as had been re-
moved from the* battle field or place of capture, and reduced into
7
D8 '
actual possession. It left the force and effect of military paroles, and
the respect which should be paid to them, to be determined by the
usages of civilized nations of modern times. It certainly did not
purpose to prevent a wounded officer or man from entering into a stip-
ulation-not to take up arms until exchanged, as the condition of his
release, when his life would be at the serious risk of forfeit if he did
rot make the contract. Nor does it any where deny the right of any
soldier, wounded or not, to bind his Government, by his military obli-
gation, when he is in the hands of the enemy. The latter part of
article seven does ntit really controvert this view. ' That clause intended
to give " the commanders of two opposing armies " the power of de-
daring an exchange of prisoners, with the further right of paroling
whatever surplus there might be after the exchange was arranged.
Without such .clause, the two commanders, would have no right to de-
clare a?i- exchavge. . It was', therefore, inserted. Until recently, no-
body ever pretended that the cartel forbid the giving and receiving of
ordinary military paroles. The uniform practice under the cartel for
nearly a year sanctioned them. Whatever, however, may be the de-
termination as to this matter, it is entirely clear that at the time
the |Gettysburg paroles were given, your own military law required
that if the parole was not approved the party should return to our
lines. Many of the paroles indicate on their face that the persons
giving them were aware of that.fact. I have, therefore,'demanded
that if you reject these paroles, the parties who gave them should be
returned to us. The question between us is not so much whether you
will regard these paroles as valid, as whether you will comply with a
rule of your own making, and which was advertised to us as being
the controlling law of the case.
I know not what you mean by your reference, on your third page,,
to article four, of the cartel. All the officers and men whom I declared!
exchanged, were 44 actually restored to our lines." All *the officers
end men whom I requested you to select as equivalents for them in
the exchange, 44 had been restored to your lines."
The parties whom I have declared exchanged, have not been 44 re-
turned to their paroles, as requested by Lieut. Col. Ludlow." I do
r.ot understand by what sort of reading of the exchange notice of the
J2th of September you make out that only 44 two (.officers (Generals
Stevenson and Bowen)" were exchanged. My letters of July 13,
September 11, and September 26, will inform you of all the Vicks-
burg prisoners, officers and men, whom I have declared exchanged.
Your objection to the declaration of the exchange of the general
officers paroled at Yicksbufg, because there were no equivalents of the
same grade, is exploded by the provision of the cartel which declares
that 44 men and officers of lower grades may be'exchanged for officers
of a higher grade."
I have thus aneweied all the items of your letter of the 24th Sept.
I regret the extreme length of the reply. I have, however, confined
myself to the matter of that letter, and to such subjects as were di-
rcc-tly connected with its contents. In a future communication I will
cell to ycur attention the instances of the violation of the cartel by
99
the Federal authorities. Notwithstanding the expression of their
sudden regard for that instrument, I will show they have continued
those violations from its date to the present moment.
I now inform you, in view of the recent declaration of exchange
made by you, coupled with your failure either to agree to or decline
the proposition made to you on the 24th of August last, in rela-
tion to paroles, that the Confederate authorities will consider them-
selves entirely at liberty to pursue.any course as to exchange or pa-
roles which they may deem right and proper under all the circum-
stances of the case. At the same time, I am directed to express their
entire willingness to adopt any fair, just and reciprocal rule in rela-
tion to those subjects, without any delay.
Respectfully, your obedient servant.
* ROBT. OULE,
Agent of Exchang
[No. 28.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Dep't of Va., 7th Army Corps, );
Fort Monroe, Va., Sep£. 14, 1863. )•
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : In your letter of Sept. 7th, declining to exchange General
Graham for General Smith, you state "that I appear to be laboring
under some strange mistake; that General Smith has already been
exchanged, and, that I have received the equivalent." On July 14th,
1863, my predecessor, Lieut. Col. Ludlow, wrote, to you, positively
declining to unite with you in your declaration of exchange of July
13th, and requesting you to notify the officers therein named, that
their exchange would not be recognized by the authorities of .the
United States. May I ask, who was the "equiyalent,vdelivered for
General Smith ? I now repeat to you the notification of Lieut. Col.
Ludlow, and state that the authorities of the United States will not
recognize the exchange of the above officers until united in by me.
Respectfully, your obedient servant, ,
S. A. MEREDITH, ,
Brig. Gen. and Corner for Exchange..
100
[No. 29.J'
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
C. S. A., War Department, )
Richmond, ¥a.t Sept. 14. 1863. >
Brig. Gen. S, A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
. Sir : In your letter ©f the 14th instant, you inquire "who was the
equivalent delivered for General Smith." If you will refer to
my letters of the 13th and 17th of July, you will find out who was
the equivalent. It had been our practice, whenever a special
exchange was declared by one party, to .allow the other to select the
equivalent from prisoners already paroled or delivered. I pursued
that course in the case of the Vicksburg general officers. The equiv-
alent could be found in officers and men paroled at Fredericksburg,
in pursuance of an agreement between Generals Lee and Hooker.
If that was not satisfactory, the equivalent could easily be found in
the ten thousand prisoners whom I had released from captivity and
sent to City Point. In that ten thousand there was an excess of more
than six thousand, at least, over the number you had delivered at the
same place since the last general declaration of exchange. My letter
of the 17th of July contains a fair statement, not only of the practice
of the agents of exchange, but of the grounds of my authority to
declare the exchange of the Vicksburg general officers, including
Gen. M. L. Smith. The effort to cast discredit upon the regular and
honorable exchange of these officers, is, to use a phrase of your own,
in one of your letters of the 14th instant, "simply ridiculous."
Respectfully, your obedient servant, '
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. S'O.J
EXCHANGE NOTICE No. 7.
Richmond, Oct. 16th, 1863.
The following Confederate officers and men are hereby declared
duly exchanged:
7. All Officers and men captured and paroled at any time previous
to the first of September, 1863. This section, however, is not
intended to include any officers or men captured at Vicksburg, July
4th, 1863, except -such as were declared exchanged by exchange
notice No. fi, Sept. 12th, 186-8, or are specifically named in this
notice. But it does 'embrace all deliveries made at City Point or
101
other place before Sept. 1st, 1863, and with the limitation above-
named, all captures at Port Hudson or any other place, where the
parties were released on parole.
2. The staff of Generals Pemberton, Stevenson, Bowen, Moore,
Barton, S. D. Lee, Cummings, Harris, and Baldwin, and of Colonels
Reynolds, Coekrell, and Dockerey, the officers and men belonging to
the engineer corps and sappers and miners, and the fourth and forty-
sixth Mississippi regiments, all captured at Vicksburg, July 4th,
1863.
3. The general officers captured at Yicksburg, July 4th, 1863,
were declared exchanged July 13th, 1863.
ROBERT OBLD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. 31.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Oct. 16th, 1863.
Brig. Gen.,S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : I herewith enclose to you a declaration of exchange, which I
shall publish" in a day or two. You will perceive it is based upon the
declaration of exchange communicated to me in your letter of the
24th of September last. In my notice I have followed your phrase-
ology. I would have preferred another form of declaration more in
accordance with the circumstances of the case. Inasmuch, however,
as my declaration to a considerable extent is retaliatory Of yours, I
have deemed it more appropriate to follow your own form of expres-
sion. ' '
I have refrained from declaring exchanged the large residue of the
Vicksburg capture. The only addition I have made to the notifica-
tions already given you as far . as that capture is concerned, is the
fourth and forty-sixth Mississippi regiments. According to my com-
putation, you are considerably in debt to me upon your exchange
notice, even 'if I take into consideration only such paroles as those to
which no objection has been made. I have adopted the principles of
your general orders in the computation of the paroles in my posses-
sion, and will, continne to do so, until some} other 'agreement is made
between us. I reserve to myself the right to make further declara-
tions of exchange from time to time, based upon the paroles in my
office, until I have declared exchanged a number of Confederate sol-
diers equal to that of Federal troops declared exchanged by your last
notice. At the same time, I express my entire willingness to adopt
any fair, just, and reeiprocal rule of computation and apply the same
both to the past and the future.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange
102
[No, 32.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Head, Quarters, Defartmemt of Va. and N C. >
Fort Monroe, Oet. 17,'1862. y
Hon. Robt. Ould,
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Va :
Sir : On the 22d day of May, 1863, Lieut. Col. Ludlow, then agent
of exchange for the United States, enclosed you copies of general
orders, No. 49 and No. 100, of War Department, announcing regu-
lations and instructions for the government of United States forces in
the field, in the matter of paroles, stating that these orders and the
cartel are to govern our forces; when the cartel conflicts with the
orders they must be set aside. The cartel requires that prisoners of
war shall be delivered at certain named places, and if they are not so
delivered, the paroles cannot be valid. In consequence of the usage
which had governed both parties up to that time, instructions were sub-
sequently issued that paroles given before the 22d of May should be
considered valid, though deliveries had not been made as required by
the cartel. In order to the putting in force these instructions, it was
not necessary to ask your consent. We were only bound to notify
you that from that time the cartel would be ridgidly adhered to by us,
and the same course would be exacted of the Confederate authorities.
If you wish paroles recognized when the parties were not delivered
at the places named in the cartel, you "ask that paroles not in con-
formity with the stipulations of the cartel should be regarded as valid."
'I wild now proceed to show that your declaration of September 12th
was not in accordance with the cartel. Your reference to acts of
Lieut. Col. Ludlow does not sustain you, for, according to your own
letter, Lieut. Col. L. was declaring an exchange to cover a "balance
due" on declarations previously made by you. The troops thus de-
clared exchanged by Lieut. Col. Ludlow are as follows:
51st Reg't Ind. Vol. - 371
75th ' - - - 268
31 "Ohio " - - 311
Tenn. Cavalry, - - - 58
1,008
Forded at Mt. Sterling, - - - 463
1,471
You state that the "excess," without taking into account the Mount
Sterling captures, was 2,290, whereas the whole number, including
said captures, amount only to 1,471.
If, in making up this balance, Lieutenent Colonel Ludlow failed to
give rolls and numbers, it does not justify you in anticipating a decla
103
ration by me, without furnishing me either rolls or numbers, or giving
me time to consult the records to make them up for myself. When
the paroling is properly done, b:>th parties have rolls, and then there
can be little difficulty in arranging, an exchange, to be simultaneously
declared. You state that when the Federal troops were declared ex-
changed to the 6th of May, the Confederates were declared exchanged
to the 22d of May, inclusive I have nothing to show that the ex-
changes on both sides were not alike. The Confederate prisoners do-
livered between the two dates amount to .5,083 priyates, and, if we
have already received equivalents for them, they should be deducted
from my former computation. Without counting those, the number
covered by your declaration of September 12, and the subsequent ex-
planatory declaration of September 28, amounts to 29,450.
The number of Federal troops on parole to September 1st, and de-
clared exchanged, amounts to 23,911. The officers included are those
paroled at Gettysburg and elsewhere, not those delivered at City
Point. •
These numbers differ from those given to you before, because, in
making up that calculation, all enlisted men were counted alike,
whereas non-commissioned officers should have been counted as "two
privates.
Giving you, then, credit for the 5,083 enlisted men, which you state
were delivered at City Point between the 6th and the 23d of May, arid
declared exchanged by Colonel Ludlow, you are now in our debt 5,539
enlisted men. ' ,
You state that you have in your possession valid paroles, amounting
to 16,000 men. For all the prisoners that we claim as on parole, wo
can ^Vm./ :b . r^ls of delivery at the places named in the cartel, re-
ceipted oy confederate officers ; and if you can show similar rolls cf
the 16,000-men you speak of, they vill,'of course, be "recognised as
valid, and you will be credited with. them.
Respectfully, your ob't servant,
S. A. MEREDITZ,
Brig. Gen. and Com. for Exch.
[No. 33.]
MR..OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, October 27, 1863.
Brigadier General S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir: In reply to your communication of the 17th instant, I state
that general orders, Nos. 49 and 100 were not sent to me at the same
time. , I received general orders, No. 49 long before No. 100 was
delivered to me. Their respective dates will show that to be the fact.
104
My own personal recollection is that general orders, No. 100 was
i.ever communicated in a letter. It is my habit faithfully to keep all
letters written by the Federal Agent of Exchange. A careful search
of the records of my office dbes not disclose any letter from Lieut.
Col. Ludlow communicating general orders, No. 100. Lieutenant
Colonel Ludlow met me at City Point on the 23d of May, 1863, and
he then and there delivered to me generals orders, No. 100, stating
that the principles therein announced would, in the future, control the
operations of the forces of the United States. No written eommuni-
cation accompanied it. If any one was ever written to accompany it,
I never received it. You are in error, therefore, when you say that
Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow, on the 22d May, 1863, enclosed copies
of general orders, No. 49 and No. 11 SO, announcing regulations and
instructions for the government of the United States forces in the
held, in the matter of paroles, stating that these orders and the cartel
were to govern your forces, and that when the cartel conflicted with
the orders, they were to be set aside. Independent of the faets of the
case, I am justified in saying that any such communication would
have been very extiaordinary. It would not only have admitted that
the/general orders were in violation of the cartel, but would have
declared .that the later general order, which, on its face, was announced
to be the controlling law, should be set aside by the provisions con-
tained in an earlier paper.
• I again assert that the only notification I ever received as to your
successive changes of purpose in the matter of paroles, was from
your own- general orders, according to their respective dates, deliv-
ered to me without any further comment than I have already comma-
nicated to you.
You say my " reference to the acts cf Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow "
does not sustain me. You further saythe troops thus declared
exchanged by Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow are as follows
51st Regiment Indiana Volunteers, - - -:7l
75th « ' 268
3d " Ohio " 311
Tennessee Cuvalry, - - - - 58
• 1,008
Paroled at Mount Sterling, . - - - - - - 463
1,471
Permit me to say that I read this paragraph of your letter with
very great surprise. In my letter of the 2d instant, uffiich you were
contesting, I gave, at length, the communication of Lieutenant Colo-
nel Ludlow, and by reference to it, you will find -that not only are the
regiments which you have named therein mentioned, but also the
Holly Springs capture, numbering 1,383 privates, the 91st Illinois
regiment, numbering 649 privates, the officers and men of the
Indianola, numbering 69 privates, and the 80th regiment Illinois vol-
unteers, numbering 400 privates. Not only is that the case, but
your enumeration of 1,471 privates in the specified regiments is
incorrect. The true aggegate is 1,676 privates. You misname one
of the regiments also. The regiment declared exchanged was not the
75th Indiana, but the 73d. *
In an interview with me at City Point, in the presence of Major
Muiford, you admitted that all Confederate officers and soldiers deliv-
ered at City Point before the 23d of May, 1863, were declared
exchanged, while the Federal soldiers were only declared exchanged
up to May 6th, 1863, Yet, in your letter written subsequent to this
admission, you say you " have nothing to show that exchanges on
both sides were not alike." Since your letter of the 17th, in our last
interview you made the same admission. If the fact i3 denied at any
time, I stand prepared to prove it.
As to your computation based upon my declarations of exchange,
I refer you to my letter of the 2d of October, 1863. Every state-
ment therein contained is strictly and accurately correct. I again
assert what I am ready to prove, that I have in my possession more
valid paroles of your officers and men %than would be an equivalent for
the exchanges I have declared up to this date.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OTJLD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. 34.J
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Oct. 20, .1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : More than a month- ago I asked your acquiescence in a pro-
position, that all officers and soldiers on both sides should be released
in conformity with the provisions of the cartel. In order to obviate
the difficulties between us, I suggested that all officers and men on
both sides should be released, unless they were subject to charges ; in
which event, the opposite Government should have the right of holding
one or more hostages, if the retention was not justified. You stated
to'me, in conversation, that this proposition was very fair, and that
you would ask the .consent of your Government to it. As usual, you
have as yet made no response. I tell you frankly, I do not expect
any. Perhaps you may disappoint me, and tell me that you reject or
accept the proposition. I write this letter for the purpose of bringing
to your recollection my proposition, and of dissipating the idea that
seems to have been purposely encouraged by your public papers, that
the Confederate Government has refused or objected to a system of
exchanges.
106
In order to avoid any mistake in that direction, I now propose that
all officers and men on both sides be released in conformity with the
provisions of the cartel, the excess on.one side or the other to be on
parole. Will you accept this? I have no expectation of an answer*
but perhaps you may give one. If it does come, I hope it will be
soon..
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange,
[No. 35.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Oct. 27th, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. Ar Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : I enclose to you a. memorandum of the paroles to which I
have referred in several recent communications. Most of these
paroles, you will observe, are antecedent to May 23d, 1863. The
reascn why these paroles have not been heretofore discharged, is that
up to July, 1863, we had the advantage of prisoners and paroles.
Not one of these paroles is covered by any declaration of exchange,
except the one lately made by you. For no one of them have I
received any equivalent. All of them since the date of vov.r entr J
orders, No. 207, were given in pursuance of a rhatmot agreement
between the commanders of two puGug armies. I have many other
paroles in my possession, biu i nave only presented those which are
within the terms of your general orders, according to their respective
dates."
I understand there are other paroles coming within the same gene-
ral orders, which were given by your officers and men on the other
side of the Mississippi river. They have not as yet reached me.
When they do, and when I show they are within the scope of your
general orders, I will claim them—otherwise I will discard them.
I have also received other informal paroles, which I have sent back
for correction. These are also within the provisions of your general
orders. When they arc returned, I will claim them also.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
107
[No. 36.]
BRIO. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Office Commissioner for Exchange, a
Fortress Monroe, Va., Oct. 29, 1863. )
Hen. Robert Ould,
Arint of Exchange, Richmond, Va.
Sir : I am in receipt of your communication of the 20th instant,
the tenor of which induces me to make some explanatory statements
of facts, with which, it would seem, you need to be reminded.
The system of exchanges, of prisoners of war, determined in the
existing cartel, was first interrupted by the declared purpose of the
Confederate Government to make certain distinctions in the treatment
of a particular class of troops, officers and men, in violation of the
provisions of the cartel. This appears to have been the first step
towards the irregularities which have culminated in your unequivocal
declaration, reported by me to my government on the 8th instant,
that*" you will proceed to declare exchanges whenever you conscien-
tiously feel that you have the right to do so, for the purpose of put-
ting men into the field."
There can be no objections to your acting conscientiously in any
given case, so long as your conscience is enlightened and guided by
those laws of war which require obedience between belligerents to
solemn agreements, entered into by authorized commissioners acting
in the name of their respective superiors. But, if you mean by the
expression, " your conscientious sense of right," to substitute tlas
sense of right for the requirements of an existing cartel-, I can by no
means concede to you that right; pnd if you dj not mean this, I
cannot understand what you do mean by so vague and general a
declaration. Judging by your recent proceedings, it seems that you
hava ,1ei 1 r.d exchanged all Confederate officers and soldiers on parole
wituin what you claim as your lines, up to a very jecent date, with-
out having any proper right so to do, either under the cartel or under
the laws of war.
The history of this matter, as I understand it, is briefly this:
While my predecessor, on duty at this place, was here, in discharge
of the duties now committed to me, you at one time made a declara-
tion of exchange, embracing no great number of prisoners of war,
not in accordance with, the requirements, of the cartel, and you invited
Col. Ludlow, my predecessor, to make a corresponding declaration of
equivalents. Such a declaration was made by Col. Ludlow, doubtless
without anticipating the magnitude of the evil which appears now as the
result of that departure from the cartel, first inaugurated by yourself.
Subsequently to my coming on duty here, the events of the war threw
upon your hands a large body of paroled officers and men (over
3d,ODD,) captured by General Grant at Vicksburg, and not long after-
wards some 6,01)1) or more captured by General Banks at Port Hudson.
Suddenly, and without any proper conference or understanding
108
with me, and but a few days prior to the important events 'at Chieka.
mauga,as if for the express purpose of increasing the force of General
Bragg against General Rosencrans, you gave me notice that, on the
next day after the date of that notice, you would declare exchanged a
large portion of .the troops which had been captured by Gen'l Grant.
^When your declaration was made, it covered an indeterminate num.
her of troops, designated by commands, brigades, divisions and corpg}
no definite number either of officers or men being designated. Up to
that time, you had delivered at City Point a certain number of pris-
oners of -war, for which you had receipts, by which you must have
known the number you might claim the right to discharge from their
parole.* You did not think proper to limit yourself to this number,
nor, in any proper manner did you refer to it, but made your decla-
ration of exchange in such indefinite terms as made it next to certain
that you did not intend to be governed by the cartel.
On referring to the data furnished by the reports of General Grant,
and now in the hands of the Commissary General of prisoners at
Washington, it was ascertained that you had discharged from parole,
by your declaration, a very considerable number of your men over
and above any claim you might pretend to, founded on receipts for
prisoners of war delivered from the South according to the cartel.
Without referring to fractions, it appeared, from the best data in
our hands, that you had discharged three for two, or one-third fiiore
than you were entitled to.
You suggested that I should make a corresponding declaration of
exchange, when, §.s I suppose, you imust have known you had not
delivered to me, nor had you valid paroles of our men sufficient to
cover the number declared exchanged by yourself; and, when I pVo-
ceeded to make the declaration extending to those men you had
delivered, and stated to you my objection to your proceedings, you
insisted that you had valid paroles for more than the ndmber that you
had declared exchanged, though you failed to produce those paroles,
or togive any account or history of them ; and you then proceeded to
make a further declaration of exchange, ignoring the cartel altogether—
basing your action upon no data communicated to me, the whole proceed-
ing-resting, as. I suppose you will say, upon your sense of right, as if
you were the only party having a right to an opinion on the subject—
acting evidently in anticipation of the formal declaration referred to
at the commencement of this communication, " that you will proceed
to make declarations of exchange for the purpose of putting troops
into the field, whenever you think proper;" and, having now
exhausted, by a declaration of exchange, the paroled prisoners in your
hand's, you propose to me the delivery of prisoners of war in our
hands, for whom you have no equivalents—or, comparatively, but
very few—in order, as it were, that you may obtain possession of
many thousand more men of your own, delivered or on parole, for the
purpose of declaring them also exchanged, and putting them into the
field, not in conformity with the existing cartel, nor in accordance
with the usages of war, but whenever, in your individual judgment,
you may think it proper to do so.
109
I have only to add, that an easy inference from this statement is
the answer I have to make to your proposal of the 20th instant, which
is not accepted.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
s. a. meredith,
Brig. Gen. and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 37]'
m:i. ould to brig. gen. mereditii.
Confederate States of America, War Department, )
Richmond, October 31, 1863. )
Brig. Gen. S, A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : Your communication of the 29$i instant, has been received,
and its extraordinary and groundless statements read "with surprise.
You first represent me as having informed you that I would proceed
to declare Exchanges whenever I conscientiously felt that I had the
right to do so, for the purpose of putting men into the field. In an-
other part of your letter I am charged with having stated that I would
proceed to make declarations of exchange for the purpose of putting
troops into the field, whenever I thought proper. Both of these para-
graphs are between quotation marks, to indicate that I had communi-
cated them. Moreover, they are mentioned as being my "unequivocal
declaration." Upon a faithful examination of my correspondence
with you and your predecessor, I cam find no instance in which such
language has been used by me. Will you inform me of the date of
any such communication, or furnish me with a copy of it ? If you
cannot, you will certainly deem me justified in denouncing your state-
ment as utterly without foundation in truth.
Upon these premises you have proceeded to throw off sundry sen-
tences, more flippant than worthy of notice. As usual, howrever, you
finish the paragraph which contains them with a misstatement, in as-
serting that I " have declared exchanged all Confederate officers and
men on parole," within our lines, " up to a very recent date." I have
done no such thing. I specially excepted the larger part of the Ticks-
burg captures.
You then proceed to give what you call " a history .of this matter."
That histony, like piany others, turns out to be a romance. Lieut.
Col. Ludlow's declarations of exchange, to which I referred in my
letter of October 2, 1863, were not made in response to any invita-
tion from me, or in consequence of any previous" declarations which I
had made. I did not "inaugurate" what you term " a departure
from the cartel." The correspondence of the office very clearly shows
that fact.
You are wrong, also, in your statement that the Yicksburg capture
110
was subsequent to your' "coming to duty" at Fortress Monroe. 1
received official communications from Lieut. Col. Ludlow as late as
July 22, 1863, weeks after the Yicksburg surrender, and none from
you until the 25th of the same month.
Your charge that the declaration of exchange, bearing date Sep-
tember 12, 1863, was made " as if for the express purpose of increas-
ing the force of Gen eral Bragg against General Rosencrans." This,
also, is untrue, ^he declaration was not published until several days
after the 12th, although it bore that date. Not one of the officers or
men named in that declaration of exchange was on the battle-field of
Ohiekamauga. .
You further say I must have known that I had not delivered to you,
nor had I valid paroles of your men, sufficient to cover the number
declared exchanged by me. I knew exactly thv coirtiary, and so in-
formed you. On the 12th of September, 1863, in announcing the
declaration of exchange I would make on the following day, I wrote
to you that I had " in my possession more valid paroles of your officers
and men than would be an equivalent for the officers and men" enu-
merated in the exchange notice. I have made the same statement-to
you more than once since. I am prepared to prove that it was true
each time it was uttered.
You say your declaration of exchange extended to those whom I
had delivered. If you mean that it was limited to such, you are incor-
rect; for it declared exchanged all officers and men of the United
States army captured and paroled at any time previous to the 1st of
September, 1863, and included many thousands of prisoners taken
and paroled by our cavalry .and other forces, in many States of the
Confederacy, never delivered by me. I have already furnished you a
memorandum of at least sixteen thousand of these paroled prisoners^
You say I failed to produce the paroles, or to give any account or
history of them. If you mean that I refused to do so, it is not true.
I offered to produce them at any time, and importuned you to agree
to some principle by which they could be computed and adjusted.
When I last met you at' City Point, you requested me for the first
time to send to you a memorandum of the paroles claimed as valid by
me. .1 furnished you with the list on the 27th instant, that being the
first day, after your request, on which a flag of truce boat appeared
at City Point. 1
You say I then proceeded to make a further declaration of exchange,
ignoring the cartel altogether, and resting the whole proceeding, as
you suppose, on my sense of right. There, again, you are mistaken.
I did not rest the proceeding entirely upon my sense of right; I re-
lied, in some measure, upon yours, and to that extent, its propriety
may be doubtful. In communicating to you Exchange Notice, No. 7,
which is the one to which you refer, I wrote to you as follows: "I
herewith enclose to you a declaration of exchange, which I shall pub-
lish in a day or two. You will perceive it is based upon the declara-
tion of exchange fommunicated t) me in yourletter of the 24th of
September last. In my notice I have followed your phraseology. 1
would have preferred another form of declaration, more in accordance
11)
with the circumstances of the case. Inasmuch, however, as my dec-
laration, to a considerable extent, is retaliatory of yours, I have
deemed it more appropriate to follow your own form of expression."
Your letter of the 24th of September declared that " all officers and
men of the United States aimy, captured and paroled at any time pre-
vious to the 1st of September, 1863, are duly exchanged." On the
16th of October following, I declared exchanged "all [Confederate]
officers and men captured and paroled at any time previous to the 1st
of September, 1863." If that was " ignoring the cartel." as you
charge, I only followed your example. Our declarations of exchange
were precisely similar, except that in another part of my notice I re-
served from its operation the larger part of the Yicksburg paroles. If
I had followed your " sense of right," as I then had and still claim
the right to do, I would have included all.
The Confederate authorities take it unto themselves as a proud and
honorable boast, that they have determined all these matters of paroles
and exchanges according to their " sense of right," and not by any
views of temporary expediency. > In following that guide, they have
at least shunned some examples furnished by your Government. They
have never, in violation of their general orders, and without notice
to the adverse party, ordered their paroled officers and men to break
their solemn covenant, and, without exchange, lift their arni3 against
their captors. They have, therefore, esceped the pangs of that re-
tributive justice which made your general order of July 3, 1863;
though so well suited to the meridian of Gettysburg, invalidate the
paroles given at Port Hudson, on the 9th of the same month. Upon
further reflection, I am sure you will be satisfied that it does not be-
come .your .authorities, who have chosen, whenever they felt so dis-
posed, without notice or consent from us, to repudiate the established
usages of exchange, and put new constructions upon the cartel, to
complain that others have acted according to their sense of right.
jTot content with a^ the misstatements o£ fact which I have cited,
you have, in your letter of the 29th instant, descended to a malignant
and wanton aspersion of the motives of the Confederate authorities in
making the proposal contained in my letter of the 20th instant. You
were asked to agree " that all officers and men on both sides should be
released, the excess on one side or therother to be on parole." It
would have been injustice enough to the many ^thousands of your
prisoners in our hands, and to those of ours in your custody, simply
to have declined the proposal. But you have thought proper to add
to your refusal the gratuitous insult to the Confeder ate "States, of inti-
mating that their fair and honest offer was made for the purpose of
putting into the field officers and men fraudulently exchanged. Tki3
calumny is as destitute of foundation in fact, as it is despicable in
spirit.
In conclusion, let me tell you that the purpose of your letter is ap-
parent. It has been well known for a long time that your authorities
are opposed to a fair and regular exchange of prisoners under the
cartel. In rejecting my proposition you have endeavored to conceal,
under a cloud of vague charges and unfounded statements, the deter-
112
mination at which your Government long since arrived. Why not be
frank once ? Why not say, without any further subterfuges, that
you have reached the conclusion that our officers and soldiers are more
valuable, man for man, than yours ?
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 38,]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Office of Commissioner for Exchange, )
Fortress Monroe,. Va., Nov. 7th, 1863. J
Hon. Robert Ould, . %
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Va.:
Sir : In communication of Oct. 27th, you state, "that general
orders Nos. 43 and 100 were not sent to you at the same time." I
forward you herewith a copy of Lieut. Col. Ludlow's letter, inclosing
to you the two orders above-mentioned, and bearing date May 22d,
1863.
These two orders announced general rules, based on the usages of
war, which, in the absence of any specific agreement between belli-
gerents, should govern in paroling prisoners of war, but in this case,
a cartel had-already been agreed upon, and no order of either party
could set aside any of its provisions. For instance : A commander,
on being captured, might, under some circumstances, give a parole
for himself and his command, without violating general order No.
100, (which includes general order No. 49,) but unless the paroling
was done at City Point or other named place, it would be in violation
of the cartel, and the paroles must therefore be set aside as invalid.
No exception could be taken- to this course by the party granting
the parole, because the validity of the parole depends on a strict com-
pliance with the pr^risions of the cartel, and when any other course
is followed, than that pointed out by that instrument, any claim based
upon it must fail. Paragraph 130, of order 100, Avhich prescribes
the duties which a paroled soldier may perform, is also, to some
extent, set aside by the cartel, which restricts these duties to a much
more limited field than the order. Paragraph 131 is also made inope-
rative by the cartel, because it could only apply to paroles not given
at the points designated for delivery ; all such paroles are, by the
cartel, made invalid/and the paroling party could therefore have no
pretext for claiming their recognition. If such a claim could be
admitted, the effect at Gettysburg would have been to give to Gen.
Lee, the privilege of placing his prisoners in our hands, to be deliv-
ered to him, at our own charge, at City Point, which is so manifestly
absurd, that even you cannot claim it. General order No. 207, was
113
intended simply to announce to the army; that the irregular practice
of paroling small squads of men and individuals, without rolls or
other reliable evidence of any kind, which had very generally pre-
vailed, must be discontinued, and that thereafter, the cartel should be
rigidly adhered to. This announcement had been made to the Con-
federate authorities through you.
There have been no "successive changes of purpose in the matter
of paroles," as you assert, nor changes of any kind, except so far as
to return to a strict observance of the cartel; and this is a change,
the propriety of which, I do not think you can question.
The figures which I gave you in my letter of October 17th, were
not given as embracing all declared exchanged in general order 167,
of June 8th, but only those which Lieut. Col. Ludlow used, to make
up the balance due him after arranging that declaration with you. It
was the declaration which Lieut. Col. Ludlow made to cover this
balance, that you cite, as the precedent which authorized you to
announce so unexpectedly your declaration of September 12th. The
80th Illinois, 311 men, not 400, as you say, was accidentally omitted
from my letter, and, by a clerical error, the 73d Indiana was written
75th Indiana. Paragraphs 5 and 6, of General Order 167, cover the
troops referred to, and other paragraphs cover the captures mentioned
by you. Any discrepancy in numbers declared exchanged at that
time, on either side, is of little consequence, as up to the date of that
order, it is assumed that the exchange account was satisfactorily
balanced.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
JBrig. Gen, and Corner for Exchange.
[No. 39.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Dep't of Va., 7th Army Corps, )
Fort Monroe, Va., May 22, 1863. 5
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners :
Sir : I have the honor to enclose to you copies of General Orders
No. 49 and No. 100, of .War Department, announcing regulations
and instructions for the government of the United States forces in
the field, in the matter of paroles. These, together with the stipula-
tions of the cartel, will govern our army. I would invite your special
attention to article 7 of the cartel, which provides that all prisoners
of war shall be sent to places of delivery therein specified. The
execution of this article will obviate much discussion and difficulty
growing out of the mode, time, and place of giving paroles. No
8
114
paroles or exchanges will be considered binding, except those under
the stipulations of said article, permitting commanders of two
opposing armies to exchange or release on parole at other points
mutually agreed on by said commanders.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM. Hi LUDLOW,
Lieut. Col. and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
[No. 40.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
0. S. A., War Department, )
Richmond, Va., Nov. 18th, 1863. )
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : In your communication of Nov. 7th, 1863, you enclose a copy
of a letter bearing date May 22d, 1863, purporting to-have been
written by Lieut. Col. Ludlow and addressed to me.
I reiterate what I have before said, that general order No. 100,
wlen it wa3 delivered to me, was not accompanied by any written
communication. You are aware that Lieut. Col. Ludlow was at City
Point on the 23d of May. It is unquestionably true that he wrote
the aforesaid letter on the 22d, at Fortress Monroe. It is just as true
that he brought it with him to City Point. My own personal recol-
lection is perfectly distinct that, at the conclusion of our interview at
City Point, he took the pamphlet containing general order No. 100
from a package, the seal of which he broke at the time, and delivered
said order into my hands, with the remark that its provisions in the
future would govern the operations of the United States forces. Why he
retained the letter I do not know. The fact, however, is exactly as I
have stated it, and fully explains why a copy of the letter was on
Lieut. Col. Ludlow's letter book. I do not want to be understood for
one. moment as imputing any fraud or improper conduct in what Lieut.
Cel. Ludlow did in the premises. He undoubtedly thought the
remark he made at the time of the delivery dispensed with the neces-
sity of giving me the letter.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
, Agent of Exchange.
CORRESPONDENCE
Relative to General Morgan and his men.
[No. 41. J
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Office Commissioner for Exchange, )
Fortress Monroe, July 30, 1863. >
Hon. Robert Ould,
Commissioner for Exchange, §*c., Richmond, Va. :
Sir : This will inform you, and, through you, the authorities under
whom you act, that General John H. Morgan and his officers will be
placed in close confinement and held as hostages for the members of
Colonel Streight's command, who have n,ot been delivered in compliance
with the conditions of the cartel agreed to-by Major General Dix and
Major General Hill.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
jBrig. Gen. U. S. Vols, and Comr for Exchange.
[No. 42.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
War Department, )
Richmond, Va., August 1,' 18(53. >
Brigadier General S. A. Meredith,
Agent cf Exchange:
Sir: I am in receipt of your communication of the 30th ultimo,,
informing me that " General John H. Morgan and his officers will be>
placed in close confinement and held as hostages for the members of '
Colonel Streight's command." I beg leave respectfully to ask what
you mean by " close confinement?" In what respect will that " close
confinement" differ from the confinement of other prisoners, officers
and men.
116
Colonel Streight's command is treated exactly as are the other
officers held in captivity by us. What that treatment is you can find
from any conscientious officer who has lately been confined in the
Libby. You will hear no complaint frotn me or from the Confederate
authorities so long as our officers receive the treatment which yours
do here.
You further say that " Colonel Streight's command have not been
delivered in compliance with the conditions of the cartel agreed to by
Major General Dix and Major General Hill.
In retaining Colonel Streight and his command the Confederate
authorities have not gone as far as those of the United States have
claimed for themselves the right to go ever since the establishment of
that cartel. You have claimed and exercised the right to retain officers
and men indefinitely, not only upon charges actually preferred, but
upon mere suspicions. You have now in custody officers who were in
confinement when the cartel was framed, and who have since been
declared exchanged. Some of them have been tried, but most of them
have larguished in prison all the weary time without trial or charges.
I stand prepared to prove these assertions. This course was pursued,
too, in the face not only of notice but protest. Do you deny us the
right to detain officers and men for trial upon grave charges, while
you claim the right to keep in confinement any who may be the objects
of your suspicion or special enmity ?
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
LNo. 43.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, August 28, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : Some time ago I addressed 'a communication to you, asking
why you held General Morgan in close confinement, and what was its
nature ? To that I have received no reply. In that I am not disap-
pointed, as it is not the habit of the Federal agent of exchange to
answer enquiries. Since then I have seen in your papers detailed
accounts of the treatment General Morgan and his brother officers
have received. What does this mean ? It is alleged that this course
Is pursued in retaliation for the confinement of Colonel Streight and
his officers. I have already assured you that those officers are treated
exactly as all others held in confinement at the Libby. Colonel
Streight has expressed to me, in person, his satisfaction as to the
manner in which he was treated.. Do you wish him shaved and put
117
in a felon's cell ? If you do, you are pursuing exactly the course to
effect it. May I again ask, why have you put General Morgan and
his brother officers in a penitentiary ? I have but faint hopes of get-
ting any reply, but under the circumstances I have ventured the
question.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. 44.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Department of Ya., 7th Army Corps, )
Fortress Monroe, Sept. 30, 1863. )
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Ya.:
Sir : Had I succeeded—after waiting thirty hours—in obtaining an
interview with you ,when I was last at City Point—I had intended to
explain to you that the United States authorities had nothing what-
ever to do with the treatment that General Morgan and his command
received when imprisoned at Columbus. Such treatment was wholly
unauthorized.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brig. Gen. and Corner for Exchange.
[No. 45.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, October 2, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir: As you did not have the opportunity to explain to mg at City
Point how " the United States authorities h.:d nothing to do with the
treatment that General Morgan and his command received when im-
prisoned at Columbus," will you be so kind as to do it now ? I thought
Morgan and his command were prisoners of war, captured by the
United States forces, and therefore in their custody. You and I have
talked twice about General Morgan, and no' hint was thrown out that
he was not a prisoner of the United States. So far from that, on the.
118
30th of July last, you informed me by letter that *4 General John II.
Morgan and his officers will be placed in close confinement and held
as hostages for the members of Colonel Streight's command." Will
you please explain to me what you meant, by this notice of the 30th
of July, if " the United States authorities had nothing to do with the
treatment that General Morgan and his command received." Nay,
more, will you enlighten me as to the point, why th? United States
authorities have allowed their prisoners and 44 hostages" to receive
such 44 unauthorized treatment" for two months ? 1 hope the reason
is not of such a nature that it can only be communicated in awhispor.
Let me have it on paper.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. 46.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, October 13, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir: Accompanying this communication you will find the copy of
a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Alston, of General Morgan's com-
mand. Lieutenant Colonel Alston is the officer who was delivered at
City Toint by the last flag of true boat. On the 30th of September
last, you inhumed trie that 44 the United States authorities had nothing
whatever to do with the treatment that General Morgan and his com-
mand received' when impri oned at Columbus." In my interview
with you. about one week ago, you informed me that General Morgan
and his officers were held for others than 44 the members cf Colonel
-Streight's command." You showed me a letter from General Hitch-
©
cock, in which the fact was announced. It seems that your authori-
ties, having been assured, either from my representations or from
those of your own people in confinement at Richmond, that Colonel
Stricglit and his officers were receiving precisely the same treatment
as that of other prisoners, they have adopted some other excuse for
the continued confinement of General Morgan and his officers in a
penitentiary. I ask if this does not show a determination to keep
these officers in a confinement intended to be ignominious ? When
one excuse fails another is set up.
Your Secretary of War has himself borne testimony of the 44 honor"
of Lieutenant Colonel "Alston. I therefore call your attention to his
communication, and again ask you how can General Morgan's original
incarceration in the Ohio penitentiary, his continued confinement
therein, the indignities received by him and his brother officers, and
your announcement at our last interview be explained, if44 the United
119
States authorities had nothing to do with the treatment -General Mor-
gan and his command received when imprisoned at Columbus ?"
Wiil you also inform me whether the "United States authorities"
intend to treat these officers as felons in the future? And, if not,
whether those authorities will allow others so to treat them ?
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. 47.]
LIEUT. COL. ALSTON TO MR. SEDDON.
Richmond, October 10, 1883.
Hon. James A. Seddon,
Secretary of War:
In compliance with your request, I beg leave to submit the follow-
ing statement:
On the 5th day of July last, Brigadier General John II. Morgan,
in command of a force of Confederate cavalry, attacked the Federal
garrison at Lebanon, Kentucky', which consisted of the twentieth
regiment Kentucky volunteer infantry, about five hundred men, and a
section of artillery, about forty men, all under the command of Lieut.
Colonel Charles L. Hanson. After a severe engagement of about
seven hours, Colonel Hanson surrendered the entire force that had
not been killed. He requested General Morgan to parole him and his
command, to which General Morgan objected, " that his (Colonel
Hanson's) Government had published a general, order, that no more
such paroles would be respected." Colonel Hanson replied, "that ho
was aware of this order, but this was a case which he believed, on
proper representation to higher authority, would be permitted as an
exception to this order; and, at any rate, if General Morgan would
grant the parole to himself and the officers and men of his regiment,
he would pledge his personal honor that he not only would observe it,
but would see that every other one to whom the privilege was extended
should observe it. If, after making a proper statement of all the facts
to higher authority, he should be ordered back into service, he would
pledge himself to report to General Morgan at some point within tie
Confederate lines.
'Ihis interview took place in the presence of several officers, among
whom were Captain Davis, Ass'stant Adjutant General of Duke's
brigade, who was an official witness of all that was said, and who
immediately reported it to me, and brought the order from General
Morgan for me to parole Colonel Hanson and his men and -officers.
Acting under these instructions, I paroled them on the evening of the
5th of July, and on the 8th of July, Captain William Campbell, of
our command, and a small detachment of his men, were captured by a
portion of this very regiment, and were treated, on their arrival at
120
Nicholasville, with the greatest indignity by Capt. Frank E. Walcott,
of company F, of the same regiment. He not only abused the men
as a parcel of horse thieves and scoundrels, but took their boots and
hats from them and threw them away in their presence. Lieutenant
Colonel Hanson also came up a short time afterwards, and took from
one of the parties some crackers and cheese, which he had been allowed
by the sergeant to purchase.
In a few days afterwards Lieutenant Colonel Hanson was ordered
to Louisville to do provost duty, relieving Lieutenant Colonel Sterritt,
of the twenty-fifth Michigan,volunteer infantry, who was ordered to
the field. He and his regiment are still on duty there.
On the 26th July, Brigadier General 'Morgan and most of his
officers were captured. They were carried to Cincinnati, and from
thence he and twenty-eight of his officers were selected and carried to
Columbus, Ohio, where they were shaved and their haircut very close
by a negro convict. They were then marched to the bath room and
scrubbed, and from there to their cells, where they were locked up.
The Federal papers published, with great delight, a minute account of
the whole proceedings. Seven days afterwards, forty-two more of
General Morgan's officers were conveyed from Johnson's Island to the
penitentiary, and subjected to the same indignities. I have seen
Colonel D. Harrard Smith, one of the officers who was conveyed there
Mnong the second lot, and he told me that Mr. Merrion, the warden,
apologized for such treatment; but he had distinctly informed General
Burnside that he would receive them on no other terms, and he had
sent them.
# # # # # # #,* # # #
Yerv respectfully submitted by your obedient servant,
R. ALSTON,
Lieutenant Colonel P. A. C. S.
CORRESPONDENCE
Relative to the Detention of Surgeons.
[No. 48.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Richmond, Va., May tD, 1863.
Lieut. Col. Wm. II. Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : The names of several Confederate officers, including that of
Col. Morehead, who were long since declared exchanged under our
agreements, appear upon one of your recent rolls. These officers
were not delivered to us. I understand they are detained at or near
Old Point. Are these officers to be delivered to «s or not ? One of
them is a Confederate surgeon—Dr. Read. Do you intend to retain
surgeons ?
There is not a single Federal officer in our custody who has been
declared exchanged, unless it may be Rucker; and for him you hold
Dr. Green. Oh what pretence are these officers held ? I will be
obliged to you, if you will inform me what course you intend to
pursue in reference to such cases.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 49 ]
LIUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, )
Fort Monroe, June 9, 1863. J
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir : Please have ready for delivery, all our officers in your hands
who have been declared exchanged—Spencer Kellogg among the
number. Deliveries of your officers declared exchanged can then be
effected. I would suggest to you that Dr. Rucker be included. I
very much desire that all surgeons should be treated as non-com-
122
batants, and unconditionally released. As I have before remarked to
you, the cause of humanity demands it.
I saw Dr. Green at Fort Norfolk. He is most anxious to know
what is 19 be his fate. Can you inform him ?
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM. H. LUDLOW,
Lieut. Col., and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
[No. 50.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Confederate States of Americ v, War Department, )
Richmond, Va, June 12, 1863. )
Lieut. Col. Wm. II; Ludlow,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : Dr. Rucker is prosecuted by the State of Virginia, for offences
against her laws, for which he had no warrant in your own military
law to commit. If you have any such officer of the Confederate Smtes
in any such position, even though he may have been declared ex-
changed by our general agreements, I cannot complain of his retention.
With this proper limitation, extending to only one case, I am ready
at any moment, to deliver you every officer or man whom we have
declared exchanged. I do not believe there are any such in our prisons.
I have, however, caused diligent search to be made, and if any such
arc discovered, they will be promptly delivered to you.
I hope, therefore, you will have all our exchanged officers and men
sent to City Point immediately. You will find there any of the same
class whom I can discover. I will be thankful to you for any names
which you may be able to furnish. Spencer Kellogg's case is already
under inquiry.
With the limitation as to Dr Rucker, I am* entirely agreed to re-
lease unconditionally all surgeons. I agree with you, that the cause
of humanity demands it, unless, indeed, it is shown that the surgeon
has committed offences which prove him to be a savage and a beast.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 51.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD
Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7th Army Corps, )
Fort Monroe, June. I i, 1853 $
Hon. Robert Ould,
A gent for Exchange :
Sir: Dr. Green will be retained as a hostage for D.\ Rucker. All
other surgeons in our custody (three or four now being here) will be
released and delivered to you, on the release and delivery to me of all
you hold, except Dr. Rucker.
Do you agree to this, with the additional understanding that the
detentions of surgeons shall be confined to these two ?
Please inform me when Spencer Kellogg, and other of our officers
declared exchanged, will be delivered at City Point, in order that ar-
rangements maybe made for sending up such of your exchanged
officer s as are at Fort Norfolk awaiting delivery.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant, .
WM. II. 1UDLOW,
Lieut. Col., and Ayent for Exchange of Prisoners,
[No. 52.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR. OULD.
IIk/.dquvrters Dep't of Va., 7tii Army Corps. )
Fort Monroe, June 18th, IS63. J
Hon. Robert Oui.d,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir: I send to you Col. Moorhead and Captain Flint, wjio have
been declared exchanged. Also, all the Surgeons we have here, cx-
cepting Dr. Green.
Capt. Mulford is instructed to bring back Col Moorhead, unless
Spencer Kellogg, declared exchanged, be delivered, if in Richmond,
or if he be not, unless you give an agreement that Kellogg shall be
delivered at City Point within two weeks.
Capt. Mulford is also instructed to bring back the Surgeons, unless
he receives all our Surgeons now confined in Richmond, except Dr.
Rucker; whom >ou retain under charges, and for whom Dr. Green is
held as a hostage.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
WM. II. LUDLOW,
Lieut. Col., and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
.124
Among the Surgeons retained by you, are Dr. Spencer, assistant
surgeon of the 73d Indiana; also, Dr. Myers, U. S. N.
W. H. L.
[No. 53.]
MR. OULD TO LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW.
Confederate States of America, ^
War Department, >
Richmond, Va., June 23d, 1863. S
Lieut. Col. Wm. II. Ludt.ow,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : The grounds upon which Dr. Rucker has been retained have
already been very fully communicated to you. He has been indicted
by the Commonwealth of Virginia for offences committed within her
limits, which are not sanctioned by any civilized military code. He
was not under the protection of a soldier when he committed the
felonies charged against him. The State is now prosecuting him for
these crimes, and his trial has been delayed for two terms of the
Court, at his own instance, as I am informed.
You have said to me that the principles announced in general
order No. 100, are to apply against you as well as for you. In that
order you distinctly recognize the right of an invaded State to punish
all wanton violence committed against its citizens, as well as all des-
traction of property not commanded by the authorized officer. I refer
you to paragraphs 44, 47 and especially 59. If I had the framing of
a provision to meet Dr. Rucker's case and to justify his detention, I
could not use apter terms than those employed in paragraph 53.
Moreover, you have claimed and exercised the right of holding
many of our officers and soldiers on mere suspicion, for months, with-
out trial or proceedings of any sort against them. You have such in
confinepient now. For them, we have selected none of your officers
or soldiers in retaliation. Yet, when we retain the first of yours,
under indictment preferred by a grand jury, you immediately select
one of ours in retaliation. If we had applied any such rule to you
since the beginning of the war, how many of your officers and soldiers
would be now in our prisons ?
I lament with you the detention of surgeons. 1 am willing to do
anything consistent with honor and justice to promote their discharge.
But we cannot surrender a clear right. Dr. Rucker's detention is
justified by your own principles and practice. I have already admit-
ted your right to detain any one of our officers under similar circum-
stances.
If we are justified by the rules, of war in detaining for trial Dr.
Rucker, jvhat right have you to hold Dr. Green in retaliation ?
Your request for the discharge of all surgeons, except Drs. Ruker
125
and Green, is simply asking me to admit that the former is unjustly
detained, and the latter rightly held in retaliation. I deny both, and
appeal to your own military laws. As Dr. Rucker has asked to have
his trial posponed, let his case remain as it is, and let us uncondi-
tionally release all other surgeons on both sides. If any grand jury
of yours indicts any surgeon, or other officer of ours for such offences
as are charged against Dr. Rucker, and he is detained for trial, I am
sure I will not complain.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 54.]
LIEUT. COL. LUDLOW TO MR OULD.
Head quarters, Dep't. of Ya.. 7th Army Corps, )
Fort Monroe, July 42, 1863. )
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent for Exchange of Prisoners :
Sir: As understood by me, Dr. Rucker's alleged offences were
committed in west Virginia, within the territory militarily occupied
at the time by the troops of the United States. If so, by the laws
and usages of war, your authorities have no jurisdiction in his case.
If you will release all our medical officers, except Dr. Rucker, I
will send to you all we hold, except one, to be retained as a hostage
for Dr. Rucker, who will be released when Dr. Rucker is released.
If it should be found that. Dr. Rucker is properly retained under
the cartel, or found guilty and punished according to the laws and
usages of war, the hostages will be given up. But, if improperly re-
tained and punished, retaliation will be resorted to
You have some Chaplains in your hands. Will you deliver them ?
Please send replies to the above by this flag of truce.
• I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WM. H. LUDLOW,
Lieut. Col., and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
[No. 55.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Confederate States of America, War Department, )
Richmond, Va., August 16, 1863. >
"Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
\^gent of Exchange:
Sir: I respectfully call your attention to the correspondence be-
tween Lieut. Col. Ludlow and myself, in relation to Dr. Rucker and
126
*fae detention of surgeons, and especially to my communication of the
23d of June list. Lieut. Col. Ludlow, in his reply, he ving date July
12, 1863, says : " As understood by me, Dr. Puckers alleged offences
were committed in west Virginia, within the territory militarily occu-
pied at the time by the troops of the United States. If so. by the laws
•and usages of war, your authorities have no jurisdiction in the case."
Parngragh 59, of your general order No. 100, docs not make the
distinction of military occupation suggested by Lu-ur. Col Ludlow.
It says, "a prisoner of war remains answerable for his crimes com-
mitted against the captor's army or people, committed before he was
captured, and for which he has not been punished by his own authori-
ties." Any construction which would not include -uoh " crimes" a8
are committed within the territory militarily occupied by the army to
which the offender belongs, would leave the provision almost without
any meaning. In Dr. Rucker's case, however, the distinction is with-
out avail. I have delayed thus long in answering Lieut. Col. Lud-
low's communication of the 12th ultimo, in order that I might obtain
accurate information as to the facts in the case.
He is indicted for murder, committed on the 23d July, 1861, upon
% citizen of Virginia, in Covington, Alleghany county, Va. At that
time no Federal force was there, or ever had been. The United States
forces did not invade that county, or region of country, until May, 18G2.
He is also indicted for stealing a horse in January, S8G2.
He is moreover charged with other offences, committed while the
Federal forces were in the county.
Whatever, therefore, may be the construction placed upon thegene-
eral order, so far as military occupation is concerned, Dr llucker's case
is certainly embraced within the provisions of paragraph 59.
I am also reliably informed that, at the time of at least some of the
offences charged against him, Dr. Euckerhad no connect ion with your
army. It will hardly be contended, I suppose, that immunity for
crimes already committed, can be purchased by joining the forces of
an invading army.
The correspondence between Lieut. Col. Ludlow and myself seems
to indicate that the only hindrance to the immediate and unconditional
release of all surgeons, is to be found in the detention of Dr. Pucker;
and further, if such detention could find its justification in your gene-
ral orders, even that hindrance would be removed. I therefore, bring
\o ycur attention the foregoing facts, drawn from the indictments
against Dr. Pucker, by which it very clearly appears that he is right-
fully held, and, therefore, Dr. Green wrongfully detained in retaliation.
I accordingly renew to you the proposition heretofore made by me,
that all surgeons now held on both sides, with the exception of Dr.
Pucker, be released without delay. I have no objection to extend the
proposition to.nurses and members of sanitary commissions, I would,
however, much prefer that it should embrace all non-combatants.
I will be much obliged to you if you give me an early specific reply
to the propositions herein contained.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
127
[No. 56.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Headquarters Department of Virginia, 7tii Army Corps, )
Fort Monoe, Sep- 3D, 1863. 5
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Va.:
Sir : In the hope that the officers of the medical department, on
both sides, may be mutually released, who are now held as prisoners,
I offer to you the following proposition: " That all persons of the
medical departments, distinctly known as such, held as prisoners on
either side, shall be discharged, irrespective of numbers."
If you will not agree to the above, I propose that " all shall be dis-
charged, except one or more designated persons, for whom equivalents
may be retained by the opposite party. We designate no one for ex-
eepiion."
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brig. Gen., and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 57.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
C. S. A., War Department, )
Richmond, Va., Oct. 2, 1863. J
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
' Agent of Exchange :
8tr : Your proposition of the 3t)th ultimo, to wit, " that all persons
of the medical departments, distinctly known as such, held as prison-
ers on either side, shall be discharged, irrespective of numbers," is
substantially a proposition that the Confederate authorities shall de-
liver to you Dr. Wm. Rucker, who is now in the custody of the State
of Virginia, for crimes committed before he had any connection with
the Federal army. If it does not mean that, I will agree to it most
cheerfully. If it does, I cannot.
Your alternative proposition, that "all shall be discharged, except
one or more designated persons, for whom equivalents may be retained
by the opposite party," is the old demand that we should consent to
the retention of Dr. Green, or some other surgeon, in retaliation for
Dr. Wm. Rucker. To that I cannot agree. We are either right or
wrong in the retention of Rucker. If right, you ought not to hold
an equivalent. If wrong, Rucker should be delivered up. In no
aspect of the case should Dr. Green, or any other equivalent, be
retained..
128
In my communication to you of August 16, last, I went very fully
into the case of Dr. Rueker. Can a single statement therein con-
tained, he successfully controverted ? If not, upon what grounds can
you deny our right to hold and try him ? I will really be obliged to
you if you will show wherein I am wrong in any of the positions as-
sumed in my communication of the 30th of August.
When you deny our right to hold Dr. Rueker, or contend for your
right to detain a hostage for him, am I to understand you as contend-
ing that no officer on either side is to be held on charges preferred
against him ?
If you have any surgeon in confinement, under charges, let him be
retained and tried under them. I will not complain, especially if they
are preferred by a grand jury, as is the case with Dr. Rueker. I,
however, can never agree that any surgeon shall be held as an equiv-
alent or hostage for Dr. Rueker.
Some doubt has been expressed as to whether Rueker was ever
a surgeon, regularly in your service. How is it as to that ?
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. QULB, Agent of Exchange.
CORRESPONDENCE
Relative to the Detention of 'Person" captured on rivers ar^k
the high $eas.
[No. 53.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD,
Office Commissioner for Exchange, >
Fort Man oe, Va., July 31, 1863. 5
Hon. Robert Oulr,
Cnn'r for Exchange, &~c , Richmond, Va. :
Sir: On June 10th, 1863, the barque Texana, bound from Ne;f
York to New Orleans, was captured and burned by cne James D.ukd
and some fifteen others, who were on board the steamer Boston, which
steamer they had taken possession of the night before. The pilot of
the Texana was permitted to land, but the captain and crew were
taken to Mobile and from thence to Richmond, where, ever since, they
have been confined in the Libby prison.
The case of these men appears to me hard in all its bearings, and I
cannot believe that the authorities at Richmond would sanction such
irregular procedures, or establish such an inhuman precedent,
were they fully cognizant of the facts in the case. With t ds is a
list of these prisoners, and I hope you will use your best endeavors
for their immediate release.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
a A. MEREDITH,
Brig. Gen., and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 59.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Confederate States of America, War Department, ;
Richmond, Va.t Aug. I, 1863. J
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
. Sir: I have received. your communication in referenco to the
''captain and crew of the barque Texana." In it, jou speak of
9
130
"Irregular procedures" and "inhuman precedents." If you had been
acquainted with the action of your own authorities.in similar cases,
you would hardly have used such language.
I refer you to the several communications of mine to Lieut. Col.
Ludlow in refernce to the detention of the masters and pilots of Con-
federate steamers, and especially to my endorsement, dated June
29th, upon his application for>fhe release of the officers and crew of
the steamer Emily. The "irregular procedures" and "inhuman pre-
Cedents" are not to be four.d in the action of the Confederate auihori-
ties. The slightest search will disclose them elsewhere, however.
You have new in your prisons the following :
Capt. Floyd and the other officers and crew of the ferry-boat De Soto.
They are in prison in St. Louis, Missouri, and have been since Janu-
ary last.
The officers and crew of the schooner Belle, captured last February
off Charleston. Some of the officers are now at Fort Lafayette.
The officers and crew of the steamer Cuba, captured off Mobile,
last May. The captain is at Key West in piison.
The officers and crew of the steamer Emma Bett, captured in June
last in the Sunflower river, Mississippi. They are said to be in Camp
Chase. They are certainly in captivity.
The officers and crew of the steamer Brittania, captured off Charles-
ton iii July, 1863.
rihe officers and crew of the schooner Glide. The captain (Perry)
is at Fort Lafayette.
To convince you more fully that fjie Confederate authorities have
bo desire to initiate "irregular procedures" or establish "inhuman
precdents," in the cirection you indicate, I propose that the
officers and crews of all vessels who arc now held jn confinement by
either the United States or the Confederate States, be immediately
released, equivalents from the army to be given to the partv which
las the excess. This proposition practically tests who favors the
"irregular procedures" and "inhuman precedents."
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange,
[No. 60.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Office Commissioner for Exchange, >
Fort Monroe, Fa., Sept. 27, 1863. \
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Fa.:
Sjr t I have written to you twice in relation to .the captain and
cr6w of the barque Texana. You say that you will release them if
131
we will release prisoners of-yours in like circumstances. We do not
know of any p isoners held by us under similar circumstance* is the
crew of the Texana. If you will refer specifically to any* such in our
hands they shall be released.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. ME RET)I P1I,
Brig. Gin., and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No 61.]
MR. Oil LI) TO BRIG. GEN.. MEREDITH.
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, )
Richmond, Va , Sept. 28, 1863. \
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : On the 1st of August last, in reply to your first communiea-
tion respecting the captain and crew of the barque Texana, I gave
you a list of hx captor:s made by the Federal forces some or all of"
which corresponded with that of the Texma. I refer you to the letter
of August 1st. The captures were either made at sea, or in our
western livers. The parties were engaged in either exterior or interior
commerce. IIow they differ from the officers and crew of the [Texana
I cannot conceive. I then made you a proposition in reference to the
release of the officers and crews of all vessels, who are now held in
confinement by either the United States or Confederate States. Yo.u
have not seen fit to accept it. I now make another proposal, to wit:
that tjie officers and crews of all merchant vessels, who are now coii-
fined on either side, be immediately and unconditionally released.
Either the proposal made in my letter of the 2.1st ult., or in this pre-
sent one, will be acceptable to me.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 62.]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Office Commissioner for Exchange, )<
Fortress Monroe, Va.\ Oct. 28, 1863. >i
Hon. Robert Ould,
Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Va. "
Sir : Allow me to call your attention to the fact, that the off<brs
and crews of the following named vessels are still detained in southern
132
prisons. These captures were made in January last, and the officers
have been paroled and exchanged. Will you let me know by the next
flag'of tru&e, why they are not released?
U. S. ship'44 Morning Light."
U. S. schooner 4' Velocity."
U. S. steamer " Ilarrit Lane."
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brig. Gen., and Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 63.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Oct. 31, 1863.
Brigadier General S. A. Meredith,
Agrnt of Exchange :
Sir : I have just received your letter of the 28th instant, making
inquiry respecting 44 the ^officers and crews" of the Morning Light,
Velocity and Harriet Lane. You first .say they 44 are * still detained
in southern prisons." You next say 44 the officers have been paroled
and exchanged." I really cannot see how paroled and exchanged
•officers can 44 still be detained pn southern prisons." If they have
been paroled and exchanged, when was it done and by whom ? If I
•have made any agreement as to these parties, I will fulfill it to the
letter.
If the officers and crews of those vessels are in confinement, they
ore there because you refuse to release the officers and crews of Con-
federate vessels. The former are very likely to remain in confine-
'jnent until you release the latter, unless I have made some agreement
'which entitles them to a discharge. I am not aware of having done so.
Rcspectfullly,
Your obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
CORRESPONDENCE
Re'ative to persons held in confine mint at the South under con-
vidian by a court.
[No. 64 ]
BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH TO MR. OULD.
Ft ht Monroe, November 15, 1863.
Hon. Robert Ould,
A gent of Exchange, Richmond, Ya.:
Sir : I have information which will be relied and acted upon as
authentic, unless formally and without reserve, denied, that Joseph
Sherman and Edward Ludwich, of the 4th Maine infantry, were sent
to the penitentiary from Botetourt county, in October, 1862, for a
term of years, and that Andei son Crawford, of a Maryland regiment,
has been sent to the penitentiary also, in all three cases upon aecusa-
tions not recognized as criminal according to the laws of war. A
reasonable time for receiving information from the South will be
allowed, before giving any sptcial orders in these cases.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. A. MEREDITH.
There is no such man as Crawford in the penitentiary, nor has there
been such a man during my official teim The other persons named
are iri the penitentiary, under judgments of the circuit court of Bote-
tourt, and there they will remain during my term of service.
JOHN LETCHER.
November 17, 1863.
[No. 65.]
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.^
C. S. A., War Department, )
Richmond, Ya., Nov. 18, 1863. )
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
' Agent of .Exchange :
Sir : I herewith return to you the indorsementof Governor Letcher
upon your communication of the 15th in?tant, relating Sherman,
134
Ludwick, and Crawford. I also enclose to you a copy of the record of
the triid and conviction of the two first named, and a letter from the
superintendent of the penitentiary. If you wilt inform me in what
State Anderson Crawford was convicted, I will send you a similar copy
of the proceedings had in his case.
. So many recent and novel interpretations of the " laws of war"
have been delivered, that I am at a loss to know, from the tenor of
your letter, whether it is intended by your authorities to contest the
right of the Commonwealth of Virginia to punish persons within her
jurisdiction for felonies. If, howeveb, your own geucial orders are to
have any effect, I suppose paragraph 53, of general order, No 100,
settles the question.
I have very frankly, and at an early day, responded to your
inquiries. I hope I am not asking too much, when I request that any
" special orders " which may be issued in these cases, may be promptly
communicated to ifie.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBE LIT OULP,
Agent of Exchange.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL HITCIIOOCK.
[No. 66.j
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Richmond, Va., Oct. 27, 1803.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
Sir : I enclose to you a memorandum of the paroles to which I have
referred in several recent communications. Most of these parole.s,
you will observe, are antecedent to May 23, 1853. The reason why
these paroles have not been heretofore charged, is, that up to duly,
1863, we had the advantage of prisoners and paroles. -Not one of
these paroles is covered by any declaration of exchange, except the
one lately made by you. Fur no one of them have I received coy
equivalent. All of them, since the date of your general order No.
207, were given in pursuance of a distinct agreement between the
commanders of two opposing armies. I have msny other paroles in
my possession, but I have only presented those which are within the
terms of your general orders, according to their respective d ates. I
understand there are other paroles coming within the same general,
orders, which were given by your officers and men on the other si lo
of the M ississippi river. They, as yet. have not reached me. When
they do, and when I show they are within the scope of your gen ral
orders, I will claim them. Otherwise, I will discard them.
I have also received other informal paroles, which I have sent hack
for correction. These are also within the provisions of your general
orders. When they are returned, I will claim them also.
Respectfully, jour obedient servant,
RO. OULD, Agent of Exchange.
[No. 67.].
MA J. GEN. HITCHCOCK TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Washington Cits:, D. C., Nov. 1863.
Brig: Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Comm issioner for Exchange of Prisoners :
Sir: Your communication of the 29th ult. has been received, for-
warding what " purports to be a tabular statement of the number of
ISG
valid paroles,*' claimed by Mr. Ould, with a copy of his letter accom-
ponying it to yourself, of the 2ith ult. •
This tabular statement covers a claim to 18,867 paroles of Federal
troops, without distinctions of grade, no officers or non-commis!- ioned
Officers being noticed as among the prisoners. The statement professes
to enumerate forty-four places where captures were made, with tho
tames of captors, and dites of captures—-the number said to have
t>een captured being cartie I out in figures.
This statement may include some prisoners captured and paroled
according to the laws of war, but if so, it is impossible to distinguish
them by any evide'nce in'he statement itself. A few are said to have
been y receipted for" at Baton Rouge, January 22, 1883, and Feb-
rcory 14, 1863, which may be verified . and some evidences may com©
to light confirming the alleged captures by Generals Lee, Bragg, and,
possibly, some others; but, on the whole, the statement is unsatts-
factory, and in its-present form, is regarded a< without credit, and
cot entitled to consi leration.
The statement does not show, in any one instance, by whom the
prisoners were received, or to whom, or even where, they were de-
liv-ored, leaving it to be presumed that they were, for the most part,
po ruled on the instant of capture, without authority under the cartel,
in not being 4• reduced to actual possession," contrary to both the
laws of war, as set forth in order No. 100, of 18l 3, and the provisions
df the cartel. Order No. lib) merely publishes the laws of' war, and
tho cartel is entirely in harmony with it.
The orders on this subject subsequently issued, and to which Mr.
OuM appeals, were expressly designed to give effect to those i.aws and
to :he cartel, and were in no manner intended to abrogate, and neither
do they abrogate or modify the one or the other.
If the enemy wishes, in good faith, to carry out the orders he refers
to, the proper course would be to issue similar orders, and for a like
purpose, in which case there might be some hope of a compliance
, with both the cartel and the laws of war.
Mr. Ould's effort to have recognized certain paroles as valid, which
bav© been informally and improperly made, embracing, so far as we
Can know from his statements, many citizens in Kentucky, Tennessee,
and elsewhere, (no particular placed being named in some instances,)
by appealing to northern orders, is a mere perversion of the clear and
manifest -design of those orders, that design being, as already stated,*
to enforce, and not to nullify the laws of war. We appeal to th'ose
Orders, and intend to be guided by them, and if the enemy would
assume them, and be governed by them also, all difficulties on the
subject of paroles would cease. By-Mr. Quid's mode of. application
or misapplication of those orders, he would use them to destroy, and
cot enforce the laws of war.
The laws of war are first in order, imposing obligations upon bel-
Iigerents, and they continue to be obligatory upon both parties, unless
modified by a special agreement under a cartel, which, when agreed
upon, becomes the highest authority in all specified cases included in
ilie cartel, leaving the laws of war in full operation in all cases not
provided for in sucn cartel—a cartel being Jinala'cous to a treaty of'
comra mco between nations, which mav modify the natural laws of
trade or commerce, binding both"parties 'o the*treaty.
T ie orders of a. general in the field, or of a general-in-chief of one
of the belligerents, is only operative within the field of the general s
command, and can have no effect to modify either the "laws of war or
the provisions of a particular cartel Such orders are purely diseip-
linary in the army where issued, and can neither hind an enemy, nor
can an enemy appeal to them to justify his depirture from, or viol i-
tton of, either a p irticular cartel or the la\v;j of war! A departure
from such an_ order within the army subject to the authority issuing
the order, migh: >ubject the offender to. punishment within iris own
army,'but could not be appealed to to make a pirole valid, winch, by
the laws of war, or hv the provisions of a particular cartel, would be
disowned as not valid.
While we set forth these principles as hihding, 'we deny, emphati-
cally, that the orders appealed to by Mr. Ould sanction his departure
from the laws of war or the cartel—the express purpose of order No.
207 (Ir6d) being to enforce the provisions of the existing cartel. It
sets out by an appeal, in paragraph I, to the cartel, by its date arid
the date of the otder by which it was published, the provisions of
which are to be enforced, and this is again set forward in paragraph
If. Order No. 2' >7 publishes a very impo.tant law of war in paragraph
II, in announcing that " th • obligations imposed by the general law's
and usages of war up >n the non-combatant inhabitants of a. section of
country p issed over by an invading army, cease when the military oc-
eupation ceases;'and any pledge or parole given by such persons, in
regard to future service, is null and of no-effect " This paragraph if
order No. 2d7, does not. originate, it merely announces the law of war
on the subject to which ifrefers, but it is particularly significant, in
view of the probable char cter of many of the paroles claimed as valid
in the tabular statement furnished by Mr. Ould, in which, under the
he id-of " where captured," the statement uses generalities which can
in no sense be received. Thus, captures are said to have been made
in " Kentucky and Tennessee in " Tennessee;" in " Kentucky and
Tennessee," (again;) in " Tennessee," (again;) in "Kontu-ky and
Tennessee," (a third time;) in " Barbour county,' Kentucky," (whether
soldiers or citizens we cannot tell.) in '■Western Virg nia;" in ••Western
Virginia," (again;) in " Hinds county, Mississippiin " Eastern Vir-
giuia;" in "Mississippi;" in " Kentucky and Tennessee," (tor the
fourth time,) &c.
In fine, the statement m wholly informal and without authority. ^ .
. You will please furnish Mr. Ould a certified copy of this coin muni-
tation Very respectfully, }our obedient servant.
. E. A. IIITCIICOCK,
Maj Gen. Vols. and Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners.
Fort Monrok, Va., N<rv. 9.-I8G3.
A true copy. ME RE 01 i H,
Brig. Gen. and Commissioner fur'Exchange.
138
[No. 68.1
MR. OULD TO BRIG. GEN. MEIIEDITII.
C. S A., War Department, )
Richmond, Vc,t Nov. 21, 1863. >
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange:
Sir : I have received the letter or' General Hitchcock relating to
the meium andurn of paroles 'which I forwarded to you.
General Hitchcock seems to have misapprehended my purpose
somewhat in sending you thit memorandum. You requested a list
of the paroles.whit-h I claimed, and the paper which I sent to you was
only intended to be understood as a memorandum in the way of notice
to you. 1 did not expect you to agree to recognize the p iroles I herein
refernd to in such a general way, upon the mere presentation of the
paper. The evidence which supports that memorandum of paroles is
on file in my office. If we could only have agreed upon the principle
by which they should be computed and adjusted, all the rest would
have hceri easy work. I would have presented the paroles then selves
or autnenticaied lists of them. The fact that they were given, the
circumstances under which they were given, the parties giving tin m,
would all appear upon the face of the papers in proper form. As
Geneial Hitchcock seems to indicate a willingness to re-open this
matter. I will state for his benefit frankly, the principles by which 'I
propose to be governed.
1 T will not claim the paroles of citizens. All the paroles which
I will produce will be those of Federal soldiers in actual service at the
time of captvre.
2. I will show the particular locality where the parties were cap-
tured, the command to which they belong, the command which,
captured them, and the precise date of each transaction.
3. I will accompany the presentation with such full and particular
evidence as will enable you to verify the truth of the case by your
own record- and ihe statement of your own officers and soldiers.
4. Moie than thirty of the foity-four items in my memorandum are
cases of captures made previous to ihe 22d May, 1863. It has never,
at any time, been alleged tha*. I had. any notice before that time that
paroling upon the battle field was not to be permitted. The Federal
authorities have charged again-t me paroles taken upon the battle
field up to that date, and have received credit for thein. I would have
received credit for these items many months ago if you had have had
paroles or prisoners of ours to have offsetted against them. I viil
thank General Hitchcock to inform me, upon what principle lie can
reject those thirty-odd items. If he wants evidence that I have
allowed prcci-cly similar paroles, I will furnish it.
As mi sue i of the patoles as were given between the 2'2d May,
1863," and the 3d of July, (the date of general order, No. 2 17,) I shall
139
contend that they shall be allowed under the provisions of paragraph
13 I,.of general order. No. 100. I will allow any similar paroles
given to you during the same period.
6. As to all paroles given after the 3d of July, l.«63, I will allow
general order, No. 207, to have full force. No paroles fiom and after
that date are to be valid, unless the paroling is in pursuance of the
agreement of the commanders of two opposing armies.
7. In my memoiandum the officers and non-commissioned officers
are reduced to privates There arc but very few, if any, commissioned
officers on the lists. They have alreoly been exchanged and checked
off. This is of itself proof that your authorities have heretofore
recognized these paroles. The lists and paroles will show the grade
of all the parties.
8. I have been greatly misunderstood by General Ilitehcoek, if he
thinks I have refused to be governed by your general orders. Gen,
Hitchcock says: '• we appeal to tho-e orders, and intend.to be gov-
erned by' thein, and if the enemy would assume them, and be governed
by them also, all difficulties, on the subject of paroles would cease."
J have already expressed my willingness to be governed by your gen-
eral orders" on the subject of paroles." It was my original proposi-
tion I adhere to it still. Let, then, " all difficulties cease."
9. If our present difficulties are to cease, let me for the s;tke of
future harmony suggest that there be some definitive meaning attiched
»to the phrase '• commanders of two opposing armies." Who are such
commanders? We can readily und< rstand that General Lee and Gen-
eral Meade are such. But is General Thomas the commander cf one
of the opposing armies at Chattano >ga, or is it General Grant? Was
Genet al Pemberton the commander of an opposing army, when he
was subject to the orders of General Johnston who was in his iuirne-
diatc neighborhood? Was General Gardiner the commander of an
opposing army at Port Hudson? If so, is not every one who holds a
separate command, such a commander ? Does size constitute an army ?
If a Captain or Lieutenant is on detached service, is he the commander
of an opposing army, and can he be releases! on parole by an agree-
ment made with the officer who captured him. if he also is on detached
service ? 1 make these inquiries of General Hitchcock in no eap'ious
spirit. They do present difficulties to my mind, and I should like to
know what is to be considered as the true interpretation of the phrase.
All the captures after the 3d of July, 1863, which I ask you to
recognize, were in pursuance of '-an agreement between the corn-
mandcrs of two opposing armies." I cannot'see how any difficulty
can aiise between General. Hi'chcoek and myself after his let er,
except as to cap ures between May 22d, 1863, and July 3d, 1863
Th<7 are hut very few in number.
I will thank you to send this letter or a copy of it to General
Hitchcock.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
B,0. OULD.
Agent of Exchange.
140
[No. 69.]
MAJ. GEN HITCHCOCK TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
. Washington City, Dec. SStli, 1863.
Brig Gen. 8. A. Meredith,
Tom r for Exchange of Prison ers:
Sir : I have read the copy you forwarded of Mr. Ould's comrnunica-
tion of the - 1 ft inst., in which, 1 perceive, Mr. Ould thinks I mi'sanpre-
hended his purpose in forwaiding the "'tabular 8tatelnel1t,, of alleged
valid patoles made chiefly in' the West and South. I suppo-ed tliatrtio
lobular s/nfimmt was gent to you in explanation*of the luge number
of prisoners declared exchanged by Mr. Ould, the propriety of which
had been very properly questioned by you. If that, wa- not the pur-
pose of the statement, I regret that it fell under rny notice.' If Mr..
Ould wishes either to present ano'ther "statement," or to furnish
detailed explanations of that already before us, it will he tune enough-
to consider the points he may raise when he presents them. In the
meantime, I think it necessary to observe that neither Mr. Ouftl. your-
self, nor m \ self, have powers outside of the cartel, except tho-e plainly
necessary foi the execution of its provisions; but, in this connection,
I must affirm that the first shock given to the free and contium-d exe- «
cution of the piovisions of the cartel, came from Mr. DavD, in his
"message'" of the 12th of January, of the present year, in which he
declares his put pose of delivery to the several State authorities South,
all commissioned officers of the Federal army who mi Hit h'" captured,
to be tried, under State law's, for the crime of exciting servile insur-
rec ion. This stands yet • s the avowed purpose of th" chief exeou-
tive of the States engaged in the ic'-ellion. It has not been annulled
in any form whatever, nor has the act of the southern Congress, in
support of Mr. Davis' views, been in any manner repealed or <dsa-
\ovved. Without looking any fuither, I appeal to this as a full justi-
fication of the Federal commander m-chief in suspending the opera-
tion of that portion of article four, of the cartel, which requires -'all
prisoners of war to be discharged on parole in ten da\s alter their
capture." it being manifest, that the authorities South could not parole
prisoners according to the cartel, and carry out their declared pur-
pose of* delivering the officers over to State authorities to be tti-d as
criminals under State laws. Whatever may have been the tea.-on why
the declare I purpose of Mr. Davis has not been extensively carried
into effect, the fact of the existence of that purpose-, sanctioned as we
know it to have been, is a suffi ie«.t reason on our part for not deliver*
ing piisc,tiers on parol*; partieul irly as there is every rew-n to believe
that the purpose of Mr. Davis has only been arrested by the fact,
that, bv the fo.riune of war, we had in our hands more prisoners than
were held in the South. In addition to the above, the treatment of
colored troops, which make an integral portion, of the Federal army,
when oaptuied in the South, is too ^ell known to permit us foi a
141
moment to suppose, in the present state of things, that there is any
design in the South to "treat that class of troops according to the laws
of war, applicable to other troops of the Federal army ; and until
the southern authorities make some distinct declaration 01 a purpose
to treat colored troops and their office*8, in the employment of the
United States Government, in all respects, according to the iiw< of
war, as applicable to other troops, wc cannot recede from th«* position
taken by the commander-in-chief above referred to. Tie wi-doui and
the necessity of existing orders on this subject, will sufficiently defend
the meamre, in view of the threats -and practices of the South, which
only need to he known to justify thi ? measure.
It is very well known that Col mcl Ludlow made these subjects the
frequent, topic of conversation with Mr Ould, without p.ohueiog any
imprvsHon on Mr Ould, tending to the point of inducing a declara-
tion, by autbo ity, frbm the South, that all officers of the Federal
army, as well a-, enlisted men, shall receive, when'captu-ed, the treat-
merit due to prisoners of war, wth il.e express declarati.m that colored
troops, bo h officers and men, shall receive similar treatment.
You will please communicate the-e views to Mr. Ould, wi&h a
request that he will lay them bef >re his Government.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. A. HITCHCOCK,
Major Gen. Vols, and Commissioner foi Exchange.
A'true copy.
S. A. MEREDITH,
Brigadier General and' Commissioner oj" Exchange.
[No. 70.]
MAJ. GEN. HITCHCOCK TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Washington City, D. C., ).
November 13, 1833. 5
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Commissioner Jor Exchange of Prisoners :
Sin: I am not yet informed whether any, or how far, relief may
have reached our unfortunate prisoners of war in Richmond and its
vicinity, under the orders of the Secretary of War, to send supplies
to them of both food and clothing.
Meantime, it is proper and necessary that Mr. Ould should be
notified, far the information of his Government, that whatever steps
may. have been, or may be taken thus to extend relief, must, on no
consideration, be appealed to by the enemy to. relive him from the
obligation to treat prisoners of war according to the laws of civilized
warfare.
If, in other words, our prisoners in Richmond fail to receive such
143
supplies as the laws alike of humanity and war require, the authori.
ties in Richmond must be informed, that it will not be considered a
valid explanation or excuse for them to appeal to the fact, should it
exist, that supplies from us hare not reached them.
The action of our Government in this matter i;. dictated purely by
humanity, and is only an effort to relieve our prisoners from suffering
inflicted upon them contrary to the claims of both humanity ami the
laws of war, and mujt not be understood as .relieving the authorities
at Richmond fro.m responsibility to the Christian world in the premises.
If the authorities in Richmond will send us these prisoners we will
not only feed and clothe them, but will continue to supply food and
clothing as heretofore to such prisoners as may be in our possession;
and you will propose to Mr. Ould, that, in this case, we will agree
without any reserve, to respect the parole they may gke according to
the laws of war, from which they shall not be relieved in v:<w of past
differences or pending questions on the subject of exchange, without
the previously obtained consent of the authorities represented by Mr.
Ouhl, as a.ent for exchanges, under the cartel.
You will please lose no time in communicating a copy of this note,
certified by yourself to Mr. Ould, and will urge upon him its accept-
anco, as due to the most solemn considerations in the f'aJe of the
civilized world.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
E. A. HITCHCOCK,
Maj Gen. Vols., and Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners.
Fort Monroe, Va., Nov. 15, 1S63.
A true copy.
S. A. Meredith, Brig. Gen. ami Commissioner for Exchange.
[No. 71.]
MR. OULD"TO BRIG. GEN. MEREDITH.
Confederate States of America, War Department. )
Richmond, Va., Nov. 18, 1863. \
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Agent of Exchange :
: The letter of General Hitchcock has been received.
Until the Confederate authorities appeal to be released "from the
obligation to treat prisoners of war according to the laws of civilized
warfare," or offer as "an explanation or excuse" for insufficient food
that supplies have not been forwarded by your Government,-it is
entirely unnecessary to discuss what will be the '.views of your
authorities in either contingency.
Statements, most infamously false, have recently been made and
circulated at the North, by persons whose calling should' have imposed
143
a respect for truth, which their own personal honor seems to have
failed to secure. Our regulations require that prisoners shall receive
the same rations as soldiers in the field. Such your prisoners have
received and will continue to receive. Do you ask more? If so,
what do you demand'? We recognize, in the fullest form, our obliga-
tion to treat your prisoners with humanity, and to serve them with
the same food, in quantity and quality, as is given to our u«nsol-
diers. If the supply is scanty, you have only to blame the system of
warfare you have waged against us. There is nothing in the action
of the.Confederate Government which gives any sort of coun enaace
to the charge of cruelty or inhumanity to your prisoners. the
first place, we have importuned you to agree to a fair and honest
proposition which would secure the release of all of them. Wnen
that was rejected, you have been permitted to send, without sunt or
limitation, all kinds of supplies to them.
General Hitchcock requests that the prisoners nrtw in our nanus be
returned to your lines. This is not accompanied with any proposition
to release our prisoners now in your bands. So far from that being the
case, he promises to " conti< ue to supply food and clothing as hereto-
fore" to such.' General Hitchcock need not have urged you to '-lose
no timeln communicating " his letter. No degree of haste would have
secured the assent of the Confederate authorities to a proposition so
flagrantly unequal. We are ready to relieve your Government from
the burthen of supplying "food and clothing as heretofore,", to our
people in your hands, and if they are sent to us. yours shall be
returned to you—the excess on one side or the other ;<> be on parole.
I hope you will "urge" upon General Ilitcheoek the acceptance of
this proposition " as due to the most solemn considerations in the face
of the civilized world." We are content that the "civilized world"
should draw its own conclusions when it' contrasts the two oners. I
will thank you to forward this communication to General HitchCock,
of inform him that the Confederate authorities decline to accept his
proposition.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
' RO. OULD,
Agent of Exchange.
[No. 72.]
GEN. HITCHCOCK TO GEN. MEREDITH.
Washington Cmr, D. C., Nov. 23d, 1863.
Brig. Gen. S. A. Meredith,
Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir : Your note forwarding a copy of Mr. Ould's letter of the 18th
144
instant, addressed to yourself, as an answer to my letter of the 13th,
has been received. Mr. Ould,' I perceive, states that our prisoners in
Richmond receive ''the same rations as soldiers in the field," accord-
ing to the regulations."
The '• regulations " may be such ns Mr. Ould states them to be, hut
th it our prisoners .receive "rations" as stated, is contradicted by
all of the • vidence that has reached me outside of Mr. Gold's state-
merrt; and the evidence r^sts upon the statements of eye witnos-es
and of actual sufferers under the treatment received in Richmond and
at Belle I.-le, besides the testimony of facts disclosed by the visible
condition of a delivery of some one hundred and eighty prisoners
made at City Point, many of whom died, before reaching Fort M<>n-
roe. from sturvdicn, according to the judgment of a competent modi-
cal officer.
Upon the evidence above stated, the Secretary of War ordered sup-
plies to be sent fo.r the distribution to the.remaining prisoners : and
this state of things induced the letter of the 13ih instant, proposing
to receive on parole the prisoners, and to hold them off duty until ex-
changed, independently of all existing difficulties on the subject of
exchange.
Mr. Ould declines this offer and proposes that, if we will»send to
the South the prisoners in our hands, they will send ours to us, "the
excess on one side or the other to he on parole "
Whatever appearance of verbal fairness there may he in this, the
conduct of Mr. Ould, in connection with r scent declarations'of- ex-
change, will not permit us to regard this proposal as made in good
faith a ml v. e cannot rely upon its being carried out'by the enemy.
In the first place, the proclamation of Mf. Davis, and other public
act/ of those in power in the South, remain in full force, so far as we
kno. and are actually being enforced in the South, by which distinction
is made between classes of troops employed by the United Stated and
office •», serving with colored troops, if taken prisoners, do not receive
and are not to receive the treatment due to, prisoners of war, whilst
the enlisted men of colored troops, when taken prisoners, it has been
publicly declared, shall be sold into slavery.
That this distinction is made actual, in the treatment of prisoners
of war, we know in some cases, and have much reason to apprehend
it in others, which have not been permitted to see the light. We have
positive information of the fact, that two colored seamen of the United
States marine were captured near Charleston, and were not treated as
prisoners of war.
Two free colored young men, with a Massachusetts regiment, were
captured near Galveston and publicly sold into slavery.
In a recent case I made a proposal to release, mutually, all chap-
lains; and the proposal was "cheerfully accepted;" but, ilthnugh
we delivered about or more than twice the number we received, the
enemy held back the chaplain of a Massachusetts colored regiment who.
was confined and in irons at Columbia, S. C. :
In addition to these facts, Mr. Ould, not long since, declared that he
would proceed to make declarations of exchange whenever he con-
145
scientiously felt that he had the right to do so, for the purpose of
putting men into the field.
If this announcement means anything at all, it means that the
usages of war, and the express provisions of the cartel, are subordi-,
nate to the individual determination and purposes of Mr. Ould on the
• subject of declarations of exchange ; and, as a consequence, we must
suppose that if Mr. Ould can obtain possession of the " excess " of
prisoners, now in our possession, he will " proceed " to declare them
exchanged, and put them into the field, upon what he might allege as
his sense of right. When called upon for an explanation he would
prepare what he might, call a " tabular statement of paroles," as he
recently did, made up from guerilla captures of citizens in remote
parts of the country, set down as captured at such places as Kentucky,
as Tennessee, as Mississippi, or at such a place as Kentucky and Tennes-
see, not in any. instance properly reporting to whom delivered. Mr.'
Ould has shown the latitudinarian construction he puts upon his pow-
ers, and the nature of his sense of rtght, by writing a letter on the 10th
of Oct. which he has not thought it necessary to communicate to us,
but which has been published in a Richmond paper, by which he took
upon himself the power to declare that the whole number of men de-
livered by General Banks, at Mobile, embracing several thousand men,
captured at Port Hudson, were under no obligation to preserve their
parole.
Mr. Ould has been a mere agent under the cartel, and when a
question comes up as to the import of the cartel, its meaning, &c.,
Mr. Ould has no power to decide the question, for that belongs to the
parties by whose authority the cartel was made.
The cartel provided two places for the delivery of prisoners of war,
City Point and Yickshurg; but it provided, also, that when these
places, or either of them, should become unavailable by the exigencies
of war, some other point might be agreed upon.
Yicksburg, having fallen into our hands, became unavailable, as
contemplated by the cartel, and Gen. Banks agreed with the rebel
commander in the field that Gen. Banks would deliver the Port
Hudson prisoners on parole, and they were delivered accordingly.
Mr. Ould knew that those men were unconditionally in the hands
of Gen. Banks. They had been "reduced to possesion," and had been
taken to New Orleans, and might have been sent north, if Gen. Banks,
had pleased. Instead of sending them to the North to swell the
number of prisoners of war, in our hands at the North, Gen. Banks
confided in the honor of a rebel commander, and "agreed" to parole
those, men at Mobile, Yicksburg being by the exigencies of war, no
longer available as a place of delivery.
In that state of things Mr. Ould takes upon himself to decide that
the delivery at Mobile was invalid, that place not being named in the
cartel for the delivery of prisoners.
With a sense of right so obtuse, as this act indicates, it is doing no^
injustice to Mr. Ould to say that we cannot confide in any pledge he
would'make to carry out a special agreement, and we must accordingly
decline to acquiesce in any measure which would throw into his hands
10
146
a large body of prisoners of war under parole, to be by him released
from its obligations according to his sense of right.
You will understand from the above statements that Mr. Odd's
decision touching the prisoners delivered by Gen. Banks, is not
recognized as justifiable or valid, and that we claim that they are still
prisoners of "war on parole.
Yery respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
E. A. HITCHCOCK,
Maj. Gen. of Vol., and ConCr for Exchange of Prisoners.
THE CARTEL.
[No. 73.]
IIaxall's 'Landing, on James Hiver, >
July 22, 1863. \
The undersigned having been commissioned by the authorities they
respectively represent, to make arrangements for a general exchange
of prisoners of war, have agreed to the following articles :
Article 1. It is hereby agreed and stipulated, that all prisoners of
war held by either party, including those taken on private armed
vessels, known as privateers, shall be exchanged upon the conditions
and terms following :
Prisoners to be exchanged man for man and officer for officer;
privateers to be placed upon the footing of officers and men of the
navy.
Men and officers of lower grades, may be exchanged for officers of
a higher grade and men and officers pf different services, may be ex-
changed according to the following scale of equivalents.
A general commanding in chief, or an admiral, shall be exchanged
for officers of equal rank or for sixty privates or common seamen.
A flag officer or major general shall be exchanged for officers of
equal rank or for forty privates or common seamen.
A commodore, carrying a broad pennant, or a brigadier general shall
be exchanged for officers of equal rank or twenty privates or commor
seamen.
A captain in the navy or a colonel, shall be exchanged for officers
of equal rank or for fifteen privates or common seamen.
A lieutenant colonel or a commander in the navy, shall be ex-
changed for officers of equal rank or for ten privates or common sea-
men.
A lieutenant commander or a major, shall be exchange for officers
of equal rank or eight privates or common seamen.
A lieutenant or a master in the navy or a captain in the army or
marines, shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank or six privates
or common seamen.
148
Master's mates in the. navy, or lieutenants and ensigns in the army,
shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank or four privates or com-
mon seamen.
Midshipmen, warrant officers in the navy, masters of merchant ves-
sels and commanders of privateers, shall be exchanged for officers of
equal rank or three privates or common seamen; second captains,
lieutenants or mates of merchant vessels or privateers and all petty
officers in the navy and all non-commissioned officers in the army or
marines, shall be severally exchanged for persons of equal rank or for
two privates or common seamen ; and private soldiers or common sea
men, shall be exchanged for each other, man for man.
Article 2. Local, state, civil and militia rank held by persons not
in'actual military service, will not be recognized; the basis of exchange
being the grade actually held in the nayal and military service of the
respective parties.
Article 3. If citizens held by either party on charges of disloy-
alty or any alleged civil offence are exchanged, it shall only be for
citizens. Captured sutlers, teamsters, and all civilians in the actual
service of either party to be exchanged for persons in similar position.
Article 4. All prisoners of war to be discharged on parole in ten
days after their capture, and the prisoners now held and those here-
after taken to be transported to the points mutually agreed upon, at
the expense of the capturing party. The surplus prisoners, not
exchanged, shall not be permitted to take up arms again, nor to serve
as military police, or constabulary force in any fort, garrison, or fields
work, held by either of the respective parties, nor as guards of
prisons, depots, or stores, nor to discharge any duty usually performed
by soldiers, until exchanged under the provisions of this cartel. The
exchange is not to be considered complete until the officer or soldier
exchanged for has been actually restored to the lines to which he
belongs. .
Article 5. Each party, upon the discharge of prisoners of the
other party, is authorized to discharge an equal number of their own
officers or men fronl parole, furnishing at the same time to the other
party a list of their prisoners discharged, and of their own officers
and men relieved from parole; thus enabling each party to relieve
from parole such of their own . officers and men as the party may
choose. The lists thus mutually furnished will keep both parties
advised of the true condition of the exchange of prisoners.
Article 6. The stipulations and provisions above mentioned to be
of binding obligation during the continuance of the Avar, it matters
not which party may have tfye surplus of prisoners, the great princi-
pies involved being: 1st. An equitable exchange of prisoners, man
for man, offic.er for officer, or officers of higher grade, exchanged for
officers of loAver grade, or for privates, according to the scale of equiv-
alents. 2d. That priA'ates and officers-and men of different services
may be exchanged according to the same scale of equivalents. 3d.
That all prisoners, of whatever arm of service, are to be exchanged
(r paroled in ten days from the time of their capture, if it be practi-
cable to transfer them to their own lines in that time ; if not, as soon
149
thereafter as practicable. 4th.i That no officer, soldier, or employee
in service of either party is to be considered as exchanged and
absolved from his parole until his equivalent has actually reached the
lines of his friends. 5th. That the parole forbids the performance of
field, garrison, police, or guard, or constabulary duty.
JOHN A. DIX,
Major General.
H. H. HILL,
Major General, C. S. A.
SUPPLEMENTARY ARTICLES.
Article 7. All prisoners of war now held on either side, and all
prisoners hereafter taken, shall be sent, with all reasonable dispatch,
to A. M. Aiken's, below Dutch Ga;p, on the James river, in Virginia,
or to Vicksburg, on the Mississippi river, in the State of Mississippi,
and there exchanged, or paroled until such exchange can be effected,
notice being previously given by each party of the number of prisoners
it will"send, and the time when they will be delivered at those points
respectively; and in case the vicissitudes of war shall change the mil-
itary relations of the places designated in this article to the contend-
ing parties, so as to render the same inconvenient for the delivery and
exchange of prisoners, other places, bearing as nearly as may be the
present local relations of said places to the lines of said parties, shall
be, by mutual agreement, substituted. But nothing in this article
contained shall prevent the commanders of two opposing armies from
exchanging prisoners, or releasing them on parole, at other points
mutually agreed on by said commanders.
Article 8. For the purpose of carrying into effect the foregoing
articles of agreement, each party will appoint two agents, to be called
agents for the exchange of prisoners of war, whose 4duty it shall be to
communicate with each other, by correspondence and otherwise; to
prepare the lists of prisoners; to attend to the delivery of the prisoners
at the places agreed on, and to carry out promptly, effectually, and in
good faith, all the details and provisions of the said articles of agree-
ment.
Article. 9. And in case any misunderstanding shall arise in regard
to any clause or stipulation in the foregoing articles, it is mutually
agreed that such misunderstanding shall not interrupt the release of
prisoners on parole, as herein provided, but shall be made the subject
of friendly explanation, in order that the object of this agreement may
neither be defeated or postponed.
JOHN A DIX,
Major General.
D. H. HILL,
Major General C. S. A.