712 



PRISONERS, EXCHANGE OF. 



As it is but fair those longest in captivity should be 

 released first, I request you will let the privateersmen 

 be released, and I will reciprocate, and release those 

 longest confined. 



I have requested Gen. Winder to send prisoners from 

 Richmond to Newport News on Monday, the 5th inst. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



BENJ. HUGER, Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 



Maj.-Gen. J. E. WOOL, 



Commanding Department of Virginia. 



On the 19th, Gen. Wool wrote that he was 

 prepared to make exchange on the terms pro- 

 posed by Gen. Huger in the above communica- 

 tion, adding, " I will have the privateersmen 

 sent to this post (Fortress Monroe), to be for- 

 warded to you at any place you designate on 

 James river, provided you will send forward, 

 at the same time, the hostages, Cols. Corcoran, 

 Wilcox," &c. ; and, on the succeeding day, Gen. 

 Huger replied from Petersburg : 



If you will release upon parole the privateersmen, 

 and send them to me at City Point, I will return you 

 such number of your officers, heretofore retained as 

 hostages for them, as would be their equivalent, ac- 

 cording to the rates of exchange prescribed by the 

 cartel between the United States and Great Brit- 

 ain in 1813 the captains of privateersmen to rank as 

 lieutenants of the navy, and the mates of the privateers 

 as master's mates. If you will have the rank and 

 number of the privateersmen made out, and their equiv- 

 alent of officers now retained as hostages for them, 

 such officers will be released unconditionally and re- 

 turned to you. Any of the other hostages that may not 

 be required for exchange for the privateersmen will be 

 released upon parole, to be exchanged for officers of 

 equal rank, or their equivalent, according to the cartel 

 above alluded to. 



On the 21st, Gen. Wool despatched another 

 letter to Gen. linger, requesting him to appoint 

 a time for the exchanges to take place, and re- 

 ceived the following reply : 



HEADQUARTERS. DEPAHTMEVT or APPOMATTOX, ) 

 PKTEP.SBUKG, VA., May 23, 1S62. \ 



GEXEKAL : I have detained your boat until to-day, ex- 

 pecting an answer from Richmond as to the time when 

 the prisoners to be exchanged for the privateersmen 

 could iwach here. I have not yet received an answer, 

 and I am not aware of the location of these officers, or 

 when they could reach here; but I can assure you I 

 consider the War Department have fully agreed to the 

 terms stated in my letter of the 3d instant to you, and 

 which have been accepted by yourself. I must be re- 

 sponsible that on the delivery of all the privateersmen 

 all the officers retained as hostages will be released 

 upon parole, the details of the exchanges to be ar- 

 ranged between us according to the cartel referred to, 

 and such of the officers as are not exchanged in this 

 way to remain on parole until exchanged for others. 

 If not interrupted by movements in the field, I will 

 promise to have the officers forwarded as soon as pos- 

 sible, and will send notice to any of your vessels, and 

 request you may be notified to send for them. 



Very respectfullv, your obedient servant, 



BENJ. ilUGER, Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 



Supposing the matter to be definitely settled, 

 Gen. Wool, on June 1, sent the privateersmen, 

 85 in number, to City Point, on the James 

 river, with instructions to deliver them up on 

 receiving the hostages on parole. The latter 

 not being on the spot, the privateersmen were 

 withheld, and a communication was sent to the 

 Confederate authorities demanding an explana- 

 tion. An answer came back that Gen. Huger 



had exceeded his authority, and that further 

 conference would be necessary before the ex- 

 change could be effected. With a view to the 

 holding of such a conference, the flag of truce 

 boat remained at the Point until the 6th, when, 

 learning that nothing further was expected 

 from Richmond, she returned to Fortress Mon- 

 roe. 



The following letter from the Confederate 

 Secretary of War, of which a copy was trans- 

 mitted by Gen. Huger to Gen. Wool, gives his 

 reasons for refusing to abide by Gen. Huger's 

 communication of May 23 : 



C. S. A. WAR DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, June 3, 1S62. 



GENERAL: I have received your letter of the 28th 

 ultimo, in which you give a construction in your agree- 

 ment with Gen. Wool for the exchange of the priva- 

 teersmen and the persons formerly held as hostages, 

 which requires us to return all of the latter for all ofthe 

 former, and to parole such ofthe so-called hostages as 

 are not exchanged, and to support this construction you 

 refer me to your letter of May 23 to Gen. Wool. 



Upon examining that letter I find that you use the 

 following language : " I must be responsible that on 

 the delivery of all the privateersmen all the officers de- 

 tained as hostages will be released upon parole." If 

 this were the agreement, there could be no doubt of 

 your promise to return all the "officers retained as 

 hostages ; " but in the same letter you state that the 

 agreement was contained in your letter of May 3, and 

 you say, " I consider the War Department has fully 

 agreed to the terms stated in my letter of the 3d inst, ' 



The letter of May 3, so far from promising " to return 

 all the officers, as hostages," as you apparently sup- 

 pose, confines the proposed exchange to such as Gen. 

 Wool might name, and as would be equivalent to the 

 privateersmen according to the tariff agreed upon by 

 the cartel between Great Britain and the United States 

 in 1813, and consents that when that exchange had been 

 made the other officers held as hostages might be ex- 

 changed " as usual." There can be no doubt about the 

 agreement ; your language is perfectly explicit. You 

 say to Gen. Wool, " 1 will return such officers as you 

 may name in exchange according to the tariff agreed 

 upon by the cartel between Great Britain and the Unit- 

 ed States in 1813. As soon as these men are exchanged, 

 any other officers that have been held as hostages will 

 be exchanged as usual." 



I am willing to perform the agreement which you 

 stated to Gen. Wool that the department had fully 

 agreed to perform, but I cannot consent to carry out a 

 palpable misconstruction of it, much more disadvan- 

 tageous to the Government of the Confederate States 

 than the agreement itself, and evidently the result of 

 mere inadvertence on your part. Even this erroneous 

 interpretation of your promise is founded on the sup- 

 position that " officers were still retained as hostages," 

 when, in fact, they had all been restored to the condi- 

 tion of prisoners of war, and a colonel and three captains 

 were actually then on parole. It is therefore not only 

 erroneous in its construction of the agreement actually 

 made, but is founded upon such a misconception of 

 facts that it would not bind you as an independent 



You will, therefore, inform Gen. Wool that the War 

 Department will execute faithfully your agreement with 

 him of May 3, without considering whether you were 

 authorized to make it or not ; that we will exchange 

 such officers recently held as hostages as he may name 

 for the privateersmen, according to the cartel agreed 

 on, but that we shall hold others to be exchanged here- 

 after. * 



I might justly complain that Gen. Wool, after being 

 informed by Gen. Cobb that the " officers hitherto held 

 as hostages for the privateersmen had been placed o 

 the same footing as other prisoners of war," and know- 

 ing that a number of them, more than equivalent to the 



