PRISONERS, EXCHANGE OF. 



privateersmen, had actually been paroled, should yet 

 negotiate with you as if they were all still held as hos- 

 tages, apparently taking advantage of the circumstance 

 that you were not so well informed as himself. 



Verv respectfully, your obedient servant, 



G. W: RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. 

 Major-General B. HUGEB, 



Commanding Department of the Appomattox. 



Accompanying this letter was the following 

 personal explanation of Gen. Huger : 



HEADQUARTERS HCGER'S DIVISION, June 5, 1S62. 

 SIR : I enclose you a copy of a letter I received from 

 the War Department. I have heard from private per- 

 sons that the privateersmen whom you promised to 

 send for exchange had arrived at City Point, but no let- 

 ter to me has as yet been forwarded. As I had charge 

 of the correspondence with yourself on the subject, I 

 hasten to send you this communication, which I must 

 confess I do not clearly understand. The language of 

 one of my letters may not have been the same as an- 

 other ; but I did intend not to give you all the officers 

 once retained as hostages in exchange for all the priva- 

 teersmen, but to give you such numbers of them in ex- 

 change as would be required by the cartel exchanging 

 the equivalent of rank, and the other officers to be ex- 

 changed as usual. As you agreed to these terms, and 

 had a sufficient number of our officers, there was no 

 reason why the exchange should not be made at once ; 

 and I shall insist, if the privateers have been sent, as I 

 hear, that all the officers referred to above be given in 

 exchange. I think it but fair we should name the offi- 

 cers to be exchanged on our side ; and as the most 

 equitable way, I propose to exchange those who have 

 been longest prisoners, including navy officers. 



I am, General, 

 Very respectfully, vour obedient servant, 



BEXJ. HUGER, 

 Major-General Commanding. 

 Major-Gen. JOHK E. WOOL, 



or Officer Commanding Department of Virginia. 



Here the matter rested, and for upward of a 

 month nothing seems to have been done toward 

 a general exchange, notwithstanding in the 

 mean time prisoners had accumulated in large 

 numbers on either side. The Confederates had 

 indeed made certain overtures, by sending to 

 Washington Col. Miller and Major Stone, who 

 had been captured in the battle near Pittsburg 

 Landing, to induce the National Government to 

 adopt some general plan. This the latter de- 

 clined to do, claiming that certain Confederate 

 officers of rank, as Gen. Buckner, captured at 

 Fort Donelson, had, in consequence of acts done 

 previous to the war, forfeited their right to be 

 considered prisoners of war, and ought to be 

 excepted from any cartel entered into by the 

 belligerents, and to be held amenable for trea- 

 son. The Confederates, on the other hand, in- 

 s : sted that the rule should be general, although 

 from the reluctance which they had manifested 

 in releasing Col. Corcoran and other prisoners 

 demanded by the people of the Northern States, 

 it was evident that they had been themselves 

 inclined to make exceptions. 



In obedience to a very general popular de- 

 mand the National Government finally decided 

 to yield its point, and on July 17, Gen. Dix, 

 who had meanwhile succeeded Gen. Wool in 

 command at Fortress Monroe, met the Confed- 

 erate general D. H. Hill, in conference, at 

 Turkey Island Creek on the James river, where 

 on the 22d was signed the following agreement 



for the exchange of prisoners, based upon tho 

 cartel of 1812 between the United States and 

 Great Britain, and which was claimed by the 

 Richmond papers to mark an important era in 

 the war, by acknowledging the quasi nation- 

 ality of the Confederate Government : 



HAXALL'B LANDING, ON JAMES RITEK, VA. | 



July Vi, \~t,>. \ 



The undersigned, haying been commissioned by the 

 authorities they respectively represent to make arrange- 

 ments 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 priva- 

 teers, shall be discharged upon the conditions and 

 terms following : 



Prisoners to be exchanged man for man and officer 

 for officer; privates to be placed on the footing of offi- 

 cers and men of the navy. 



Men and officers of lower grades may be exchanged 

 for officers of a higher grade, and men* and officers of 

 different services may DC exchanged according to the 

 following scale of equivalents: 



A general commander-in-chief or an admiral shall 

 be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or forty-six pri- 

 vates 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 briga- 

 dier-general, shall be exchanged for officers of equal 

 rank, or twenty privates or common seamen. 



A captain in the navy, or a colonel, shall be ex- 

 changed for officers of equal rank, or for fifteen pri- 

 vates or common seamen. 



A lieutenant-colonel, or a commander in the navv, 

 shall be exchanged for officers of equal rank, or for 

 ten privates or common seamen. 



A lieutenant commander or a major shall be ex- 

 changed 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. 



Masters' mates in the navy, or lieutenants and en- 

 signs in the army, shall be exchanged for officers of 

 equal rank, or four privates or common seamen. 



Midshipmen, warrant officers in the navv, masters 

 of merchant vessels, and commanders of privateers, 

 shall be exchanged for officers of equal ranK, or three 

 privates or common seamen : 'second captains, lieuten- 

 ants, or mates of merchant vessels or privateers, and 

 all pettv officers in the navy and all non-commissioned 

 officers'in the army or marines, shall be severally ex- 

 changed for persons of equal rank, or for two privates 

 or common seamen ; and private soldiers and common 

 seamen shall be exchanged for each other, man for 

 man. 



ART. 2. Local, State, civil, and militia rank held by 

 persons not in actual military service will not be rec- 

 ognized, the basis of exchange being of a grade actu- 

 ally held in the naval and military service of the re- 

 spective parties. 



ART. 3. If citizens held by either party on charge 

 of disloyalty or any alleged ci'vil 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. 



ART. 4. All prisoners of war to be discharged on 

 parole in ten days after theircapture, and the pinners 

 now held and those hereafter taken to be transported 

 to the points mutually agreed upon at the expense of 

 the capturing party. The surplus prisoners not ex- 

 changed shall not be permitted to take up arms again, 

 nor to serve as militarv police or constabulary force in 

 any fort, garrison, or field work held by either of the 

 respective parties, nor as guards of prisoners, depots, or 

 stores, nor to discharge any duty usually performed by 



