PRISONERS, EXCHANGE OF. 



71.1 



On July 21, Gen. Lee addressed a communi- 

 cation to Gen. McClellan, then in command at 

 Harrison's Landing, stating that he was in- 

 formed that many Confederate citizens, en- 

 gaged in peaceful vocations, had been arrested 

 and imprisoned because they refused to take 

 the oath of allegiance to the United States ; 

 while others, by harsh treatment, had been 

 compelled to take an oath not to bear arms 

 against the National Government ; adding : 



This Government refuses to admit the right of the 

 authorities of the United States to arrest our citizens, 

 and extort from them their parole not to render mili- 

 tary service to their country under the penalty of in- 

 curring punishment in case they fall into the hands of 

 your forces. 



I am directed by the Secretary of "War to inform 

 you that such oaths will not be regarded as obliga- 

 tory, and persons who take them will be required to 

 render military service. Should your Government troat 

 the rendition of such service by these persons as a 

 breach of parole, and punish it accordingly, this Gov- 

 ernment will resort to retaliatory measures as the only 

 means of compelling the observance of the rules of 

 civilized warfare. 



The matter \vas referred by Gen. McClellan 

 to Gen. Halleck, who in reply to that officer, 

 dated August 13, made the following state- 

 ment of the policy which the Government 

 would pursue : 



The Government of the United States has never 

 authorized any extortion of oaths of allegiance or mil- 

 itary paroles, "and has forbidden any measures to be 

 resorted to tending to that end. Instead of extorting 

 oaths of allegiance and paroles, it has refused the ap- 

 plications of several thousand prisoners to be permu- 

 ted to take them and return to their homes in the 

 rebel States. 



At the same time this Government claims and will 

 exercise the right to arrest, imprison, or place beyond 

 its military lines any persons suspected of giving aid 

 and information to its enemies, or of any other trea- 

 sonable act And if persons so arrested voluntarily 

 take the oath of allegiance, or give their military 

 parole, and afterward violate their plighted faith, 

 they will be punished according to the laws and usages 

 of war. 



You will assure Gen. Lee that no unseemly threats 

 of retaliation on his part will deter this Government 

 from exercising its lawful rights over both persons 

 and property, of whatsoever name or character. 



On July 22 an important order was issued 

 by Secretary Stanton, acting under instructions 

 from the President, by which military command- 

 ers in Virginia and other parts of the seceded 

 S:a:es were empowered i- in an orderly manner 

 to seize and use any property, real or personal, 

 which may be necessary or convenient for 

 their several commands, for supplies or for 

 other military purpose ;" to employ at reason- 

 able wages persons of African descent when 

 needed : and requiring that ;- as to both prop- 

 erty and persons of African descent, accounts 

 shall be kept sufficiently accurate and in de- 

 tail, to show quantities and amounts, and from 

 whom both property and such persons shall 

 have come, as a basis upon which compensa- 

 tion can be made in proper cases." In accord- 

 ance with the terms of this document Gen. 

 Pope, then recently appointed to the command 

 of the army of Virginia, directed his division 



generals to seize all horses and mules in their 

 vicinity, and all stores not absolutely needed 

 by the inhabitants for their maintenance or 

 subsistence; and his General Order No. 11, 

 dated July 23, required all officers of his array 

 holding independent commands to arrest all 

 disloyal male citizens within their lines or with- 

 in their reach. " Such as are willing to take 

 the oath of allegiance to the Unit 

 &c., the order continued. (See AEJIY OPEBA- 



TIOXS.) 



These several orders did not fail to create 

 excitement among the Confederate authorities 

 at Richmond, and ultimately led to the retalia- 

 tory action suggested by the two following 

 documents, of which the first was addressed by 

 President Davis to Gen. Lee : 



RICHMOND (VA.), J^y "' 



SIR : On the 22d of this month a cartel for the gen- 

 eral exchange of prisoners of war was signed between 

 Maj.-Gen. D. H. Hill, in behalf of the Confederate 

 States, and Maj.-Gen. John E. Dix, in behalf of the 

 United States. By the terms of this cartel it is stipu- 

 lated that all prisoners of war hereafter taken shall be 

 discharged on parole till exchanged. 



Scarcely had that cartel been signed when the mili- 

 tary authorities of the United States commenced a 

 practice changing the whole character of the war from 

 such as becomes civilized nations into a campaign of 

 indiscriminate robbery and murder. 



The general order issued by the Secretary of War of 

 the United States, in the city of Washington, on the 

 very day the cartel was signe'd in Virginia, directs the 

 military commanders of the United States to take the 

 private" property of our people for the convenience and 

 use of their armies, without compensation. 



The general order issued by Maj-Gen. Pope on the 

 23d day of July, the day after the signing of the cartel, 

 directs" the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies, 

 if found quietly tilling the farms in his rear, even out- 

 side of his lines ; and one of his brigadier-generals, 

 Steinwehr, has seized upon innocent and peaceful in- 

 habitants to be held as hostages, to the end that they 

 may be murdered in cold blood, if any of his soldiers 

 are" killed by some unknown persons whom he desig- 

 nates as " bushwhackers." 



Under this state of facts, this Government has 

 issued the enclosed general order, recognizing Gen. 

 Pope and his commissioned officers to be in the posi- 

 tion which they have chosen for themselves that 

 of robbers and "murderers, and not that of public ene- 

 mies, entitled, if captured, to be considered as prison- 

 ers of war. 



We find ourselves driven by our enemies by steady 

 progress toward a practice which we abhor and which 

 we are vainly struggling to avoid. 



Some of th'e military authorities of the United States 

 seem to suppose that" better success will attend a gar- 

 age war in which no quarter is to be given, and no age 

 or sex to be spared, than has hitherto been secured by 

 euch hostilities as are alone recognized to be lawful by 

 civilized men in modern times. 



For the present we renounce our right of retaliation 

 on the innocent, and shall continue to treat the private 

 enlisted soldiers of Gen. Pope's army as prisoners of 

 war ; but if, after the notice to the Government 

 ington of our confining repressive measures to tl 

 punishment only of tbe commissioned officers who are 

 willing participants in these crimes, these savage prac- 

 tices are continued, we shall be reluctantly fo 

 the last resort of accepting the war on the terms ob- 

 served bv our foes, until the outraged voice of com- 

 mon humanity forces a respect for the recognized 



"whUeThese facts would justify our refusal to execute 

 the generous cartel by which we have consented 



