HEADQUARTERS RIGHT WING, ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Munfordville, Ky., September 18, 1862. General BRAXTON BRAGG, Commanding Army of the Mississippi. GENERAL: I am in receipt of a communication from S. E. Chaillé, medical inspector on your staff, inquiring the cause of arrest of fifteen citizens whose names he gives. In reply I beg leave to say the men were not arrested by my order. When the guard having them in charge reported to me supposing I was in command on this side of the river I ordered them to report to you with tiapture for final disposal and addressed a note to you to that effect. I have the honor to state that I know nothing of the cause of arrest of the fifteen citizens. I am, general, your obedient servant, L. POLK, Major-General, Commanding Right Wing. [Indorsement.] Referred to General Jackson, who will investigate and release all not clearly guilty of offense or dangerous characters. B. B. GENERAL ORDERS, * HDQRS. ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, II. The prisoners of war having been paroled will march immediately for the enemy's lines in the direction of Bowling Green. A sufficient cavalry escort will be sent for their protection. They will take three days' rations and be allowed the same transportation for the officers' baggage as in this army. The sick and wounded will be cared for in our hospitals until able to travel. By command of General Bragg: JNO. M. OTEY, Assistant Adjutant-General. JACKSON, MISS., September 18, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War: General Van Dorn telegraphs this afternoon, "Enemy are in front and must be engaged at once," and asks aid. Can we We have only the prisoners just returned from the North. Mr. Ould led us to infer that the exchange takes place from Richmond. be authorized to arm and employ them at once? L. TILGHMAN, Brigadier-General. JAS. E. SLAUGHTER, Brigadier-General and [Assistant] Inspector-General. Maj. N. G. WATTS. HEADQUARTERS THIRD SUB-DISTRICT, MAJOR: Mr. T. C. Williams, a planter residing near the mouth of the Yazoo, has complained that two of his negroes, Harrison and Jake, have been taken on board of some one of the boats now under flag of truce. Receiving and harboring negroes being an unlawful act and punishable by fine and imprisonment, can only be done with impunity by force, and as an act of force becomes clearly a violation of the flag of truce which should to the smallest particular be held sacred. You are consequently desired to bring the above to the notice of the proper officer, who it is not doubted will promptly turn over to your charge the negroes mentioned. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, M. L. SMITH, Brigadier-General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, Brig. Gen. C. L. STEVENSON, Knoxville, September 18, 1862. Commanding First Division, Army of East Tennessee. GENERAL: * The major-general commanding declines to exchange for political prisoners and permit them to return home. He will authorize an exchange and send the prisoners beyond our lines. You can use Coleman's regiment to replace such detached companies as you may have at Morristown and other points. You will order the forces left at the Gap (Hilliard's and Palmer's commands) to proceed to clear the road, removing all obstructions. * Respectfully, your obedient servant, H. S. BRADFORD, Assistant Adjutant-General. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., September 19, 1862. Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. SIR: I am directed by the President to forward to you the subjoined copy of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th instant. Resolved, That the President be requested to inform this House what disposition is made of negroes captured by the Army and whether any general orders have been issued to facilitate their restoration to their owners. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, BURTON N. HARRISON, [Indorsement.] The Department has not been informed of the capture of any slaves by our armies. G. W. R. RICHMOND, September 19, 1862. Brig. Gen. LLOYD TILGHMAN, Jackson, Miss.: The exchange is not yet perfected. We shall give notice immediately that if the agent of the enemy does not meet our agent by a given day to be agreed upon the exchange will be announced by us and the exchanged prisoners will be ordered to duty. GEO. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, September 19, 1862. Brig. Gen. JOHN H. WINDER, Richmond, Va. GENERAL: You will dispose of the below-named prisoners as follows: 1, David W. Sherman, to be discharged on taking the oath of aliegiance; 2, Reuben Sherman, to be discharged on taking the oath of allegiance; 3, H. T. Sherman, to be discharged; 4, A. Asbrick, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 5, A. Ambrech, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 6, John Bryant, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 7, John Beltzhoover, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 8, Isaac Brown, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 9, A. Taylor, to be discharged and furnished transportation home if he takes the oath of allegiance; 10, I. Ingram, to be put in a hospital; 11, William Holcombe, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 12, T. Holcombe, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 13, L. B. Payne, to be held as a citizen prisoner, but to be permitted to work at his trade under parole; 14, F. Stemlaugh, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 15, D. May, to be held as a citizen prisoner; 16, William Hines, to be discharged. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, September 19, 1862. ROBERT OULD, Esq. DEAR SIR: The return prisoners at Vicksburg are urgently needed for immediate service. Are they all exchanged, and if not when will the exchange be completed? Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. WELDON, N. C., September 21, 1862. General WINDER, Commanding District, Richmond, Va. GENERAL: I send under guard in charge of Sergeant Epting a prisoner named James Smith, who states that he is a stove molder by profession; supposed to be a deserter from the army-a spy or a bridgeburner, judging from appearances, conduct and contradictory statements. He appears to be well informed of the position of our armies, well acquainted with the locality of Richmond, and the fact of his having been loitering in this neighborhood for some time past creates the impression that he is a bridge-burner. He is of an age subject to conscription. Taking into consideration his conflicting statements, conduct, &c., I believe him not to be right. I therefore send him to you for further examination. I am, respectfully, general, your most obedient servant, WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, September 22, 1862. His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, President Confederate States of America. SIR: In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives inquiring what disposition is made of negroes captured by the Army, I have the honor to say that the Department has not been informed of the capture of any slaves by our armies. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War. Brig. Gen. L. TILGHMAN: RICHMOND, September 22, 1862. Ten thousand three hundred and sixty-eight non-commissioned officers and privates are exchanged. In arriving at this number one noncommissioned officer must be counted as two privates. In addition to this all commissioned officers are exchanged who have been delivered up to this date. The exchange will be completed as to the remainder on Saturday next. GEO. W. RANDOLPH, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF KENTUCKY, Brig. Gen. D. LEADBETTER. GENERAL: Information has been received at these headquarters that there are quite a number of home-guards in the neighborhood of Georgetown. The major-general commanding directs that you take immediate steps to have their arms brought in and the men paroled. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, H. P. PRATT, Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. DISTRICT OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Jackson, Miss., September 22, 1862. Brig. Gen. DANIEL RUGGLES, Commanding District. GENERAL: In obedience to your instructions I have given such attention as my limited time and inability to procure authorities on the subject would permit to the question— Whether a citizen of the Confederate States not belonging to the Army or Navy or to the militia in actual service can be tried by a military court upon the charge of being a spy for the enemy? The Constitution of the Confederate States, Article 1, section 9, paragraph 16, provides that No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or pubic danger; nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty or property with out due process of law. It will be seen that this paragraph provides for a state of war as well as peace and restricts the jurisdiction of all tribunals not proceeding by the ordinary form of indictment or presentment to the three enumerated classes. But it has been said that those articles of war which prescribe the penalty for holding intercourse with the enemy, relieving his wants or giving him information are so comprehensive in their terms as to embrace all persons to whatever class they may belong, and that these articles form part of an act of Congress the constitutionality of which is not a proper question for the decision of those whose duty it is to obey the law. A more careful examination of these articles will relieve us of the necessity of inquiring how far obedience is due to an unconstitutional law, for I think it will appear that they are not in the least repugnant to the Constitution. The language of the Fifty-seventh Article of War, which is relied on as giving authority to military courts to try and punish this class of offenders, is: Whosoever shall be convicted of holding correspondence with or giving intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly, shall suffer death or such other punishment as shall be ordered by the sentence of a court-martial. However comprehensive the term "whosoever" may at first glance appear, it should be recollected that penal statutes and those which are in derogation of common right must be strictly construed and cannot be enlarged by implication. It is also a well-settled rule of interpretation that all laws must be construed with reference to their subjectmatter and the object the Legislature had in view in their enactment. The title of the act of which the Articles of War form a part is "An act for establishing rules and articles for the government of the armies of the Confederate States," and the first paragraph of the first section is in the following words: That from and after the passage of this act the following shall be the rules and articles by which the armies of the Confederate States shall be governed: Here the Legislature has given an explicit declaration of the object for which the law was enacted and clearly marked the class of persons upon whom it was intended to have effect. Every word in the act, therefore, must be construed with reference to this declaration and be limited by it, however general or comprehensive it may at first appear to be. The word "whosoever," then, in Article 57, must be construed to mean whosoever belonging to the armies of the Confederate States. Indeed, the connection in which this article stands would justify such a construction, apart from the considerations already mentioned, for in Article 55 this limitation is made in express terms. It reads as follows: Whosoever belonging to the armies of the Confederate States in foreign parts shall force a safeguard shall suffer death. Article 56 provides that "whosoever shall relieve the enemy with money, victuals," &c., and then follows Article 57, already quoted. The connection in which these three articles stand warrants the conclusion that they are intended to apply to the same class of persons and that the words "belonging to the armies of the Confederate States" were omitted in the last two merely to avoid tautology. Again, in different articles the persons who are subjected to military law are enumerated in detail; for example, we find provision made for the trial and punishment of "all officers," "all non-commissioned officers and soldiers." In Article 60 it is provided that— All sutlers and retainers to the camp and all persons whatsoever serving with the armies of the Confederate States in the field, though not enlisted soldiers, are to be subject to orders according to the rules and discipline of war. Article 96 provides that All officers, conductors, gunners, matrosses, drivers or other persons whatsoever receiving pay or hire in the service of the artillery or Corps of Engineers of the Confederate States shall be governed by the aforesaid rules and articles, &c. And Article 97 makes the same provision in relation to the militia when in actual service of the Confederate States. |