RICHMOND, VA., August 8, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER,

Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America:

The undersigned has been rearrested without knowledge of any fault on his part, and would therefore make a brief plea to the Department. I am an Episcopal clergyman in good standing and chaplain of the Second Maine Regiment. Always a Democrat and friendly to the interests of the Southern States. The cry that the Union was in danger, and that there was a Union party calling on us for help here, led me to accompany the regiment in a spiritual capacity as chaplain of the Second Regiment from Maine. I was deceived; I bitterly repent it, and accordingly over my own hand I have acknowledged (as far as in me lay) the independence of the Southern Confederacy. They (the States of the Confederacy) ought to be free, and I should be glad to be allowed to raise my voice for peace. These are my sentiments, freely expressed to Doctor Peterkin, Dr. Quintard and all friends here founded on what I have learned since a prisoner. I refer with all respect to what I have written in times of peace, and especially to a printed sermon preached January 4, 1861, for the testimony to my opinions in times past. The Right Reverend Bishop Atkinson, of North Carolina, remembers the sermon, as it was noticed in the Church Intelligence; and also Doctor Quintard, of Nashville, Tenn., a chaplain in the Confederate army. With all respect therefore I beg to refer to these gentleman, with Doctor Peterkin of this city, as references for my character and as hostages for my good conduct. Our church has had nothing to do with these troubles, and her clergy where they have accompanied the troops of the North have ministered only to their spiritual necessities. Doctor Quintard has known me personally in times past, and to him I make my chiefest reference, begging to be allowed as a chaplain to find a quiet home in the house of Doctor Peterkin, an the privileges of attending the services of God's house. My wife aand my sister, dying of consumption, would make the same plea for my youth; fatherless and motherless themselves they lean on my frail arm for support.

I am, most respectfully,

JOHN F. MINES.

RICHMOND, VA., August 10, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER,

Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America:

The undersigned having partially ascertained the cause of his detention in prison would respectfully and as briefly as possible present his plea as follows: I understood at Manassas that I was charged with using severe language in conversation. I thereupon wrote to General Beauregard stating that I had never intentionally violated even the spirit of my parole; that I had been attacked violently several times by strangers and officers, and may have answered them severely in the presence of wounded men and others, but that I had never sought any controversy and had never spoken unless addressed. Twice I was compelled to remind gentleman that I was a prisoner of war and therefore entitled to be let alone. I am no military man and am very young; and older men than myself better acquainted with military matters ought not to have led me into trouble by questioning, and yet I ought to have remembered that exultation is unavoidable in the hour of great victory, and so if I have erred I humbly beg pardon both of God and of man. As a minister I have repented bitterly the forgetting that a quiet answer turns away, while as a man I have felt that the