HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORFOLK,
Norfolk, Va., January 27, 1862.

Major General J. E. WOOL,

Commanding Department of Virginia.

SIR: I send herewith by flag of truce the following officers prisoners of war:

Dr. William Fletcher, exchanged for Dr. R. W. Jeffery; M. A. Parks, first lieutenant, First Michigan Volunteers, exchanged for J. T. Lasselle, North Carolina Volunteers; W. Booth, second lieutenant, Second Wisconsin Volunteers, exchanged for J. G. Moore, Seventh [Seventeenth] North Carolina Volunteers; C. M. Hooper, second lieutenant, California regiment, exchanged for J. W. Hoy, North Carolina Volunteers; Adjutant Peirson, Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, exchanged for Adjt. J. W. Poole, North Carolina volunteers.

You are authorized to release these officers from their paroles.

By command of Major-General Huger:

BENJ. HUGER, JR.,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, VA., January 27, 1862.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that Bvt. Lieutenant Colonel J. V. Bomford has been sent for* and will when he arrives be released in exchange for myself. As I had anticipated the Confederate Government will not for a moment entertain the idea of giving up Colonel Willcox under existing circumstances. I am now under parole to report myself at Fortress Monroe by the 15th of February. Please send me authority to remain here until Colonel Bomford arrives, it being of course understood I am not to bear arms until his release.

Very respectfully,

JNO PEGRAM,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Provisional Army, C. S.

LOUISVILLE, KY., January 27, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON.

SIR: I take the liberty of addressing you hoping you will answer me candidly, honestly, even if for the worst. My husband, Colonel W. E. Woodruff, is held as a hostage for the privateers. Are they to be exchanged or not? I have had assurances time and again that he would be at home in four or five weeks but he comes not. Suspense is but a living death. Oh, sir, for the sake of humanity return him; he will do honor to his country and its flag.

Respectfully,

F. M. WOODRUFF.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 28, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel W. HOFFMAN, U. S. Army,

Numbers 30 Clinton Place, New York.

COLONEL: Your letter of the 13th instant addressed to Brigadier General L. Thomas, Adjutant-General, asking permission to release a number of

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*For other correspondence relating to the exchange of Colonel Bomford, see Vol. I, this Series, p. 70 et seq.

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