[Second indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,
Cincinnati, Ohio, February 23, 1863.

Respectfully referred to the commanding officer at Camp Chase, through whom this communication should have been forwarded.

By order of Major-General Wright:

C. W. FOSTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Third indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Columbus, Ohio, February 24, 1863.

Respectfully referred to the provost-marshal at Camp Chase who will report on the within subject to these headquarters.

By order of Brigadier-General Cooper:

WM. VON DOEHN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

TULLAHOMA, TENN., February 12, 1863.

Major-General ROSECRANS, U. S. Army.

GENERAL: I have had the honor to receive your letters of the 18th and 19th ultimo addressed to me as I understand because you "find yourself compelled by a sense of duty to humanity to decline communicating with General Bragg by flag of truce," &c.

Being unable to perceive how the interests of humanity are to be promoted by suspension of correspondence between the commanders of opposite armies I very much regret your determination, the more so because it is not in my power to re-establish that correspondence.

General Bragg is the commander of the Army of Tennessee not I. One of his functions as such is of course the conducting of such correspondence as you propose to hold with me. I can assume none of the duties or privileges of the position in which our common superior, the President of the Confederacy, placed him.

I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to express to you my appreciation of your humanity exhibited in the case of our wounded who fell into your hands at Murfreesborough.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. JOHNSTON,

General.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, February 12, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: About a month since I cut from the Chronicle of this city the following, purporting to [be] the latest news from Richmond:

One hundred and eighteen men, captured by the Virginia Line at Petersburg and at Pikeville, Ky., are confined at Richmond, and the Governor has announced to* President Lincoln the terms upon which such exchange can alone be made.

He has placed at hard labor in the penitentiary Captain Gramm and Lieutenant Wade as hostages for Captain Dusky and Lieutenant Varner, now confined in the District of Columbia penitentiary. * * *

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*For Letcher to Lincoln, January 2, 1863, see case of Richard Thomas Zarvona, Vol. II., this Series, p. 401. For the omitted portion of this letter, see this Volume, p. 147.

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