HDQRS. DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND EAST LOUISIANA,
Jackson, April 12, 1863.

Major General C. L. STEVENSON, Vicksburg.

GENERAL: The lieutenant-general commanding acknowledges receipt of your communication of 11th instant inclosing that of Mrs. Mary James and directs that you place a prisoner taken from the enemy whilst on that movement from the Mississippi River in irons, and inform Admiral Porter of the fact and of its being done in retaliation for the arrest of Mr. John James, upon whose release the man will be relieved from irons and close confinement.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. TAYLOR,

Aide-de-Camp.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., April 13, 1863.

General R. E. LEE, Commanding, &c.

GENERAL: I have had under consideration the General Orders, Numbers 49, issued by General Halleck, inclosed to me with your letter of the 21st ultimo and have delayed answering your letter longer than I designed.

The cartel of exchange only incidentally treats of the parole of prisoners, no restrictions as to when paroles may or may not be given; no regulations of the practice to be followed in taking paroles are contained in the cartel. The first four paragraphs of the general orders do not appear to be in violation of the cartel. It is supposed that a belligerent in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary would have the right to forbid its soldiers entering into any paroles. They may operate to establish a new practice, and taken in connection with the provisions of the general orders are so sweeping in their operation that it might hardly be safe to take paroles at least until an explanation is had, and it may be necessary to hold all prisoners that are taken.

The fifth and sixth paragraphs taken in connection with the preceding are ambiguous if not contradictory. By the second paragraph "none but commissioned officers can give paroles for themselves or their men; " by the eighth paragraph "no non-commissioned officer or private can give his parole except through an officer; " by the fifth it is declared that "for the officer the pledging his parole is an individual act and no wholesale patrolling by an officer of a number of his inferiors in rank is permitted or allowed. "

Does the term "inferiors in rank" refer only to commissioned officers? What is meant by "wholesale paroling?" What by "giving a parole through an officer?" Again these paragraphs might well be understood as only referring to paroles taken at the time of capture except for the last clause in the sixth paragraph, admitting, as the only exceptions to the prohibition against non-commissioned officers and privates giving them their paroles otherwise than through an officer, instances where individuals being separated properly from their commands have suffered long confinement without the possibility of being paroled through an officer. What is meant by long confinement? How are the lists of prisoners in confinement as at Libby Prison for example to be made out? Explanations of these are clearly necessary.

Paragraph 7 declares that "no prisoner of war can be forced by the hostile Government to pledge his parole," &c. The cartel says "all