BALTIMORE, July 1, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

I understand that you suppose Mrs. Milroy to have been taken at Winchester and carried to Richmond. It is a mistake. She left Winchester with her children early in May and went home to Rensselaer, Ind. I saw her on her way and knew her before. She is a very good woman. The general received a letter from her yesterday. But there were five or six officers' wives left at Winchester, among them the wife of Washburn, of Ohio. We have no knowledge of their being taken as prisoners or treated with any indignity.

ROBT. C. SCHENCK,

Major-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, July 1, 1863.

Major-General SCHENCK, Baltimore:

I knew that Mrs. Milroy was not taken prisoner. But the Richmond Dispatch of Friday states that eleven Yankee ladies were taken from Winchester to Richmond and that they are imprisoned in Castle Thunder. I have called for an explanation from the Richmond authorities. Whoever they are it is the design of the Government to protect them.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS, Fort Monroe, July 1, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON, Asst. Adjt. General, Headquarters Army:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the telegram of the General-in-Chief directing that the officers captured by Major-General Dix be not exchanged.

No exchanges of Confederate officers have been made since the order of the 25th of May last forbidding paroling or exchanging such officers.

Brigadier General W. H. Fitzhugh Lee, wounded, is in hospital here on the certificate of the medical director that he required hospital treatment. General Lee has given his parole to confine himself to the hospital and made no attempt to escape. As soon as he can be moved he will be sent to Fort Delaware, as we have no place of confinement here. His retention settles al questions abut hanging our officers.

In order to obviate all misunderstandings in regard to paroles I gave Mr. Ould on the 23rd of May the notice, a copy of which is inclosed. * Under its operation we shall derive great advantages, as every capture must be reduced to possession except in cases where commanders of opposing armies under the authority of article 7 of the cartel otherwise arrange.

It has been the practice, especially in Kentucky and Tennessee, of the Confederate forces to parole our captured officers and men where they were unable to bring them away, and thus preserve their own force unimpaired to make more captures. If this rule of reducing captures to possession be not fully understood I would respectfully suggest that it be announced in general orders.

May I ask what rebel officers in the West are reported as having disregarded the cartel, and under what circumstances?

Various other questions connected with exchanges have been subjects of correspondence between Mr. Ould and myself. I have endeavored to dispose of them to the best of my judgment and ability, and I

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* See Vol. V, this series, p. 696.

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