Affidavit.

NEW ORLEANS, November 19 1863.

I solemnly swear that when I was at Monroe, La., a prisoner in the hands of the Confederates, June 27, 1863, I was allowed to go about on parole and learned from various parties, and among them soldiers belonging to the Confederate army, also some Union ladies entitled to belief, sufficient to satisfy me that two United States officers, one a captain and the other a lieutenant of African troops, taken prisoners while on a scout at Milliken's Bend, on or about the 6th June last, after imprisonment two days in the court-house at Monroe, were taken out and murdered by the enemy, and when I got to Shreveport I found that it seemed to be the common talk there.

I further depose and say that on Tuesday, July 14, 1863, I was in Shreveport, and on that day Dick Taylor's prisoners, captured from the U. S. forces at Brashear City, arrive there, and among them were two commissioned officers, from what I learned, of the Corps d'Afrique, who were separated from the rest and put in solitary confinement, with a ball and chain, and General Banks has the names of these two officers. *

E. J. COMER.

NEW ORLEANS, November 19, 1863.

Sworn before me.

[L. S.]

HENRY L. PIERSON,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

Address:

Care NORTHRUP & CIO.,

33 Front street, Memphis.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, November 20,163.

COMMANDING OFFICER FORT WARREN,

Boston Harbor, Mass.:

SIR: The Secretary of War directs that you afford all proper facilities to the British consul at Boston for visiting prisoners of state who are actually British subjects in confinement at Fort Warren, unless in those cases where unusual and urgent consideration require a contrary course.,

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS PAROLED AND EXCHANGED PRISONERS,
Enterprise, Miss., November 20, 1863.

In conformity with the orders of the President of the Confederate States, I assume command of the prisoners captured and paroled at Port Hudson and Vicksburg.

The place of rendezvous for both garrisons is fixed at Enterprise.

Of these prisoners some have been organized, exchanged, and returned to the field. The rest should be prepared to follow their comrades at the earliest moment. The emergencies of the service, as well as the brilliant pages they have already contributed to the history of this war, demand this. To accomplish it they must be in hand, well disciplined, and ready to resume their arms as soon as exchanged. It

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*See Taylor to Franklin, December 23, 1863.

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