All of these men, as a matter of course, have been ordered into the rebel ranks of fight Federal patriots again, without, as I believe, any defensible ground to cover more than about 23,000, leaving us still a good and valid claim to about 20,000 men; more, it is believed, than all of the Federal prisoners the rebels now hold in Souther prisoners. To aggravate this matter the principal portion of the men thus released from parole were declared to be exchanged just prior to the battle of Chickamauga, and some of whom at all events were actually recaptured at the battle of Chattanooga, soon after that of Chickamauga, soon after that of Chickamauga, and are now held by us as prisoners of war.

If now Mr. Ould in his recent interview with General Butler means to intimate a claim touching but 10,000 of the Vicksburg prisoners as having been properly discharged from parole, and is willing to give us a credit for the balance of the Vicksburg prisoners, and a credit also for the prisoners delivered by General Banks at Mobile, it would not be difficult to make an adjustment of the respective claims on both sides according to the laws of war and the cartel. If he is unwilling to do this I do not readily perceive how any just settlement can be made, and I do not think it would be proper to authorize a settlement with Mr. Ould without insisting upon our claims, unless the Government shall decide to abandon the hope of a just settlement, and this recognize in Mr. Ould a right to declare exchanges without being restrained by the usages and laws which ought to govern a system of exchanges between belligerents. I feel constrained to add that while Mr. Ould is the recognize agent of exchange on the other side we cannot hope for a due regard to military principles in this business so far as it depends upon him. I therefore recommend that while he remains the agent of exchange on the other side the system of exchanges under the cartel be not resumed, but that General Butler be instructed changes as may be in his power, under the orders by which he had been acting, which authorize him to exchange man for man and officer for officer according to grade.

I hold it to be unnecessary, and indeed to some extent improper, to bring into discussion with Mr. Ould, specifically, any general order published by a Federal officer having no authority to settle questions of the laws of war as between belligerents, but that whatever points of discussion may come up between the agents on the two sides should be handled independently, and should be decided by a reference to general principles, to which both parties have a common right to appeal, to wit, by a reference to the laws of war and to the cartel, so far as it is applicable and operative. Where any decision between the agents on a disputed point may seem to introduce a new mode of action or shall point to prospective results our agents should be directed, as it appears to me, to communicate with the War Department for instructions.

The question has been asked from the other side, particularly in view of Order Numbers 207, 1863, whether we are not willing to abide by it. If this were a pertinent question and from a proper source the answer would undoubtedly be in the affirmative. We are perfectly willing to be governed by that order, and would be glad if our enemies were also. But this question did not arise or war not based upon a consideration of the order itself, which is right and proper, but it stands upon a very strained misapplication of it to the condition of the Vicksburg and Port Hudson prisoners, having in fact no application either in letter or spirit to those prisoners. Mr. Ould places an erroneous interpretation upon that order, and then asks whether we are not willing to be

4 R - SERIES II, VOL VII