HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, August 26, 1864.

Major General E. R. S. CANBY,

Commanding Military Division of West Mississippi:

GENERAL: I have instructed Colonel Ig. Szymanski, assistant agent of exchange, to call your attention to the fact that 1,360 U. S. prisoners, captured at Brashear City and vicinity, were delivered under flag of truce at the U. S. outpost, Boutte Station, La., to Lieutenant-Colonel Stancel, U. S. Army, July 3, 1863, and subsequently restored to service by order of Major General N. P. Banks, commanding Department of the Gulf, without exchange or equivalents in contravention of article 8, General Orders, Numbers 49, issued from Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, February 28, 1863. The General Orders, Numbers 207, from Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, July 3, 1863, were not promulgated at the time of the above delivery, and consequently unknown to our authorities. Moreover, deliveries have been made in February, March, and April, 1863, at Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and respected by the general [commanding] Department of the Gulf. Under these circumstances it is difficult to reconcile the action of ordering to service the U. S. prisoners captured at Brashear City with preceding deliveries.

Colonel C. C. Dwight, while acting commissioner on behalf of Major-General Banks, in a letter addressed to Major William M. Levy, commissioner on the part of Lieutenant General R. Taylor (copy inclosed*), says:

You have to-day made satisfactory proof to me that prisoners of the command of Major-General Banks, to the number of 1,360, rated as privates, were actually captured at Brashear City and vicinity by the forces of Major-General Taylor in June and July, and were, after being held for some ten days, delivered at an outpost of our forces at Boutte Station, having been first paroled in the usual form, and were receipted for by the officer commanding such outpost.

In the interview at Hog Point, July 28, 1864, Colonel Dwight has assured Major Szymanski that you entertain similar opinion, but could not take any action in the premises, the order having been issued by General Banks previous to your assuming command, but that you have addressed the authorities at Washington upon the subject. I would be much gratified to be informed of the result of your application. If, as I am informed, you entertain the opinion of Colonel Dwight, quoted above, the validity of these paroles should be recognized.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. KIRBY SMITH,

General.

RICHMOND, VA., August 26, 1864.

His Excellency M. L. BONHAM,

Governor of South Carolina:

DEAR SIR: The letter of James Thurston, first lieutenant, C. S. Marine Corps, addressed to you, and by you commended to my attention, has been received. On application to the Secretary of the Navy I am informed by him that the Federal naval authorities seek to impress upon our naval officers their prisoners that they are anxious to exchange them and this Government offers obstacles. There are other evidences than Lieutenant Thurston's letter that Mr. Welles has told them that he had made propositions to Mr. Mallory to this effect when no such propositions were ever received, either by commissioner of exchange or Mr. Mallory, of which fact Mr. Welles was informed by

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*See p. 374.

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