Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow to Mr. Ould.
headquarters Department of Virginia, Seventh Army Corps, Fort Monroe, Virginia, April 8, 1863.
Hon. Robert Ould, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners:
Sir — The best mode of arranging all questions relating to exchange of officers, is to revoke, formally or informally, the offensive proclamation relating to our officers.
I simply ask that you say, by authority, that such proclamation is revoked.
The spirit of that proclamation was the infliction of personal indignities upon our officers, and as long as it remains unrepealed, it can be at any moment put in force by your authorities.
What assurance have we that it will not be?
I earnestly desire a return to the cartel in all matters pertaining to officers, and until such be the case, and uniformity of rule be thereby established, our exchanges of officers must be special.
Some of our officers, paroled at Vicksburg, were subsequently placed in close confinement, and are now so held.
If, hereafter, we parole any of your officers, such paroles will be offset against any which you may possess.
At present the exchanges will be confined to such equivalents as are held in confinement on either side.
I hope you will soon be able to remove all difficulties about officers by the revocation I have mentioned.
By reference to the map, you will see that Fort Delaware is en route to Fort Monroe.
It is used as a depot for the collecting of prisoners, sent from other places for shipment here, and is, from its peculiar position, “well adapted for convenience for exchange.”
If any mistake be found in the account of men paroled by Lieutenant-Colonel Richards, at Oxford, Mississippi, on the 22d of December, 1862, it can be rectified when we meet.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. Robert Ould, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners:
Wm. H. Ludlow, Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.
