[Inclosuire no. 2.]
headquarters Army and district of North Carolina, New Berne, N. C., Feb. 13, 1864.
Major-General Pickett, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Confederate Army :
General:--I have the honor to enclose a list of fifty-three soldiers of the U. S. Government who are supposed to have fallen into your hands on your late hasty retreat from before New Berne.
They are loyal and true North Carolinians, and duly enlisted in the Second North Carolina Infantry.
I ask for them the same treatment in all respects as you will mete out to other prisoners of war.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major-General Pickett, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Confederate Army :
John J. Peck, Mcajor-General.
[Inclosure no. 3.]
headquarters Department of North Carolina, Petersburg, Va., Feb. 16, 1864.
Maj.-Gen. Join J. Peck, U. S. Army, Comimanding at New Berne:
General:--Your communication of the 11th of February is received.
I have the honor to state in reply that the paragraph from a newspaper enclosed therein is not only without foundation in fact, but so ridiculous that I should scarcely have supposed it worthy of consideration; but I would respectfully inform you that had I caught any negro who had killed officer, soldier, or citizen of the Confederate States, I should have caused him to be immediately executed.
To your threat expressed in the following extract from your communication, viz.: “Believing that this atrocity has been perpetrated without your knowledge, and that you will take prompt steps to disavow this violation of the usages of war and to bring the offenders to justice, I shall refrain from executing a rebel soldier until I learn your action in the premises,” I have merely to say that I have in my hands and subject to my orders, captured in the recent operations in this department, some 450 officers and men of the U. S. Army, and for every man you hang I will hang ten of the U. S. Army.
I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Maj.-Gen. Join J. Peck, U. S. Army, Comimanding at New Berne:
G. E. Pickett, Major-General Commanding.
[no. 15. see page 619.]
Yorktown, Feb. 4, 1864.
General:--Accept my grateful and sincere thanks for your letter of to-day, just arrived by despatch boat, and for all your manifold kindness and consideration ever since I happily came a second time under your command. . . .
At 2 A. M. on the 7th, we make the attempt to surprise Bottom's Bridge, with the hope of striking Richmond at 5 A. M. following.
