The law of retaliation.
highly interesting correspondence between Generals Lee and Halleck.The Baltimore News Sheet, of the 14th contains the highly interesting correspondence (read in the Confederate Congress yesterday) between General Lee, on the part of the Confederate States, and Gen. Halleck, on the part of the United States:
Headq'rs Department of Va., July 21st, 1862.
To Major-General G. B. McClellan, Commanding Army of the Potomac:
General.--It has come to my knowledge that many of our citizens, engaged in peaceful avocations, have been arrested and imprisoned because they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, while others, by hard and harsh treatment, have been compelled to take an oath not to bear arms against that Government.
I have learned that about one hundred of the latter class have recently been released from Fortress Monroe.
This Government refuses to admit the right of the authorities of the United States to arrest our citizens and extort from them their parole not to render military service to their country, under the penalty of incurring punishment in case they fall into the hands of your forces.
I am directed by the Secretary of War inform you that such oaths will not be regarding obligatory, and persons who take them will be required to render military service.
should your Government treat the rendition of such service by these persons as a breach of parole, and punish it accordingly, this Government will resort to retaliatory measures as the only means of compelling the observance of the rules of civilized warfare. To Major-General G. B. McClellan, Commanding Army of the Potomac:
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
(Signed) R. E. Lee.,
General Commanding.
(Signed) R. E. Lee.,
General Commanding.
Headq'rs of Army United States,
Washington Aug. 18, 1862.
To Major-General Geo. B. McClellan, commanding Army of the Potomac:
General.--I have just received from the Adjutant-General's office your letter of July 30th enclosing a letter from General R. E. Lee.
of July 21st
The letters of General Dix and Major Moore will furnish you with the proper information for a reply to Gen. Lee's complaints in regard to the treatment of prisoners at Fortress Monroe.
The Government of the United States has never authorized any extortion of oaths of allegiance or military paroles and has forbidden any measures to be resorted to tending to that end.
Instead of extorting oaths of allegiance and parole, it has refused the applications of several thousand prisoners to be permitted to take them and return to their homes in the rebel States.
At the same time this Government claims and will exercise the right to arrest, imprison, or place beyond its military lines any persons suspected of giving aid and information to its enemies, or of any other treasonable act, and if persons so arrested voluntarily take the oath of allegiance, or give their military parole and afterwards violate their plighted faith, they will be punished according to the laws and usages of war. You will assure Gen. Lee that no unseemly threats of retaliation on his part will deter this Government from exercising its lawful rights over both persons and property, of whatever name or character.
Washington Aug. 18, 1862.
To Major-General Geo. B. McClellan, commanding Army of the Potomac:
General — Your letter of July 6th was received at the Adjutant-General's office on the 14th, but, supposing from its endorsement that it required no further reply, it was field, without being shown to the President or Secretary of War. I learn to-day, for the first time, that said letter had been received, and hasten to reply. No authentic information has been received in relation to the execution of either John Owen or Mumford, but measures will be immediately taken to ascertain the facts of those alleged executions, of which you will be duly informed. I need hardly assure you, General, that so far as the United States authorities are concerned this contest will be carried on in strict accordance with the laws and usages of modern warfare, and that all excesses will be duly punished. In regard to the burning of bridges within our lines by persons in disguise as peaceful citizens, I refer you to my letter of the 22d of January last to General Price. I think you will find the views there expressed as not materially differing from those stated in your letter. In regard to retaliation by taking the lives of innocent persons. I know of no modern authority which justifies it except in the extreme case of a war with any uncivilized foe, which has himself first established such a barbarous rule. The United States will never countenance such a proceeding unless forced to do so by the barbarous conduct of an enemy who first applies such a rule to our citizens.
Headq'rs Army of the "C. S."
Near Richmond, Aug. 2d, 1862.
To the General Commanding the Army of the United States, Washington:
General — On the 29th of June last I was instructed by the Secretary of War to inquire of Major-General McClellan as to the truth of alleged murders committed on our citizens by officers of the U. States army.
The cases of Wm. B. Mumford, reported to have been murdered at New Orleans, by order of Major-General B. F. Butler, and Colonel John Owen, reported to have been murdered in Missouri, by order of Major-General Pope, were those referred to. I had the honor to be informed by Major-General McClellan that he had referred these inquiries to his Government for a reply.
No answer has as yet been received.
The President of the Confederate States has since been credibly informed that numerous other officers of the army of the United States within the Confederacy have been guilty of felonies and capital offences which are punishable by all laws, human and divine.
I am directed by him to bring to your notice a few of those best authenticated.
Newspapers received from the United States announce as a fact that Major-General Hunter has armed slaves for the murder of their masters, and has thus done all in his power to inaugurate a servile war, which is more than that of the savage, inasmuch as it superadds other horrors to the indiscriminate slaughter of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
Brigadier-General Philos is reported to have initiated in New Orleans the example set by Major- General Hunter on the coast of South Carolina. Brigadier General G. N. Fitch is stated in the same journals to have murdered, in cold blood, two peaceful citizens because one of his men, while invading our country, was killed by some unknown person while defending his home.
I am instructed by the President of the Confederate States to repeat the inquiry relative to the cases of Mumford and Owens, and to ask whether the statements in relation to the action of Generals Hunter, Phelps, and Fitch are admitted to be true, and whether the conduct of these Generals is sanctioned by their Government.
I am further directed by his Excellency, the President, to give notice that, in the event of not receiving a reply to these inquiries within fifteen days from the delivery of this letter, it will be assumed that the alleged facts are true, and are sanctioned by the Government of the United States.--In such event, on that Government will rest the responsibility of the retribution or retaliatory measures which shall be adopted to put an end to the merciless atrocities which now characterize the war against the Confederate States.
Near Richmond, Aug. 2d, 1862.
To the General Commanding the Army of the United States, Washington:
General — In obedience to the order of His Excellency, the President of the Confederate States, I have the honor to make to you the following communication: On the 22d July last a cartel for a general exchange of prisoners of war was signed between Major-General D. H. Hill, in behalf of the Confederate States, and Major-General John A. Dix, in behalf of the United States. By the terms of the cartel it is stipulated that all prisoners of war hereafter taken shall be discharged on parole till exchanged. Scarcely had that cartel been signed when the military authorities of the United States commenced a practice changing the whole character of the war, from such as becomes civilized nations into a campaign of indiscriminate robbery and murder. The general order issued by the Secretary of War of the United States, in the city of Washington, on the very day the cartel was signed in Virginia, directs the military commanders of the U. States to take the private property of our people for the convenience and use of their armies, without compensation. The general order issued by Major-General Pope on the 23d day of July the day after signing of the cartel, directs the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies, if found quietly tilling the farms in his rear, even outside of his lines, and one of his Brigadier Generals Steinauer, has seized upon innocent and peaceful inhabitants to be held as hostages, to the end that they be murdered in cold blood, if any of his soldiers are killed by some unknown persons whom he designated as ‘"Bushwhackers."’ We find ourselves driven by our enemies by steady progress towards a practice which we abhor, and which we are vainly struggling to a void. Under these circumstances this Government has issued the accompanying general order which I am directed by the President to transmits to you, recognizing Major General Pope and his commissioned officers to be in the position which they have chosen for themselves, that of robbers and murderers, and not that of public enemies, entitled, if captured, to be treated as prisoners of war. The President also instructs me to inform you that we renounce our right of retaliated on the innocent, and will continue to treat the private enlisted soldiers of General Pope's army as prisoners of war: but if, after notice to your Government that we confine repressive measures to the punishment of commissioned officers, who are willing participants in Close crimes, the savage practice threatened in the order alluded to be persisted in, we shall be reluctantly forced to the last resort of accepting the war on the terms chosen by our enemies, until the voice of an outraged humanity shall compel a respect for the recognized usage of war. While the President considers that the facts referred to would justify a refusal on our part to execute the cartel by which we have agreed to liberate an excess of prisoners of war in our hands, a sacred regard for plighted faith which shocks from the semblance of breaking a promise precludes a resort to such an extremity; nor is it his desire to extend to any other forces of the United States the punishment merited by Gen. Pope and each commissioned officers as others to participate in the execution of his infamous order.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant.
(Signed) R. E. Lee, General Commanding.
(Signed) R. E. Lee, General Commanding.
General — Your two communications of the 2d instant, with enclosures, are received. As these papers are couched in language exceedingly insulting to the Government of the United States, I must respectfully decline to receive them. They are returned herewith.
