No Conference to be with Beast Butler on the Exchange question.
The following is a copy Hon. Robert Ould's letter declining to recognize Beast Butler in the capacity Yankee Commissioner of Exchange: Confederate States of America. War Department, Richmond, Va., Dec. 27th, 1863.
Major Gen. E. F. Hitchcock, Commissioner of Exchange:
Sir
--I have this day received from Major Gen. E. F. Butler a copy of a communication to be signed by yourself as Commissioner of the Exchange of Prisoners, in which is stated that by the authority and order of the United States Secretary of War Major. Gen. E. F. Butler was appointed special Agent for the exchange of prisoners war at City Point."
You are doubtless aware that by proclamation of the President of the Confederate States, Maj. Gen. E. F. Butler is under the of outlawry.
Although we do not present to prescribe what agents your Government shall employ in connection with the cartel, yet when one who has been proclaimed to be so obnoxious as Gen. Butler is selected, self-respect requires that the Confederate authorities refuse to treat with him, or establish such relations with him as properly pertain to an Agent of Exchange.
The proclamation of President Davis forbids that Gen. Butler should be admitted to the protection of the Confederate Government, and he cannot, therefore, be received under a flag of truce.
Accordingly, I am directed by the Confederate authorities to inform you that Maj. Gen. B. F. Butler will not be recognized by them as an Agent of Exchange.
Major Gen. E. F. Hitchcock, Commissioner of Exchange:
Sir
The Schultz arrived here last night with the five hundred prisoners sent by the Yankees to City Point, Saturday. The following is a copy of a letter from Judge Ould to Major Mulford relative to the exchange of prisoners:
--I have received your letter announcing your arrival with Confederate prisoners. I have this day forwarded to you an equal, or greater, number of Federal prisoners. I received with your letter several communications from Major-General B. F. Butler. In no one of them is it stated that the U. S. Government is willing to resume the cartel and deliver all of our prisoners now in captivity, the excess on either side to be on parole. I have more than once expressed the entire readiness of the Confederate Government to deliver the Federal prisoners now in our hands, provided the U. S. authorities will deliver the Confederate prisoners in their hands. This is the provision of the cartel, and we can accept nothing less. Unless this is the distinct understanding, no equivalent will be delivered to you for any Confederate officers and soldiers you may hereafter bring to City Point. In the hope that such is the understanding, I have directed that a number greater than the total of your delivery should be sent to you. In no event can we consent that the general release of prisoners so distinctly required by the cartel shall be evaded by partial deliveries. Accepting the present delivery as a step towards a general exchange on the principles of the cartel, I trust I may be permitted to express the hope that deliveries on the basis above indicated will be continued until all the troops in confinement on both sides are released.
