The cause of Morgan's raid into Ohio.
--
The Paroled Prisoners,--The
Atlanta Confederacy publishes a letter written by
Lieutenant-Colonel R. W. Alston,
Morgan's
Adjutant-General, to a friend, which gives us the only intelligible reason for
Gen. Morgan's raid into
Ohio which we have yet seen.
He says:
‘
Burnside becoming alarmed for fear of a formidable invasion of
Kentucky under
Buckner — for we had reported ourselves as his advance guard — put his whole force on our track, and moved all of his supplies back to
Camp Dick Robinson.
It therefore was just as safe for as to go forward as return, and now our principal object was to keep as many troops employed and for so long a time as possible, in order to give
General Bragg time to make good his retreat to
Chattanooga.
The strategy succeeded, and, instead of
Burnside reaching
Knoxville by the 9th of July, he did not get there until about the 9th of September.--The object of our expedition, therefore, was partially accomplished, and it was worth the sacrifice of all we lost, which was about fifteen hundred men and horses and two pieces of artillery.
’
The same letter gives the reasons for
Lieutenant-Colonel Alston's being paroled, it appears that he gained his point by pertinaciously holding the
Yankee Government to its promise as given by the officer who paroled him:
‘
I stated that although I knew my parole was illegal when I accepted it, being not in conformity with the cartel, yet I regarded it as the duty of each army to hold its prisoners; and when they could not do so, it was their duty to turn them loose; but if a parole was forced upon a prisoner which did not conform with the requirements of the cartel, the prisoner was at liberty to disregard it; but if, on the contrary, he has honorably compiled with it, when he could show that by not doing so he might have effected his escape, I thought it was one of those cases which ought to be considered as an exception to the general rule governing exchange, and entitle the prisoner to his release.--This case was exactly mine as the narrative I had given would prove, and I therefore claimed my release accordingly.
The General admitted the reasonableness of what I said, and expressed a desire to do what was fair and just, releasing me from my guard, and gave orders for me to have the freedom of the barracks.--After I had gained this much I had sufficient ground to go upon, and continued to write to him on the subject, repeating his own language in the strangest terms, until after about two months of importunity I received a letter from his
Chief Aid,
Maj. Van Buren, stating that the
General admitted the justice of my claim; but, unfortunately, all power had been recently centred in the
Secretary of War, and he had no further control over paroles, but had sent a statement of my case to the
Secretary of War, and recommended that I be paroled and sent to
City Point.
I at once sent a copy of this letter to the
Secretary of War, and wrote at the same time to
Gen. Cox, Commanding Department of Ohio, to urge the matter and see that it was not overlooked in the hurry of official business.
Finally an order came from the
Secretary that "In consequence of my honorable conduct on a former occasion, he had determined to make mine an excepted case, and directed that I be immediately released and sent to
City Point." What joyous news, for I had almost began to despair.
In fact I was regarded by my brother officers as having a mania on the subject, and whenever an improbable event was spoken of they would reply, Yes, when
Alston gets his parole." There were a great many others situated exactly as I was; but they regarded the hope of success as so improbable that I could not prevail on them to urge their claims.
’
