The post of Secretary of War, previously held by L. Pope Walker, of Alabama, was now taken by J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, when the latter was succeeded in his office of Attorney-General by Thomas Bragg, formerly Gov

them was comparatively worthless. Pa- three years. It was resolved also to triotism was appealed to, to give a increase the naval force. fictitious value to the promises to pay of the government, and force, when necessary, to provide for the wants of the army, supplied the absence of patriotic confidence. Every principle of equity and the law of trade was set at nought, to give effect to the irredeem-ernor of North Carolina. Robert Toombs, able paper thrown upon the country by of Georgia, also resigned the Secretarythe government, states, cities and cor- ship of State, and was succeeded by porations. It was the object of the gov- R. M. T. Hunter, recently United States ernment, of course, to keep the issue of senator from Virginia. treasury notes at the lowest point, and An act respecting alien enemies, in accordance with this well-understood passed at this session of the Congress, policy, the Secretary of the Treasury, decreed that all citizens or subjects Mr. Memminger, was compelled to re- of any foreign nation or government, fuse an application from the planters for with which the Confederate States the purchase of their crops. Without the should be at war, should be liable to opportunity of selling their products, they arrest, restraint or removal, and the were actually in want. The Secretary President was especially directed, by referred the planters to the local banks proclamation, to require every male citfor aid, and advised a change of labor, izen of the United States, of fourteen from cotton to other commodities and years and upward, within the Confedpursuits more available for immediate erate States, and adhering to the Govsubsistence. "Let them immediately ernment of the United States, and actake measures for winter crops, to re-knowledging the authority of the same, lieve the demand for grain and pro- and not being a citizen of the Confedvisions. Let them make their own erate States, to depart from the said clothing and supplies." States within forty days of the date of such proclamation. A proclamation was accordingly issued to this effect by Jefferson Davis, on the 14th of August. Another act sequestrated the property owned by, or for any alien enemy since the 21st of May, 1861, to be held for the indemnity of any true and loyal citizen," who might be a sufferer by the Act of Confiscation passed by the United States Congress on the 6th of August. After a short session

The Confederate army was reported at this session of the Congress to number one hundred and ninety four regiments, and thirty-two battalions, besides other detachments, making, in all, over two hundred thousand men in the field. The President was authorized to increase this force by the addition of 400,000 volunteers, to serve for not less than twelve months, nor more than

C. G. Memminger to the Commissioners appointed to the Congress adjourned, to meet again in

receive subscriptions to the Produce Loan, Oct. 17, 1861.

Richmond in November.

THE Communication to which President | city, and have there been treated, not as Davis, in his Message of July 20th re- prisoners of war, but as criminals; that ferred as sent to President Lincoln, in they have been put in irons, confined in relation to the captured privateersmen jail, brought before the Courts of Justice of the Savannah, was carried by Captain on charges of piracy and treason, and it Thomas H. Taylor, of the Confederate is even rumored that they have been cavalry, accompanied by an escort, to actually convicted of the offences charged, the lines of the Union army before for no other reason than that they bore Washington. The messenger was cour-arms in defence of the rights of this govteously received, and conducted to Gen- ernment and under the authority of its eral Scott's headquarters at the capital. commission. I could not, without grave The letter which he bore read as follows: discourtesy, have made the newspaper "RICHMOND, July 6, 1861. To Abraham statements above referred to the subject Lincoln, President, and Commander-in- of this communication, if the threat of Chief of the Army and Navy of the treating as pirates the citizens of this United States-Sir,-Having learned Confederacy, armed for service on the that the schooner Savannah, a private high seas, had not been contained in armed vessel in the service, and sailing your proclamation of the April last. under a commission issued by authority That proclamation, however, seems to of the Confederate States of America, afford a sufficient justification for considhad been captured by one of the vessels ering these published statements as not forming the blockading squadron off devoid of probability. It is the desire Charleston harbor, I directed a proposi- of this government so to conduct the tion to be made to the officer command- war now existing as to mitigate its horing that squadron for an exchange of the rors as far as may be possible; and. officers and crew of the Savannah for with this intent, its treatment of the prisprisoners of war held by this govern-oners captured by its forces has been ment according to number and rank.' marked by the greatest humanity and To this proposition, made on the 19th leniency consistent with public obligault., Captain Mercer, the officer in com- tion; some have been permitted to remand of the blockading squadron, made turn home on parole, others to remain at answer on the same day that 'the pris- large under similar condition within this oners (referred to) are not on board of Confederacy, and all have been furnished any of the vessels under my command.' with rations for their subsistence, such It now appears, by statements made as are allowed to our own troops. It is without contradiction in newspapers pub-only since the news has been received lished in New York, that the prisoners of the treatment of the prisoners taken above mentioned were conveyed to that on the Savannah, that I have been com

test.

pelled to withdraw these indulgencies, and surrendered without further conand to hold the prisoners taken by us in Lieutenant Parrott reported his strict confinement. A just regard to hu- capture to Flag Officer Stringham on the manity and to the honor of this govern- Minnesota, of the blockading squadron ment now requires me to state explicitly off Charleston. The Savannah was sent that, painful as will be the necessity, this with a prize crew to New York, and her government will deal out to the prisoners officers and crew were taken by the held by it the same treatment and the Minnesota to Hampton Roads, whence same fate as shall be experienced by they were brought in the Harriet Lane those captured on the Savannah, and if to New York, and there placed in keepdriven to the terrible necessity of retali- ing of the United States Marshal in close ation by your execution of any of the confinement in the city prison. A bill officers or the crew of the Savannah, that of indictment for robbery on the high retaliation will be extended as far as seas was promptly found by the Grand shall be requisite to secure the abandon- Jury, and on the 23d of July the prisment of a practice unknown to the war-oners, thirteen in number, were arraignfare of civilized man; and so barbarous ed for trial, which was set down for the as to disgrace the nation which shall be October term. At the appointed time guilty of inaugurating it. With this the trial took place, the Hon. Judges view, and because it may not have Nelson and Shipman presiding, the cause reached you, I now renew the proposi- of the United States being conducted by tion made to the commander of the block- Mr. E. Delafield Smith, District Attorading squadron, to exchange for the ney, assisted by William M. Evarts and prisoners taken on the Savannah, an other learned counsel, while the defence equal number of those now held by us, was ably conducted by Daniel Lord, James according to rank. I am yours, &c., T. Brady and others. The trial continJEFFERSON DAVIS." ued for seven days, and was allowed to take a wide range in the speeches of the counsel over the various political and other questions involved in the history and principles of the rebellion. result was a disagreement of the jury, eight, it is said, standing for conviction, and four for acquittal. The prisoners were then remanded to the custody of the marshals.

The Savannah spoken of in this letter was a small schooner of 54 tons, formerly employed as a pilot-boat in Charleston harbor. She was fitted out as a privateer with a single 18-pounder pivotgun amidships; and with a crew of twenty men, commanded by Captain Thomas F. Harrison Baker, left Charleston on the 2d of June on her first cruise. On the following morning she captured the brig Joseph, of Rockland, Maine; and in the course of the day, while in company of that vessel, was fallen in with by the United States brig Perry, E. G. Parrott, Lieutenant Commanding. After some hours' pursuit and the exchange of several harmless shots, she was overtaken,

The

Whilst these proceedings were going on at New York, another trial of similar nature at Philadelphia, that of William Smith, a Confederate privateersman,

* Lieutenant Parrott to Flag Officer Stringham. U. S.

Brig Perry, at Sea, June 5, 1861.

Sce the full report of the trial by A. F. Warburton, Stenographer. 8vo. New York, 1862.

RETALIATORY MEASURES.

481

to commit judicial murder on prisoners of war, you will execute them strictly, as the mode best calculated to prevent the commission of so heinous a crime. Your obedient servant, J. P. Benjamin, Acting-Secretary of War."

Colonel W. Raymond Lee, of the 20th Massachusetts Regiment, who had been recently captured at the massacre at Ball's Bluff, was then handed six slips of paper, bearing the names of the six United States Colonels, held as prisoners by the Confederates, which he was required to deposit in a deep tin case provided for the purpose-the duty being assigned to Mr. Ely of drawing one of the lots forth to consign an officer to a

convicted pirate Smith. The lot thus drawn fell upon Colonel Michael Corcoran, then held as a prisoner in Castle

taken on board of a recaptured prize, resulted in his being found guilty of the crime of piracy. A case had thus arisen for the exercise of that system of retaliation threatened under such circumstances by President Davis; and the opportunity was abundantly afforded in the possession of the numerous officers and other prisoners captured at Bull's Run, in the military prisons at Richmond. Accordingly, on the 10th of November, "a most exciting and painful scene," as it is described by Mr. Ely, whose diary we have already cited, occurred, when Brigadier-General Winder entered the apartment of the United States officers, adjoining the " Old Tobacco Warehouse," and, in the presence of some seventy- felon's dungeon and treatment of the five of them, read the following order which he had been directed to execute by the Secretary of War: "C. S. A. War Department, Richmond. Nov. 9, | Pinckney, Charleston Harbor. Colonel 1861. Sir: You are hereby instructed to choose, by lot, from among the prisoners of war, of the highest rank, one who is to be confined in a cell appropriated to convicted felons, and who is to be treated in all respects as if such convict, and to be held for execution in the same manner as may be adopted by the enemy for the execution of the prisoner of war, Smith, recently condemned to death in Philadelphia. You will also select thirteen other prisoners of war, the highest in rank of those captured by our forces, to be confined in the cells reserved for prisoners accused of infamous crimes, and will treat them as such so long as the enemy shall continue so to treat the like number of prisoners of war captured by them at sea, and now held for trial in New York as pirates. As these measures are intended to repress the infamous attempt now made by the enemy

Alfred M. Wood, of Long Island, of the 14th New York Regiment, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy wounded at Bull Run, and who had now recovered, was another of the hostages. The name of Captain J. B. Ricketts, the commander of the celebrated battery of the 1st Artillery, who was wounded and taken prisoner in the main action in the same battle, was drawn, but he was exempted on account of his illness. The list of thirteen hostages for the crew of the Savannah, finally stood-Colonels Lee, Wilcox, Cogswell, Wood and Woodruff; Lieutenant-Colonels Bowman and Neff; Majors, Potter, Revere and Vodges; Captains Rockwood, Bowman and Keffer. "The officers selected from among us," adds Mr. Ely, "behave most gallantly. They will not shrink from their fate, whatever it may be. think they may be retained awhile as

hostages, but cannot apprehend any Union officers, and the impending threats

danger as to their ultimate safety. Our Government will never permit the privateersmen to be prosecuted to conviction; and even should that be done, will never execute them."*

liable.

of their execution should the sentence, pronounced upon the privateers, be carried out; but there is every reason to believe that, without this pressure on the part of the government of Jefferson The argument on this matter was Davis, the decree would not have been presented with acuteness and feeling by enforced. The policy of the administhe Hon. Charles P. Daly, Judge of the tration at Washington was in every Court of Common Pleas of New York, respect humane and conciliatory. If in a letter written to the Hon. Ira Har- theoretically, the South was denied the ris, United States Senator from the privileges of a belligerent, it must be State, on the 21st of December, 1861. remembered that the practice, under Recognizing privateering, as it is held that rule, secured her many exempby the whole country, to be "a legiti- tions and privileges which would have mate mode of making war," he asks, been denied to a foreign nation. The "what is the difference between the South called for the rights of a belligerSouthern soldier, who takes up arms ent; the North held aloof from the apagainst the Government of the United plication, refusing meanwhile to inflict States on the land, and the Southern the pains and penalties to which a privateersman who does the same on foreign belligerent would have been the water?" "Practically," he answers the question, "there is none; and if one should be held and exchanged as a prisoner of war, the other is equally entitled to the privilege." It was upon this ground of the practical inconvenience of carrying on a great war upon the principles justly laid down for suppressing an insurrection, that the decision of this matter ultimately rested. As the prisoners were not acting by authority of a recognized State, they technically became pirates, and must be considered as such, when the question was pressed by the Courts. It was for the Government to interpose, as they afterwards did, and relieve judge and jury of the dilemma. An urgent plea for the relaxation or abandonment of the ground originally taken by President Lincoln undoubtedly existed in the acts of retaliation, in the imprisonment of the

* Journal of Alfred Ely, November 12, 1861, p. 208.

The whole matter is well treated by Judge Daly, with a just appreciation of the necessities of the case and the considerate policy of President Lincoln's administration. "Neither the Constitution of the United States," says he, "nor the act against piracy were framed in view of any such state of things as that which now exists. The civil war now prevailing is, in its magnitude, beyond anything previously known in history. The revolting States hold possession of a large portion of the territory of the Union, embracing a great extent of sea-coast, and including some of our principal cities and harbors. They hold forcible possession of it by means of an army estimated at 300,000 men, and are practically exercising over it all the power and authority of government. They claim to have separated from the United States, to have founded a government of their own