for me the Secretary will take no notice, whereas a few words from you will start me for home. If you send me a letter to give to the Secretary making some statement in regard to my case it will be the only way in which I can get a hearing. Please state that I came voluntarily to your lines and requested permission to attend to the wounded which was granted and attended not only many of our but many of the Confederate soldiers, of some of whom I have the names. At Mr. Wertenbaker's I always dressed the wounded in the absence of the attending surgeon. Anything further which you wish to learn of me Colonel Wood will inform you. Please state that I have a family in Brooklyn, and as I am no longer in the service and do not intend to be it would be extending me a great favor to allow me to go to my family. A few words from you to the Secretary will decide my fate. Write as soon as possible.

Respectfully, yours,

J. M. HOMISTON.

COTTON PLANT, ARK., September 5, 1861.

Honorable L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.

RESPECTED SIR: I would call your attention, and through you that of President Davis, to the complaint of the people in these parts at the disparity of treatment toward prisoners on the part of the United States Government and that of the Southern Confederacy, and while we much regret the necessity of retaliation yet we see no alternative left our Government but to do so, and Lincoln and his partisans think we are afraid. We would respectfully suggest a demonstration after the following manner: That all that you have of the Lincoln party be handcuffed and sent to Fort Sumter, there to be placed upon bread and water; and further that Generals Pillow, Hardee and McCulloch be instructed to eg of all that they now or hereafter may have in their possession and then turn them loose, and that this plan be pursued until the Lincoln Government agree to exchange prisoners.

Sir, this is with every respect, and I am your friend,

TAZEWELL W. TRICE.

RICHMOND, VA., September 6, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States of America.

HONORED SIR: The undersigned, a surgeon in the Fourteenth New York State Militia, who voluntarily surrendered himself at Manassas rather than abandon his wounded colonel, begs leave to make a statement of facts and then request permission to return to his family. He respectfully but earnestly calls your attention to the following points:

He did not volunteer in this war as his commission now in his possession will demonstrate, but being surgeon to a militia regiment at the time of its occurrence he was ordered out and was consequently forced to take the field. After the battle of Manassas he willingly and to the extent of his capacity assisted in the treatment of a number of Confederate soldiers whose names, regiments, &c., he can readily furnish, and in proof of which fact he begs leave to refer Your Excellency to the following persons: Doctor Darby, of South Carolina, surgeon, Provisional Army, C. S. ; Doctor Taylor, assistant surgeon, Provisional