WAR ASA BIGGS, Williamston, N. C.

SIR: I am directed by the Secretary of War to say in reply to your letter of the 15th instant that the Government has in vain exhausted all means compatible with its self-respect to effect an exchange of prisoners. He sincerely regrets that such is the fact and fully appreciates the feelings of a father which prompted the appeal in behalf of your son.

Respectfully,

A. T. BLEDSOE,

Chief of Bureau of War.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, September 24, 1861.

Captain S. C. FAULKNER,

Military Storekeeper, Little Rock, Ark.

SIR: I am directed by the Secretary of War to say, in reply to your letter of the 12th instant, that instructions have already been sent you by the Ordnance Bureau to take charge of the arsenal and $10,000 to pay for necessary labor. As to the prisoners can you not procure a comfortable room in the county jail or some other place in which to confine them?

Respectfully,

A. T. BLEDSOE,

Chief of Bureau of War.

RICHMOND, September 24, 1861.

General J. G. MARTIN,

Adjutant-General North Carolina Troops, Raleigh.

SIR: I answer to your inquiry of the 19th instant you are respectfully informed that the Government has as yet made no provision for clothing to prisoners of war or for money allowance to them. Your letter has been submitted to the Secretary of War.

Very respectfully, &c.,

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL HOSPITAL, Charlottesville, September 30, 1861.

At the request of Colonel A. M. Wood, of the Fourteenth Regiment of New York State Militia, who was severely wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Manassas, I certify that his wound was of such a character that though it is now healed it will yet unfit him for active service as a soldier for many months, a minnie ball having passed through the pelvis in close proximity to the rectum and bladder. It is doubtful whether he will be able to mount a horse for a year or longer.

J. L. CABELL,

Surgeon, Provisional Army, C. S.

RICHMOND, VA., October 2, 1861.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN, [Acting] Secretary of War.

SIR: Stretched on a bed of pain I have neglected to report my escape and return. Having with Colonel R. Thomas Zarvona* captured

---------------

*See Vol. II, this Series, p. 379 et seq. for case of Zarvona.

---------------