GENERAL ORDERS,.
HDQRS, DEPT. OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, Numbers 71.
June 22, 1862.

* * *

III. By arrangement with the enemy medical officers of either side will be regarded as non-combatants and free from capture when engaged in attending the sick or wounded.

* * *

By command of General Lee:

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS, Chaffin's Farm, June 22, 1862.

Honorable GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War:

SIR: I beg leave, at the risk of seeming importunate, to press upon your consideration a class of cases for special exchange, to wit, the officers and men, and officers, if not men, of the war companies on parole. the late General Orders, Numbers 44, that twelve-months' companies at the expiration of their terms will be dropped and the commissions of these officers expire, leaves the war officers in a position of comparative hardship. they cannot serve the States and cannot look out for themselves in private occupation. Of this class are Captain Wallace, of the Fifty-ninth, and Lieutenant Carter, of the Forty-sixth Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and others. Captain Wallace will present you this and thinks if exchanged he can raise his company to 125. Lieutenant Carter's company, the Richmond Blues, paroled and in the field, now exceeds 100. I hope you will pardon my anxiety to get back my tried and seasoned men.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY A. WISE,

Brigadier-General.

LYNCHBURG, VA., June 23, 1862.

Honorable GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of war.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith an extract* from the Hannibal (Mo.) Herald of the 10th instant, in which it will be perceived that Colonel John L. Owen, of the Second Division, Missouri State Guard, who was an officer duly commissioned in accordance with the laws of the State of Missouri, and recently under my command, was recently captured near his late residence by the enemy, and although he demanded to be treated as a prisoner of war, according to the rules of civilized warfare, it was unhesitatingly refused him, and he was summarily executed without the form or pretense of trial.

I have therefore to invite your attention to this subject again. the Confederate States now have as prisoners of war several colonels and officers of lower grade from the State of Missouri. These prisoners are treated with every leniency and consideration, whilst officers of like grade captured by the enemy, who have large families, estates and influence at home, such as Colonel Owen, are inhumanly murdered. Cannot some retaliatory measures be instituted which will afford some equality, if not protection, to the loyal men of Missouri?

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

*See p. 134.

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