for a general exchange of all prisoners taken and held or paroled by the respective armies.

He is authorized to conclude any arrangement which provides for the exchange of prisoners upon terms of perfect equality.

R. E. LEE,

General.

HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, FIRST CORPS,
Dill's Farm, July 15, 1862.

Honorable G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War, Richmond.

SIR: I have just heard from my family that my brother-in-law, Captain George D. Walker of Wilmington, N. C. is kept in irons by the enemy at Fort Columbus, N. Y. Captain Walker, who very early engaged actively in bringing arms to the country, had made several very successful trips from England, when at last he was taken in command of the Theodora with a cargo of 7,000 arms and 200 tons powder just off Cape Fear by the blockading squadron. The Theodora was the steamer formerly the Gordon and selected to take our commissioners to Havana. That this brave sailor should be held in irons is a monstrous outrage. Will you please to cause the proper inquiries to be made, and if the fact is so by retaliation bring about an amelioration of his condition. I shall be glad if his name can be put upon the roster for exchange. His services to the Confederacy have been great.

Very respectfully,

W. H. C. WHITING,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

[Indorsement.]

Inform Mr. Whiting that inquiry will be made concerning him. Send a copy of the letter to General Lee and ask him to make inquiries about Captain Walker.

G. W. RANDOLPH.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, July 15, 1862.

Honorable G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War.

SIR: About a month ago while in Richmond I had the honor to send a letter to your address, but as I have some reason to believe that it failed to reach its destination I now deem it my duty ask your attention to a brief statement of the circumstances that have led to my detention as a prisoner of the Confederate Government for nearly a year.

Before and after the last Presidential election I as a citizen of New York opposed the measures of the Black Republicans knowing they would lead to a rupture of the Union. After the fall of Sumter, when the frenzy of madness had fired the hearts of the Black Republicans and terror had paralyzed the efforts of the Democracy, I conceived it to be the duty of all true Americans to prevent an invasion of the South. After the invasion of Virginia, believing that the South was right and knowing that her people would fight, I thought it to be my duty to aid her as the readiest way to terminate a war that unless speedily checked must lead to desolation. This stand I took publicly in New York.