that these violations of courtesy were without your knowledge or approval. I cordially reciprocate your views in making known your intention to conform in this as in all other things to the laws and usages of war. It shall be my aim strictly to conform to such a line of policy, and should any deviations inadvertently occur the errors shall be promptly corrected when brought to my attention.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BRAXTON BRAGG,

General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE,
Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 1, 1862.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Nashville, Tenn.

GENERAL: Inclosed I send you a communication for Major-General Wright in reply to one from him received under cover from Major-General McCook.

Hereafter I must insist that all communication from your lines intended for me shall come from the commander of the forces and not as in this instance from a subordinate officer.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

BRAXTON BRAGG,

General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE,
Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 1, 1862.

Major General H. G. WRIGHT.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 23rd ultimo* proposing an exchange of a citizen of Kentucky, now a prisoner in your hands, for another represented to be held by our forces as a hostage. As the party is not within my control and I am without any information as to the circumstances or cause of his arrest the matter will be referred to my Government.

I cannot refrain in this connection from calling your attention to the action of your Government in its treatment of citizens of Kentucky and other States who are simply suspected or who express sympathy with the Confederate cause. Numbers of individuals, non-combatants, are daily arrested and sent to Ohio prisons for acts which the Confederate forces commit and for which they alone should be held responsible. Though strongly urged when in Kentucky to retaliate upon Union men by similar treatment in order to procure the release of the true and loyal Kentuckians in Federal prisons I resolutely declined to recognize or countenance such a principle as that practiced by your authorities. If any arrests were made they were unauthorized, and the isolated instances in which they occurred were but exceptions to a positive rule to the contrary. The Confederate authorities, military and civil, have uniformly observed the principle of the exemption of non-combatants from molestation for the acts of the organized forces of the United States. It would be a gratifying feature in a war full enough of horrors without such unnecessary adjuncts if the Federal Government would observe a similar action. Instead, however, of such being now the practice private property is destroyed or confiscated and citizens are mulcted and retaliated upon even unto death. It is

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* Omitted.

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