Benj. F. Butler to Hpgrs. DEPARTMENT NORTHEASTERN VIRGINIA, June 13, 1861

Fort Monroe, Va., June 13, 1861.

Col. J. B. MAGRUDER, Commanding the Forces at Yorktown, &e.:

Sir: Your favor of June 12, by Captain Davies, with a flag of truce, was this morning received.*

I desire, first, to thank you for the courtesy shown to the flag and its messengers.

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*In reference to exchange of prisoners. To appear in 2d Series.

I will accept the exchange for Private Carter. The two citizezs Whiting and Sively were taken with arms in their hands, one of which was

discharged from the house of Whiting upon the column of our troops when all resistance was useless and when his attack was simply assassination, and when no offense had been committed against him.

The house from which the shot was fired and a building which formed a part of your outposts are the only conflagrations caused by the troops

under my command, and the light of these had ceased hours before your.

men ventured out from under their earthworks and ditches to do us the

courtesy of burying our dead, for which act you have my sincere thanks.

After our troops returned from the field—hours after—a building was burned which furnished our wounded some shelter, and from which we had removed them, but was not burned by our men.

For your kind treatment of any wounded you may have, please to accept my assurances of deep obligations, and with the certainty that at any and every opportunity such courtesy and kindness will be reciprocated.

I am sorry that an officer so distinguished in the service of the United States as yourself could for a moment suppose that the wanton destruetion of private property could in any way be authorized or tolerated by the Federal Government and its officers, many of whom are your late associates. Even now, whiley our letteris being answered, and this is on its way to you, a most ignominious and severe punishment, in the presence of all the troops near this post, is being inflicted upon men who have enlisted in the service of the United States—not soldiers—for plundering private property, which could not, by the strictest construction, be considered contraband of war or means of feeding or aiding the enemy. That which has been brought within my lines, or in any way has come into the hands of my troops and been discovered, with the strictest examination, has been taken account of, collected together, to be given up to those peaceable citizens who have come forward to make claim for it. A board of survey has been organized and has already reported indemnity for the property of peaceable citizens necessarily destroyed. In order to convince you that no wrong has been done to private property by any one in authority in the service of the United States, I do myself the honor to inclose a copy of general orders from this department,* which will sufficiently explain itself, and the most active measures have been taken to rigidly enforce it, and to punish violations thereof. That there have been too many sporadic acts of wrong to private property committed by bad men under my command I admit and most sincerely regret and believe they will in the future be substantially prevented, and re mean they shall be repaired in favor of all loyal citizens, so far as lies in my power.

You have done me the honor to inform me that the vedette Carter is not a prisoner taken in battle. That is quite true. He was asleep on his post, and informs me that his three companions left in such haste that they neglected to wake him up, and, they being mounted and my men on foot, the race was a difficult one. ‘If it is not the intention of your authorities to treat the citizens of Virginia, taken in actual conflict with the United States, as soldiers, in what light shall they be considered? Please inform me in what light you regard them. If not soldiers, must they not be assassins ?

A sergeant of Captain Davies’ command will be charged to meet your sergeant at 4 o’clock at the village of Hampton, for the purpose of the exchange of Private Carter.

CORRESPONDENCE. ETC.—UNION. 683.

I need not call your attention to the fact that there will be unauthorized acts of violence committed by those who are not sufficiently under the restraint of their commanding officers. My men complain that the ambulance having the wounded was fired into by your cavalry, and I’am informed that if you have any prisoners they were taken while engaged in the pious duty to their wounded comrades, and not in battle. It has never occurred to my mind that either firing into the ambulance or capturing persons in charge of the wounded men was an act authorized, recognized, or sanctioned by any gentleman in command of the forces in Virginia. Before this unhappy strife I had not been so accustomed to regard the acts of ny late associate citizens of the United States, and I have seen nothing in the course of this contest in the acts of those in authority to lead me to a different conclusion.

I inclose a certificate by Sively and Whiting, which will show you that they, at least, had received no harm from the Federal troops.

Most respectfully,

your obedient servant,

Hpgrs. DEPARTMENT NORTHEASTERN VIRGINIA,
Arlington, June 14, 1861.
Lieut. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters of the Army:
COLONEL: I have received a letter from Maj. J. G. Barnard, Engineer,
making suggestions concerning the defenses thrown up on this side of
the Potomac. I have attended to these’so far as my resources enabled