C. H. Dwight to Respectfully forwarded, January 28, 1865

COLONEL:

I beg leave to call the attention of the major-general commanding to the inclosed list of rebel officers, prisoners of war, confined at Johnson’s Island, Ohio, whose exchange is contemplated in existing agreements between Major Szymanski and myself, but who were not forwarded for exchange with other officers lately received here from Johnson’s Island. The eight officers whose names occur first upon this list were captured at Donaldsonville, La., in June, 1863, and their exchange was agreed upon by the cartel of January 4, 1864. It is said that they are erroneously entered upon the rolls at Johnson’s Island as captured at Port Hudson, La. If so, that fact no doubt accounts for their retention. The remainder of the officers named in the list were captured at varfous times and places by the forces of Major-General Steele, commanding Department of Arkansas, prior to July 28, 1864, and are therefore embraced in Article II of the cartel of that date. It was undoubtedly the intention of the Commissary-General of Prisoners that all the officers included in this category should be sent here when most of them were sent; but those named in this list have been retained at Johnson’s Island by reason of some mistake in their description upon the rolls or some misunderstanding of their cases. I have to ask that this list be forwarded to the Commissary-General of Prisoners, with the request that the officers named in it may be forwarded to us for exchange, as contemplated in the agreements above referred to.

very respectfully, your obedient servant,