John Pope to Henry W. Halleck, September 1, 1864

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, Chief of Staff of the Army, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: I have the honor to request instructions as to the disposition of Sioux prisoners held in confinement at Davenport, lowa, in accordance with sentences of military commissions held in 1862. The terms of confinement of some of these prisoners are beginning to expire, and already one or two of them have been ordered to be discharged from custody by the Commissary-General of Prisoners. It is not practicable nor humane to release a wild Indian from custody far from his home and tribe and turn him loose in the streets of Davenport without means of subsistence or any power to return to his people. Aside from the inhumanity of such a proceeding, the people and civil authorities of Iowa very naturally object to being encumbered with released paupers of this description. Some disposition of these released Indians should be ordered, but as I have no authority to send them anywhere, nor to provide for their wants when released, I don’t know how toact. Ihave called the attention of the superintendent of Indian affairs in this region to these cases, but although he says he will attend to it he has not done so. By sending these released Sioux back to their own country and there releasing them we should only be re-enforcing the bands of hostile Indians now in arms against the United States. Some system of disposing of these Indians should be adopted, and I have the honor, therefore, to ask instructions on the subject. I am, general,

respectfully, your obedient servant,