Thursday, May 29, 2014

Major-General Richard Taylor to Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, June 27, 1863


HDQRS. DIST. OF W. LA., Alexandria, June 27, 1863.

Maj. Gen. U.S. GRANT, Comdg. United States Forces near Vicksburg:

GENERAL: Your communication of the 22d instant, attributing to the troops of my command, upon evidence furnished you by a white man, certain acts disgraceful alike to humanity and to the reputation of soldiers, has just reached me. In reply, I beg to say that I remained at Richmond and in its vicinity for several days after the skirmish to which you allude, and had any officer or negro been hung the fact must have come to my knowledge, and the act would most assuredly have met with the punishment it deserved. The hanging of a white sergeant by Colonel [I. F.] Harrison's cavalry is, I am satisfied, likewise a fabrication. I shall, however, cause this matter to be thoroughly investigated, and should 1 discover evidence of such acts having been perpetrated the parties shall meet with summary punishment. My orders at all times have been to treat all prisoners with every consideration.

As regards negroes captured in arms, the officers of the Confederate States Army are required by an order emanating from the General Government, to turn all such to the civil authorities, to be dealt over with according to the laws of the State wherein they were captured.

I remain, your obedient servant,
 R. TAYLOR.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 443-4

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