April 16, 1864.
. . . I have been
very busy, so much so that up to this hour, 10 P. M., I have just found a
moment to write to you, and while I write Colonel Bowers is waiting for my
assistance in fixing up General Grant's old report of the battle of Belmont,
Mo., for his new record book, and I have no idea of getting to bed before one
or two A. M. You see I am never where work is not referred to me. Among the
letters I wrote to-day was an official letter to General Butler on the subject
of the exchange of prisoners. It requires a full acknowledgment of the validity
of the Vicksburg and Port Hudson paroles, and a release to us of a number of
officers and men equal to those we captured and paroled at those places, before
another one of theirs will be exchanged, and also exacts the same treatment for
colored soldiers while prisoners and the same conditions in their exchange and
release as for white soldiers. I wrote this document with great care, I assure
you, and although it is plain and clear in its meaning and seems to be written
without labor, yet I measured it with my best judgment. I expect it to end
further exchanges for the present.
I am recovering
from my recent very sick turn slowly, and hope in a few days to feel as well as
I did just preceding it. ...
SOURCE: James H.
Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 418
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