HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT
OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, May 21,
1862.
Brigadier-General PHELPS,
Commanding Camp Parapet:
GENERAL: Your provost-marshal did not report to me. He is
supposed to have come down to New Orleans, as I found on my table a list of 17
negroes, unsigned, uncertified to, and unknown. While I was attending to other
duties the person who brought it went away, so that when I sent for him he
could not be found.
I attribute this to his ignorance of duty; you must teach
him better. Send him down with a true list, certified by you, of every person,
white or black, remaining, being permitted to remain harbored or in any way
within your pickets, not enlisted men or officers of the United States, with a
tabular statement of names, when and by whom employed or unemployed, as the
case may be, so that the list may give me every person who may be within your
lines.
This is necessary for public service, and needs to be
carefully attended to. I desire it by to-morrow's boat. I have sent you the
Time and Tide instead of the Diana, which I need for other service.
I have the honor to remain,
your obedient servant,
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General,
Commanding.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
15 (Serial No. 21), p. 443
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