We have taken two prisoners in civilian's dress, Harris and –––,
on the field, who came over from Washington in quest of the remains of Col.
Cameron, brother of the Yankee Secretary of War. They claim a release on the
ground that they are non-combatants, but admit they were sent to the field by
the Yankee Secretary. Mr. Benjamin came to the department last night with a message
for Secretary Walker, on the subject. The Secretary being absent, he left it
with me to deliver. It was that the prisoners were not to be liberated without
the concurrence of the President. There was no danger of Secretary Walker
releasing them; for I had heard him say the authorities might have obtained the
remains, if they had sent a flag of truce. Disdaining to condescend thus far
toward a recognition of us as belligerents, they abandoned their dead and
wounded; and he, Walker, would see the prisoners, thus surreptitiously sent on
the field, in a very hot place before he would sign an order for their release.
I was gratified to see Mr. Benjamin so zealous in the matter.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 68
