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Benj. F. Butler letter January 12, 1864

Hdqrs. Dept. op Virginia and North Carolina, Fort Monroe, Va.,
January 12, 1864.
Hon. Robert Ould,
Commissioner of Exchange, Richmond, Va. :
Sir: Inclosed please find receipt roll and certificate of thirteen men claiming to be master, master's mate, and seamen in the C. S. Navy, captured at Accomac, Va., who were said to be in irons at Fort McHenry, and because of whose confinement certain officers and sailors of the U. S. Navy, in the hands of your authorities, were put in irons in retaliation.
It will be seen in the certificate that they have been received by me at Fort Norfolk, and are therein treated as prisoners of war, and are not in irons. One of the men, captured at the same time, made his escape from Fort McHenry.
I need not call your attention to the necessity of striking off the irons from those men whom you hold thus in retaliation.
Please advise me that it is so done that I may inform the friends of the prisoners.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General Commanding and Commissioner for Exchange.

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Source of Information

55th Congress 3d Session House of Representatives Document No. 312
The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.
Published under the direction of the Hon. Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War,
By Brig. Gen. Fred C. Ainsworth, Chief of the record and pension office, war department, and Mr. Joseph W. Kirkley.
Series II – Volume VI.
Washington: Government printing office.
1899