Historic Fort Norfolk Logo

Edwin M. Stanton letter February 10, 1864

War Department, Washington, February 10, 1864.
Maj. Gen. B. F. Butler, Fort Monroe, Va.:
I do not think it expedient to send a flag-of-truce boat with women and children, nor to give advertisement in Baltimore, Washington, and elsewhere, at present, as you propose to do. If there be any residents of Norfolk whom you want to send away for cause you are authorized to do so, but not to put other persons across the lines. Your proposed declaration of the exchange is, in the opinion of this Department, irregular, and ought not to be made, because it would be seized upon as a justification of the irregular and improper course pursued by the rebels; and besides, from its indefiniteness, would not afford protection to our own troops, and would lead to serious embarrassment in the final arrangement of exchanges, if one can be made. The reasons for this opinion are more particularly set forth in the reply furnished to you by Major- General Hitchcock upon this subject. I think that upon consideration of that report you will yourself be satisfied that the proposed declaration of exchange is premature, and would afford serious advantages to the rebels in the present controversy.
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

Fort Norfolk Documents

Before 1794, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865

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