Miscellaneous Confederate reports and correspondence Raid on Confederate line of communications between Chattanooga, Tenn., and Marietta, Ga.

APRIL 7-12, 1862.— Raid on Confederate line of communications between Chattanooga, Tenn., and Marietta, Ga.
No. 3. -- Miscellaneous Confederate reports and correspondence.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith the petition of W. W. Brown and others, soldiers of the Twenty-first and Second Ohio Regiments, U.S. Army, and to request instructions in the matter.

I recommend that they be respited until further orders, and detained as hostages for our own people in the hands of the enemy.

Inquire whether there is anything to justify a discrimination between these and others who were executed for the same offense.

Write to Maj. G. W. Lee, provost-marshal at Atlanta, and inquire why 14 of the engine-thieves were respited, while the others were executed, and whether there is anything distinguishing their case.

Petition from the survivors of Andrews' party, who took the engine on the Georgia State Railroad in April last, to Major-General Bragg, commanding Department No. 2.

RESPECTED SIR: We are United States soldiers, regularly detailed from our command to obey the orders of Andrews. He was a stranger to us and we ignorant of his design, but of course we obeyed our officers. You are no doubt familiar with all we did or can find it recorded in the trial of our comrades. Since then Andrews himself and 7 of us have been executed, and 14 survive. Is this not enough for vengeance and for a warning to others? Would mercy in our case be misplaced? We have already been closely confined for more than four months. Will you not, sir, display a noble generosity, by putting us on the same footing as prisoners of war, and permitting us to be exchanged, and thus show that in this terrible war the South still feels the claim of mercy and humanity.

If you will be so good as to grant us this request we will ever be grateful to you.

W. W. BROWN,
WM. KNIGHT,
ELIHU MASON,
JNO. R. PORTER,
WM. BENSINGER,
ROBT. BUFFUM,
MARK WOOD,
ALFRED WILSON,

WM. H. REDDICK,
JNO WILLAM,
D. A. DORSEY,
M. J. HAWKINS,
JACOB PARROTT,

SIR: Your communication 11th instant is duly to hand. In reply I have respectfully to say that the arrest, incarceration, trial, and execution of the prisoners you refer to occurred before I took charge of this post by your order. I found a number of prisoners on my arrival, and among them the men named in the petition transmitted. Inclosed I send all the papers handed over to me by my predecessor.

Since the reception of your letter I have endeavored to find Captain Foreacre, and ascertain something more, explaining what I was not conversant with in the transaction, but as his business takes him away from the city, I have not as yet had an interview with him. I will still seek occasion to find him, and give you all the information derived from him.

You will please find inclosed the names of the engine-stealers and bridgeburners who are now confined in the jail of this city. It is entirely out of my power to answer you as to "why 14 of the engine-thieves were respited while the others were executed, and whether or not there is anything to justify a discrimination in their favor," as I am not informed in relation to the court-martial that tried the men.

Extract from list of prisoners sent to Atlanta, Ga., June 13,1862, from Knoxville, Tenn., by command of Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith.

No.	Name.	Residence.	Charges.
1	Wilson W. Brown.	Ohio	Engine-stealing; spy.
2	Martin Ross(*).	do	Do.
3	W. H. Campbell(*).	do	Do.
4	John Scott(*).	do	Do.
5	Perry G. Shadrick(*).	do	Do.
6	G. D. Wilson(*).	do	Do.
7	Samuel Slavens(*).	do	Do.
8	S. Robinson(*).	do	Do.
9	Elihu Mason	do	Do.
10	William Knight	do	Do.
11	Robert Buffum	do	Do.
12	William Pittenger.	do	Do.
13	Capt. David Fry	Greene County, Tennessee	Bridge-burning and recruiting for Federal Army.
14	G. W. Barlow	Washington County, Tenneesee	Obstructing railroad track.

I. At a general court-martial, held at Knoxville, by virtue of General Orders, Nos. 21 and 34 (department headquarters, April 15, and May 10, 1862), whereof Lieut. Col. J. B. Bibb, of the Twenty-third Regiment Alabama Volunteers, was president, was tried :(*)

William Campbell, private, Company K, Second Ohio Regiment, on the following charge and specifications, to wit:

CHARGE: Violation of section 2 of the one hundred and first article of the Rules and Articles of War.

Specification 1.— In this, that the said William Campbell, private Company K, Second Ohio Regiment, not owing allegiance to the Confederate States of America, and being in the service and Army of the United States, then and now at war with the Confederate States of America, did, on or about the 7th day of April, 1862, leave the Army of the United States, then lying near Shelbyville, Tenn., and with company of about 20 other soldiers of the U.S. Army, all dressed in citizens' clothes, repair to Chattanooga, Tenn., entering covertly within the lines of the Confederate forces at that post, and (lid thus, on or about the 11th day of April, 1862, lurk as a spy in and about the encampments of said forces, representing himself as a citizen of Kentucky going to join the Southern army.

Specification 2.— And the said William Campbell, private Company K, Second Ohio Regiment, U.S. Army, thus dressed in citizens' clothes, and representing himself as a citizen of Kentucky going to join the Southern Army, and did proceed by railroad to Marietta, Ga., thus covertly pass through the lines of the Confederate forces stationed at Chattanooga, Dalton, and Camp McDonald, and did thus, on or about the 11th day of April, 1862, lurk as a spy in and about the said encampments of the Confederate forces at the places stated aforesaid.

To which charge and specifications the prisoner plead, "Not guilty." The court, after mature deliberation, find the accused as follows: Of the first specification of the charge, "guilty." Of the second specification of the charge, "guilty." And "guilty" of the charge.

And the court do therefore sentence the accused, the said William Campbell, private Company K, Second Ohio Regiment (two-thirds of the members concurring therein), as soon as this order shall be made public, "to be hung by the neck until he is dead."

The proceedings in the foregoing case of William Campbell, private Company K, Second Ohio Regiment, are approved. The sentence of the court will be carried into effect between the 15th and 22d days of June instant, at such time and place as may be designated by the commanding officer at Atlanta, Ga., who is charged with the arrangements for the proper execution thereof.

DEAR SIR: Your letter of September 11, 1862, to Major Lee, provost-marshal, has been shown me by him, and, as far as I am acquainted with the matter, General Smith only sent from Knoxville instructions and orders to have 7 of them hung, which was promptly attended to by myself; the remaining 14 were reported to this office only for safekeeping, some having been tried, but not sentenced, and others not tried. The only office which can properly answer your inquiry is that of Maj. Gen. E. K. Smith.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose the report of prisoners now confined at this post, as requested in your communication of 15th instant. I take leave respectfully to remark that when I took charge of this post I found the bridge-burners and engine-thieves confined here in the jail of the county, under a contract made by General E. K. Smith. My force being limited, I could not put a very large guard at the jail building, but immediately placed a much stronger force than had usually been stationed there; notwithstanding, they were enabled, as I have every reason to believe, from outside influences, which I was unable to counteract with the force then at [my] control, to make their escape.

I found out afterwards that the jailer, contrary to my oft-repeated orders, went, alone and unarmed, into the room in which they were confined, and being immediately overpowered, 13 of them succeeded in making their escape. Three of these were, after their escape, killed by my guard, and one or two wounded. One of them was afterwards recovered and reconfined. I immediately made arrangements to have them all removed to suitable barracks and a much superior building as regards strength, and in a more central part of the city, where I now have them all properly and strongly guarded.

There is no blame attaching to the guard. The escape was owing in part to the fact that the jailer, as I remarked above, went in improperly, and I think in part to the fact that they had sympathizers outside. I made long and diligent search for these prisoners, but from the unusual facilities afforded and the great number of sympathizers I was unable to recapture them all. There were no papers turned over to me by my predecessors, with the exception of the proceedings of a general court-martial which sat in Chattanooga, which papers were all forwarded to the Secretary of War by his own orders, said papers referring to those who were executed.

P. S.— I will simply add that the facts above stated were duly reported through Major-General Jones to the War Department.

The war of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Series 1 - Volume 10 (Part I), 1884, U.S. Government Printing Office