HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, 
 Louisville, Ky., January 26, 1865. 
 Major General JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE: 
 SIR: Your communication of the 12th instant, addressed to the commanding officer U. S. forces,
 Knoxville, Tenn., has been referred to these headquarters. In this communication you state that
 during the recent raid under Major - General Stoneman a number of officers and men were
 captured and paroled to report at Knoxville at a future day and that they were recaptured by the
 occupation of the Confederate forces, and were released from the operation of the parole given.
 If any men "not officers of the Confederate Army were paroled to report at Knoxville they were
 paroled contrary to my orders." Applications were made to permit hospital stewards and other
 men not commissioned officers to go to Knoxville on parole, but in all cases the applications
 were refused. The officers were captured with others ass Bristol, principally. 
By their own request they were permitted to go by a prescribed route to Knoxville, East Tenn., on
 parole. It was a privilege granted them in order that they might be enable to procure some means
 of transportation for themselves and baggage, they having no horses, instead of being compelled
 to go at once and on foot with the other prisoners, who were sent to Knoxville under a strong
 guard. 
 The time allowed them to reach Knoxville was limited, unless they were physically unable to
 report at its expiration, in which case they were to report as soon as they were able so to do; they
 were al told explicitly by myself that they were not paroled as a matter of expediency, inasmuch
 as several hundred prisoners would be sent under guard the next morning to Knoxville (which
 was done), and they could all be sent together, but that it was to be understood that this was
 done by their own request and as a special favor to them, for which they expressed themselves as
 under many obligation. The officers you named, in violation of their word of honor, which in the
 language of the written instrument, signed by each in duplicate, was given "without any evasion
 or mental reservation whatsoever," remained at Bristol until long after the time had expired in
 which they were allowed to report at Knoxville, and it cannot be admitted that they were "
 recapture" or that they can claim exemption from the responsibilities attached to a violation of
 the word of honor of an officers and a gentleman. 
 If they are justified by their Government in the course they have thought fit to pursue, it will
 serve hereafter as a warning to myself and others who may be inclined to show favors to
 Confederate officers prisoners of war. 
 I am very glad to learn that Medical Director Ramsey and other surgeons captured at Bristol will
 be sent through by flag, and that we are to get Surgeon Carrick and other surgeons. You will find
 by reference to the agreement made between Brigadier - General Vaughn and the representative
 of the U. S. authorities "that there were some conditions attached to that agreement exempting
 citizens from arrest which must be complied with, amongst which are these, that the citizen must
 belong to Tennessee, must be at his own home, and must not be engaged in any occupation in
 violation of law and military regulations, or be in the employ of either Government." 
 Mr. Sperry, the only person you name as having been arrested, and now held contrary to this
 agreement, and whose release is requested is a citizen of Knoxville and not of Bristol; he was not
 at his own home and was engaged in publishing a Knoxville paper at the time of his arrest, and
 if not in the employ of the Confederate Government, was doing all in his power against the
 United States Government through the medium of his press, violation of both law and military
  regulations; he is now in the hands of the civil authorities and not subject to military control. 

 In this connection permit me to inform you that since the agreement you speak of was entered
 into, twenty-one persons, citizens of Monroe County, Tenn., have been arrested by the
 Confederate authorities, so I am informed by the U. S. provost - marshal -general of East
 Tennessee, and also that orders were given by me last month directing that all citizens of
 Tennessee who came within the terms of the agreement alluded to, and all citizens of Virginia not
 in the employ of the Confederate Government, should be released and sent to their homes and I
 am informed that my instructions have been complied with. 
 
 I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 GEORGE STONEMAN, 
 Major - General