or, very respectfully your obedient servant,

S. D. STURGIS,
MAJ. W. H. MORGAN, A. A. G., _Brig.-Gen. Commanding._
Hdqrs. Dist. West Tenn., Memphis, Tenn.

"Amid these scenes we noted the arrival of 95 more men;
those who had belonged to a _raid_ sent from Memphis, Tenn.,
under command of General Sturgis, and were attacked and
badly defeated by the rebel General Forrest, at a place in
Mississippi. General Sturgis is said to have been
_intoxicated_ during the engagement, and that just as soon
as he saw things were likely to go against him, he turned
away with a portion of his cavalry, and _sought to save
himself from capture_.--'_Life and Death in Rebel
Prisons._'"

Notwithstanding the arrangements usually and speedily entered into by
two belligerent powers for the exchange of prisoners of war, it proved a
most difficult task for the Federal Government to consummate an
arrangement with the confederates, and much suffering was caused among
the prisoners in the hands of the latter while negotiations were in
progress. The agreement entered into by the commissioners, after a long
delay, did not anticipate there being any black soldiers to exchange;
nor would the confederate authorities thereafter allow the terms of the
cartel to apply to the blacks, because Jefferson Davis and the
confederate Congress regarded it as an outrage against humanity, and the
rules of civilized warfare to arm the negroes against their masters.

It was a year after the black soldiers had become a part of the Union
forces before even a _quasi_ acknowledgment of their rights as prisoners
was noted in Richmond. The grounds upon which the greatest difficulty
lingered was the refusal of the Federal government at first to accord
belligerent rights to the confederates but this difficulty was finally
overcome in July, 1862, and the exchange of prisoners proceeded with
until the confederate authorities refused to count the black soldiers
captured in the interpretation of the cartel. But the time arrived when
Grant assumed command of the armies, when it was no longer an open
question, for the confederate Congress began devising plans for arming
the slaves.

However, the inhuman treatment did not cease with "irresponsible
parties," whose conduct was doubtless approved by the rebel authorities,
Jefferson Davis having declared General Butler an outlaw