a pass to the Jail where the Hostages are confined, the first
time that any of us have had permission to enter.

Colonel Lee and Major Revere were delighted to see me but my heart sank
within me when I saw the hole that they were in. No prison in New
England is so miserable and uncomfortable. I believe that no seven
imprisoned men in the North are so illy cared for as these.

_Richmond, January 19, 1862_

Letter to Gen. J. H. Winder: "General:--The undersigned Commissioned
officers of the United States Army respectfully ask your attention to
the following proposition:

"Learning that there are at Fortress Monroe and at Norfolk officers of
the Confederate States Army including Col. Pegram and other field
officers part of whom are placed upon their parole and all seeking an
exchange--We propose that they be exchanged rank for rank with Col. Lee
and other officers now confined in Henrico County Jail and that we be
permitted to take their places to be held as hostages for the men
confined in New York. Our reasons for this application are the ill
health of the officers referred to, arising from the unwholesome place
in which they are confined. The fact that they have since their
confinement been treated more rigorously than the Privateers in New
York (in proof of which we refer you to the Hon. M. Faulkner of the
Confederacy), contrary as we believe to your own expressed intentions,
and because our own rank is sufficiently above that of the Privateers
to make the accomplishment of your object equally safe and more humane.
We ask your consideration of the fact that had you not held field
officers as prisoners of war we should have in all probability occupied
their places and that you would have considered the safety of the
privateers sufficiently guaranteed. Also if the officers lost their
characters as prisoners of war, when they were forced to assume that of
Hostages, should they not receive equal treatment with their
substitutes, and is rank a matter of moment? On the other hand if they
are still to be considered as Prisoners of War ought they not to be
treated as such, and do you not gain as much as ourselves in exchanging
them for officers of equal rank?

"Very respectfully your Obedient Servants,

"CHARLES L. PEIRSON, Adjutant 20th Mass. Regt. for Col. Lee
GEORGE B. PERRY, Lieut. 20th Mass. Regt. for Major Revere.
W. E. MERRILL, United States Engineers for Col. Cogswell.
J. E. GREEN, Lieut. 15th Mass. Regt. for