Letter of Blair Hoge to D. H. Maury
Author: United States. War Dept.
Title: The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (1880 - 1901)
Other Title: Official records of the Union and Confederate armies
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Place of Publication: Washington
Location: Series 4, Volume 3, Pages 1011 - 1012
Copied from: Cornell University's MoA Multivolume Monographs, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (1880 - 1901)
Maj. Gen. D. H. MAURY,
Comdg. Dept. of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana:
GENERAL: The letter of Maj. M. O. Tracy, Thirteenth Louisiana Regiment, relating to the subject of recruiting prisoners of war, has been forwarded to this Department with your indorsement asking instructions in such cases.
The Secretary of War directs me to say that the Department considers it desirable in general that prisoners of war, if received as recruits, should not be placed in new organizations nor collected in large numbers in those now existing, but should be distributed as much as possible among companies, regiments, and brigades of undoubted fidelity.
In one case in which a new battalion was formed from such material a conspiracy was discovered; and although it was promptly crushed, yet it was found expedient to disband the battalion.
Nevertheless, the experiment is now in course of trial by other officers, who believe that by recruiting chiefly among Catholic Irish and other foreigners and obtaining the influence of the Catholic priesthood they may secure faithful soldiers.
As to the material to be received as recruits, it is recommended that Catholic Irish be preferred, and next to them other foreigners.
Men born in the United States should not be received unless known to have sincere and positive predilections for the South. Natives of the Southern States may be received more freely.
After giving these general instructions the Honorable Secretary sums up his views in the following words:
That if separate organizations be ventured at all, they be only small battalions; that in recruiting largely for a brigade or any much reduced organization, every possible precaution should be taken in selection, and that some previous trial of these men should be made where they would be surrounded by our men before they are fully relied on in positions of trust and importance.
Very respectfully, general, your obedient servant,
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