Statement.
On Sunday, the 8th instant, a number of slightly-wounded and straggling Federal soldiers, who entered the town, many of them with arms in their hands, and with the capacity and intention, we feared, of doing mischief in the way of pillage and injury to our people, who were unprotected by any military force, were arrested by order of our municipal authorities and forwarded to the nearest military post as prisoners of war, under the guard of citizens. These prisoners amounted to about sixty men, of whom but few are said to have been slightly wounded. In retaliation of this act, the provost marshal, under orders from the Secretary of War at Washington, arrested on the 20th instant some sixty of our citizens and forwarded them to Washington, to be held as hostages for said prisoners. Ten of the citizens were afterwards released in Washington, and have returned to their homes, leaving some fifty-one citizens still in confinement, who have been sent to the military prison at Fort Delaware.
In behalf of these unfortunate people, who are thus made to suffer so seriously, and for their suffering families who are thus left without their natural protectors, and many of them without their means of support, we appeal to you to take such steps as may be proper and in accordance with military regulations to return the said prisoners to the Federal authorities and thus secure the release of our citizens. Surely the matter of a few prisoners cannot be allowed to interfere with the humane and generous work of restoring to these desolated homes, and these mourning women and children, the only source of comfort which the fate of war has left them in this war-ravaged and desolated town, the presence of those loved ones who are separated from them and imprisoned at Fort Delaware. The following is a list of the citizens arrested and carried to Washington as aforesaid:
James H. Bradley, Thomas F. Knox, James McGuire, Councellor Cole, Michael Ames, John G. Hurkamp, John J. Chew, George H. Peyton, Wm. H. Thomas, John D. Elder, who were released at Washington.
F. B. Chewning, P. B. Rennolds, James B. Marye, George Aler, Charles Mander,[34] Benjamin F. Currell, John L. Knight, Wm. C. Smith, Joseph W. Sener, E. W. Stephens, Charles Cash, Charles B. Waite, Charles G. Waite, Jr., George W. Wroten,[34] Thomas Newton, Robert H. Alexander, Robert Smith, Lucien Love, George F. Sacrey, Henry M. Towles, Landon J. Huffman, Lewis Moore, John T. Evans, Walter Bradshaw, Samuel D. Curtis, Lewis Wrenn, Wm. White, John Solan, George W. Eve, James Mazeen, Abraham Cox, Wm. Brannan, James A. Turner, A. E. Samuel, Tandy Williams, Robert S. Parker, Christopher Reintz, Thomas F. Coleman, Patrick McDonnell, Charles Williams, Wm. Cox, Walter M. Mills, Thomas S. Thornton, John Joyce,[35] John Miner, Richard Hudson, Wm. B. Webb, Alexander Armstrong, Wm. Wiltshire, Gabriel Johnston, George Mullin, William Burke.
Birthplace of Hon. John Forsythe, the brilliant Georgia Statesman.
(See [page 154])
The “Sentry Box,” the home of Gen. Hugh Mercer;
now the residence of O. D. Foster, Esq.
(See [page 150])
The following citizens were arrested subsequently and are still held by the Federal authorities: Wm. Lange, Thomas Manuell, Joseph Hall, Wm. W. Jones, Wyatt Johnson.