SPECIAL ORDERS,} No. WAR DEPARTMENT, Adjutant General's Office, [Extract.] 29. Under the provisions of General Orders No. 79, May 1, 1865, from this Office, the services of the following named officers being no longer needed, they are hereby honorably mustered out of the service of the United States. They will receive no final payments until they shall have satisfied the Pay Department that they are not indebted to the United States. Lt. Col. JAMES M. SANDERSON, Major, Additional Aid-deCamp and Captain, Commissary of Subsistence, U. S. Volun .teers. By order of the Secretary of War, (Official) Ass't Adj. Gen❜l. A.A. G. AN EPISODE. During the last session of the so-called Confederate Congress, a committee of that body made a report, in answer to the charge of cruelty to prisoners, of which the following is an extract THE FEDERAL COL. SANDERSON'S TESTIMONY. "In connection with this point, your committee refer to the testimony of a Federal officer, Col. JAS. M. SANDERSON, whose letter is annexed to the deposition of Maj. Turner. He testifies to the full delivery of the clothing and supplies from the North, and to the humanity and kindness of the Confederate officers, specially mentioning Lt. Bossieux, commanding the Belle Isle. His letter was addressed to the President of the United States Sanitary Commission, and was beyond doubt received by him, having been forwarded by the regular flag of truce. Yet the scrupulous and honest gentlemen composing that Commission have not found it convenient for their purposes to insert this letter in their publication. Had they been really searching for the truth, this letter would have aided them in finding it." * Also the subjoined :- * * "And this is confirmed by the Federal Colonel SANDERSON, who states that the average number of deaths per month, on Belle Isle, was from "two to five-more frequently the lesser number." The sick were promptly removed from the Island to the hospitals in the city." From the introduction as published in the New-York Tribune, from which the above are taken, I learn that the accompanying documents, including Maj. Turner's deposition and my letter, were destroyed by fire. As the deductions drawn from that letter are false and calculated to injure me in the estimation of my friends, I deem it my duty to place the missing document on record for the purpose of showing the bad faith of the committee in question, and to enable those sufficiently interested, to deduce from my own words precisely what I did say. In order to obtain a proper understanding of the reasons. which impelled me to write the letter aforesaid, I would simply state, that whilst a prisoner I was unfortunate enough to lose my wife-my companion in life for twenty-five years, whose last expiring moments were embittered by the thoughts of my suffering, as seen through the darkly colored recitals. of returning prisoners. Sorrowing for this unnecessary grief, I accidentally became possessed of certain information, which I thought it my duty to convey at once to some one through whom it might be spread broadcast throughout the North, and happily relieve the mental woes of thousands similarly situated. I was also desirous of correcting what I conceived was an accidental error, obtaining great currency at home, in regard to the disposition of the clothing and supplies sent us by the Government and the various charitable societies, which was causing much ill-feeling and some inconvenience, as the Confederate authorities refused to issue even our private boxes until it was corrected. Having, as I supposed, a sufficiently intimate acquaintance with the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, the eminent divine and popular President of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, I selected him as the most fitting person to whom such a communication should be addressed; arguing that, as a minister of the Gospel, and an official disseminator of the truth, he would gladly avail himself of the opportunity to pour oil on the troubled waters and correct a needless error; but, for reasons of sufficient validity in his judgment, he declined to publish the document leaving for our enemies to do so, with their own deductions for his refusal. Luckily, among the very few articles brought with me from my prison-house were the notes from which the letter in question was compiled; and, although I am unable to give a copy verbatim, literatim, et punctuatim, the following is sufficiently near it to answer all necessary purposes :- "Rev. W. H. BELLOWS, Pres. U. S. Sanitary Comm'n, "Dear Sir: You will doubtless be somewhat surprised on: learning that I have resumed my connection with the Sanitary Commission in this unexpected locality, and hold my appointment from the Confederate authorities-who, for the purpose of ensuring and systematizing the delivery of clothing, subsistence, and hospital stores, so bountifully furnished by the U. S. Government, The Christain Aid Society of Philadelphia, The Baltimore American Relief Fund, and your own most munificent and praiseworthy association, have selected five Federal officers, (myself being of the number,) to whom is assigned the pleasing duty; and, since the tenth of November,. a majority of them have been continuously engaged in its performance. "On Belle Island, the principal depot of the Federal prisoners, over six thousand (6,000) men have been inspected and furnished with articles of clothing-a large number receiving as many as six different garments each. In the city prisons and hospitals about four thousand (4,000) more have been similarly appareled, and twenty-eight hundred (2,800) outfits forwarded to Danville to meet the necessities of those confined there. The clothing distributed above, was mainly furnished by the Government and your Commission; and com-prised shoes, socks, drawers, pants, coats, shirts, great coats, or blankets and caps. The subsistence received from our Government was not confided to our charge, nor have we any direct control of the hospital stores from the different charitable societies; although we have ample opportunities of seeing large quantities distributed at the various hospitals. A strict account, however,. as we are informed, is being kept by the officials in charge for the purpose of showing its disposition. "On Sunday last, a portion of the Board visited the hospitals for the purpose of obtaining personal knowledge of their con-dition and requirements, and decide how much of the very liberal donation (two thousand dollars U. S. currency) placed at our disposal by Brig.-Gen. James S. Wadsworth, should be invested for the sick and wounded. Whilst engaged in this scrutiny I had an opportunity of inspecting the books kept at the principal hospital (in which are included the statistics of all the others, known as prison hospitals,) and made the following memoranda, which I send you for the purpose of correcting the exaggerations so prevalent at this moment through |