Summary:
In this June, 1861, dispatch, Fitz-John Porter, Union Assistant Adjutant for the
Department of Pennsylvania, writes from Chambersburg to Colonel Lewis Wallace
concerning regulations for taking prisoners. Porter instructs Wallace to avoid
taking prisoners when possible, since they might encumber his regiment's
movements. He asserts that a rout would be as useful to the Union cause as a
large-scale surrender.
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,
Col. LEWIS WALLACE,
Eleventh Indiana Regt.,
Cumberland, Md.:
Chambersburg, Pa.,
June 11, 1861.
SIR:
By direction of the commanding general I to-day telegraphed you in reply to your query, "What shall I do with prisoners?" Tis well not to have many prisoners. Such as you take imprison and treat kindly. Success attend your calls." Many prisoners would trammel you very much, and unless you succeed in capturing prominent or very troublesome opponents, the commanding general thinks a rout would be as effective as taking prisoners, by spreading demoralization in their ranks. It is desirable to save life, secure property, and disarm our opponents. Since the receipt of your telegram, your letter of the 10th has arrived. The commanding general will not forget you, and would be pleased to have you, but unless a force strong enough to maintain itself comes to take your place he cannot call you from your present position, now daily becoming more and more important and essential to be held for the security of this force. Closson reports that the bridges which it was desired you should guard are destroyed. Can you not cause them to be repaired and the road in your reach made practicable? The commanding general desires you to be cautions, very cautions, that our forces shall receive no check or reverse. Either will swell the ranks of the enemy, fill their store-houses, and dispirit our own forces.
I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
F. J. PORTER,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 51, Serial No. 107, Pages 399, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
