Summary:
Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin writes Captain H. M. Bell at Staunton in January, 1862, to give instructions on the trial of prisoners.

---

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Capt. H. M. BELL, Staunton, Va.

Richmond,

January 21, 1862.

SIR:

Your letter of the 15th instant concerning the two prisoners, Brooks and Smith, has been received. If those men are not citizens of any one of the Confederate States they had better be tried before a military court. If on the other hand they are citizens of the Confederate States they ought to be brought before the civil tribunals. Of course the necessary steps will be taken to have the attendance of the witnesses at the time of trial.

Your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,
Secretary of War.

---

Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Volume 2, Serial No. 115, Pages 1415-1416, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.