Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-05-13
TELEGRAPNIE NEWS. /
'TELEGRAPHlC NEWS.


NiplhkluR Aub Aikl-slAiu hThlCit VI WAT III mar
boring rebel soldiers, resumed proceedings to.
day.
General Sharpe was sworn as a witness,
and in reply to the question of the Judge Ad-
vocate and the counsel for the accused stated
lha he was designated by General Grant TO
receive the duplicate rolls Of Lees army,
which he did, and had with him the rolls of
the men reported for parole OF Corses brig.
ade OF Pickett division, TO which the Thirty.
second Virginia regiment belonged. lie didn't
find the names Of either Chapman or Read
on the rolls, aud from the evidence OF these
papers, he conld not say whether the two men
referred to were paroled or not He had
other evidence, however, which he believed
would show that Chapman was paroled The
latter statement was objected to as being in
uoduced as evidence, by the counsel OF the
accused. The witness rssumng, said the
rolls furnished the names OF only two hun
dred and sixty men, OF Corse's brigade, forty
two OF whom were OF the Thirty second reg-
meut representing Companies a, Z, Il, +, II,
! aud NJ Company X, to which Chapman
aud Read proiessed to belong, had only the
names Of corporal and two privates.
The rolls were furnished by the command
ing officers OF Lees army, but many of the
commands we're SO disintegrated as to render
it impossible to specify the different com
mands, AS tor instance, the corps of General
Early at the time of its surrender, was com
manded by a Lieutenant Colonel A. p.
Hills corps had been merged into different
commands, and at the time OF the surrender
did not exist Besides, Just previous to the
surrender, large number OF men had left
Lee 4 army for various reasons some to pro.
cure food, others to escape, and after the
terms were signed, these men came back in
large numbers, to avail themselves of the lib
eral terms offered Some OF the troops were
also abandoned by their general officers, al
most immediately after the surrender, who
left the men to shift for themselves, thereby
compelling us to adopt the principle OF per-
hitting men to be taken up by any commanding
officer and paroled General Lees Provost
Marshal, Major Brtford, took up great
many men Filzhugh Lee, upon coming in,
detailed his Assistant Adjutant General,
Captain Cox with our permission, to take up
men OF all commands and parole them. Be
fore that, in very many instances when men
had reported themselves to be paroled stating
that they had no officers, they were sent back
to the lines OF the enemy, with a note author
izing any commanding officer to take them
up, and parole them
A large number of Lees army we're not
paroled at Appomattox Court House, but at
Iynchburg and along the Southside Railroad.
The original papers, signed by the conven-
tion on both sides, including i'll the terms of
surrender all troops operating with the Army
of Virginia on the 9Th ult He made these
statements TO show that mans name need
not necessarily be found on the rolls OF his
regiment, brigade, or division, if paroed.
The idea was, that ii afterwards man desir
ed to obtain any favor rs a paroled prisoner,
10 hiunaalf In xuha
his name is to be found. There were men
paroled at Appomattox Court House, whose
names we're no. on the rolls, because the rolls
had been forwarded to General Lee, Several
DAYS previous to the surrender large part OF
Pickett's Division was captured, including
General Corse commanding the Brigade, to
which the Thirty-second Virginia belonged,
and at the surrender there was found remain
ing in the Division only FIVE officers, ,--One
Surgeon, one Captain and three Lieutenants.
The rolls of the officers were intended to be
made by brigades, but the disntregaton was
90 great that these FIVE were all the officers
of the Division left, including the Brigade
staff
General Fields division was the only one
of Longstreets corps that was found in de.
cent shape. The facilities afforded the Con-
i4derate officers, to carry out the system of
parole, we're very deficient, The tact that
The names of Chapman aud Read were not on
the rolls OF their regiment, was no proof that
thew were not paroled If the men we're
present, he would no doubt soon find their
names on other rolls The Judge Advocate
claimed the examination of the rolls showed
they could not be regarded as competent tes-
timony. The witness had shown that it was
not only necessary for the names of Chapman
and Read to be on the rolls of their regiment,
if paroled, but that it was very probable they
were on other rolls As the rolls were intro
duced by the defense to discredit the testi.
mony of the witnesses, after the examination,
he felt impelled to reject them as evidence
The counsel for the accused insisted that
if tho men had been with their commands at
the date of the surrender, their names would
appear on the rolls
The witness resuming, said that the rol Is
Of Picketts division were made out two
weeks after the surrender. There was a
great desire on the part of the COniederates
to get away at once, and many started with.
out waiting for paroles, in order to be the
first TO pass through the section where forage
and subsistence might be obtained, When
the commissioners first went to Pickett's di-
vision, they could do nothing, as there was
no one left to look after it, The counsel held
that the Court could not decide whether wit.
nesses, Chapman and Read, were paroled
soldiers or not The rolls did not show it, and
he challenged the Court to prove it, .s,
The Court was closed for deliberations, and
on opening, the judge Advocate stated that
the Court had decided TO admit copy of the
rolls as evidence
Mr., Harris then proceeded to read his de-
fence to the Court, stating that he was in no
way connected with the land or naval forces
OF the United States, and that he had not
committed any olIense, He had not harbored
L IL