Thanks for your informative posting! Examining the wording of Captain Porter's final parole, I was struct by the last phrase "until properly exchanged in such manner as shall be mutually approved by the respective authorities." Clearly by May 14, 1865, it was becoming apparent that a "proper exchange" would soon be a moot point. The Confederate Agent of Exchange in Richmond, Colonel Robert Ould, was out of business and had surrendered himself to Federal authorities in Richmond in April shortly after General Lee's surrender. The Confederate Trans-Mississippi was running its own exchange program with the Federal Department of the Gulf headquartered in New Orleans in the last year of the war. When the T-M surrendered (officially on 26 MAY 1865), there was no longer any Confederate authority standing anywhere through which an exchange could be made. A declaration of exchange allowed one to return to duty and the fighting.

Are you related to Captain Porter?

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
Website: www.fortdelaware.org
E-mail: society@fortdelaware.org