HEADQUARTERS,

Petersburg, November 14, 1864.

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: Brig. Gen. J. G. Martin, who has been on duty at Salisbury for some days, informs me from the inquiries he made he thinks 2,000 or 3,000 foreigners now held there as prisoners of war could be enlisted in our service. He also states that authority for this purpose has been given to several persons by the War Department, and that the company officers are to be elected by the members of the company. If they are taken from among themselves I fear they may be neither effective nor reliable. How would it answer to organize these men into the Regular Army, with officers appointed by the President, and the whole under one good officer? The men could then be placed in camp, instructed, and disciplined. By the spring they would make a valuable addition to the Army. General Martin thinks that by proper management this force could be increased to 7,000 or 8,000. The subject is respectfully referred to you for consideration.

With great respect, your obedient servant, R. E. LEE, General
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CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, Va., November 17, 1864.

General R. E. LEE, Commanding Army of Northern Virginia:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, and to thank you for the suggestions contained in it relative to the enlistments for our Army of the foreigners among the prisoners of war held by us. For some time past my attention has been attracted to that mode of recruiting, and I have given to officers supposed to be competent, in several instances, permits to raise battalions, directing them to prefer Irish and French, and to enlist no citizens of the United States. The latter, especially native born, I hold in great distrust. I preferred to form battalions to regiments, because I doubted the expediency of having so many of this material together as a regiment required. While authorizing the formation of these few battalions as an experiment, I all the time preferred, and directed the officers of prisons to promote, general enlistments and the distribution of the men enlisted among the regiments of our different armies, selecting, as far as practicable, those which had been originally composed of foreign material. I have, too, authorized several officers, whose commands had been greatly depleted, to recruit for them from this source. Among others, General York, while wounded here, has obtained this permission and proposes to visit the prisons, taking with him one or more Catholic chaplains, whose influence, he thinks, may be profitably exercised upon those of the same religious persuasion. I shall be pleased to give similar authority to recruit to any officers in your army whom you may recommend, and who are willing in that way to replenish their commands. You have, I believe, a Virginia battalion, originally composed of Irish, now greatly reduced by the casualties of service, which might, probably, in that way be re-established in numbers and efficiency. I have applied to Congress to give the power of appointing officers whenever new organizations are formed from such material. I presume this power will be granted to the Executive. In the absence of such power, with one battalion alone, first organized, I resorted to the form of an election, the men readily accepting and electing such officers as were presented to them; but I considered the precedent a bad one, and that it would be dangerous to allow such a privilege to continue, as in filling vacancies hereafter they might really exercise the privilege of selection for which they would be qualified neither by intelligence nor trustworthiness. The suggestion made by you to enlist these men for the Regular Army will be submitted to the President; but as we have not the requisite officers of the Confederate Army, and serious objection is entertained to the permanent appointment of such officers during the war, I think it preferable to obtain, if practicable, the power of appointing from Congress, and to enlist for the Provisional Army.

Very respectfully, JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

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David Upton