OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 15, Part 1 (Baton Rouge-Natchez)
Page 495 Chapter XXVII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 15, Part 1 (Baton Rouge-Natchez) Series 1, vol 15, Part 1 (Baton Rouge-Natchez)
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, New Orleans, La., June 23, 1862.
Hon. E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
SIR: In the expedition to Pass Manchac and thence to Mandeville, on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, Colonel Putnam, an officer of the Louisiana Militia, was taken prisoner. ------
Having been commissioned as colonel of the militia in this city, his regiment was called together but not armed. On the day succeeding the passage of the forts by the fleet he was engaged in pressing teams and drays into the service and hauling out the cotton from the cotton-presses and sugar from the warehouses upon the levee, there piling it up. This work was begun about 1 o'clock on the 25th, and at 9 o'clock that evening an immense amount of this property was set fire to and burned, against the remonstrances of the owners.
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General, Commanding