HEADQUARTERS PAROLED PRISONERS,
Columbus, Ohio, September 28, 1862.
General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General, &c.

SIR: I telegraphed the Secretary of War day before yesterday not to send any more paroled prisoners to Camp Chase. As the reasons could not be sent by telegram I hasten to give them by letter. One regiment has at last been organized and its last companies are now being paid off. But to give a better idea of the worth of such an organization I give you an informal morning report substantially as it was given me:

Morning Report of First Regiment Paroled Prisoners.

Commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians privates: Company A, present for duty, 24; Company C, present for duty, 41; Company D, present for duty, 27; Company E, report not in, but at roll-call, 46. The other companies are being paid off.

Morning reports show: Cavalry, present for duty, 12. Artillery, Company D, present for duty, 101; Company A, present for duty, 23.

All the above campaigned when paid off and marched to camp were full to the maximum. All not present at roll-call have deserted. I have already informed the Secretary of War that when I visited Camp Chase the day of my arrival (and it was the second day after receiving my order to come) I found about 3,000 paroled soldiers present. There had never been such a thing as enforcement of order amongst them; never any guards mounted or duty of any kind performed. With but few exceptions officers abandoned the men and left them to shift for themselves. The consequences can be easily imagined. The soldiers become lousy, ragged, despairing and totally demoralized. In addition to that it seems each man became possessed with an idea that because he was paroled he was until exchanged exempt from duty of any kind, even from the most ordinary camp duty. A large number in fact hold paroles which they have sworn to, obligating them not to go into camp or take arms for any purpose in behalf of the United States, and not merely as against the Confederate States but as against any power or authority.

When I announced my purpose in camp that I was to organize them for service against the Northwestern Indians a very few received it with favor. Nearly the whole body protested. Especially was this the case with the Eastern troops. Every objector intrenched himself behind his parole. If I had had a reliable regiment at hand to enforce my orders a guard would have been instantly thrown around the camp and every protestant arrested. My authority should have been recognized at all hazards. But no such regiment was present. Force was out of question. I endeavored to reason with the men, but when my back was turned they jeered and groaned at me. I promised them their pay and a complete uniform without charge. The clothing part of my promise I presumed to make them under General Orders, Numbers 85, War Department, &c. They would believe nothing I said. The motive of all this was easily understood, viz, a disinclination to longer service.

Finding it was impossible to force or coax the action I then concluded to leave the mater to time and adopted the plan of organizing one regiment after another, first giving it out distinctly that no one should receive pay or clothing until he had enrolled himself in a company under designated officers. When a company was fully the captain was to march it to the state-house to be paid off and when paid off conduct it to Camp Thomas, a new camp established with the hope that by separating the willing from the unwilling a better state of feeling might be brought about. You will see that in this way I thought to use the ideas of pay and clothing as incentives to a return to duty. By this method company after company has been marched from Camp Chase, paid off, then marched to Camp Thomas, where each one was promptly furnished its complement of tents with all necessary supplies. A regiment entitled the First Regiment Paroled Prisoners, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Neff, a really accomplished officer, has been sifted from the mutinous soldiery of the old camp. Colonel McMillen, of the Ninety-fifth Ohio Volunteers, captured and paroled at Richmond, Ky., has been ordered to organize the Second Regiment Paroled Prisoners, and he is now at work. But what will such regiments be worth? Of what profit will they be? Let the morning report I have already quoted answer. The great body of my first regiment has deserted. The officer of the guard at Camp Thomas in making the rounds this morning found three muskets against a tree-the sentinels had gone to parts unknown. What a commentary! Colonel McMillen is directed to constitute his regiment as far as possible from the paroled Ohioans, and as he has between 600 and 700 of his original regiment within reach (most of them had gone home without permission), I have some hope of his succeeding better. But with that exception I think it my duty to inform the Secretary that all attention, money, clothing, &c., furnished the great body of prisoners now here is idly expended. (As if to enforce my argument an incident has this minute transpired. A company of the First Regiment, just paid off, was being marched to the new camp. Suddenly they filed into a cross street. The officers endeavored to stop thumbed without success. A company of the provost-guard was sent after them with directions to capture or shoot them. Fifty were brought back. The whole are under guard. The ringleaders will be confined in the penitentiary. They threaten the lives of the captain and colonel.)

Entertaining the above opinion my advice (if I can be pardoned for giving it) is to give a dishonorable discharge to every man who refuses to be attached to an organization or who deserts after being paid. Whoever gets into Camp Chase or comes in contact with its inmates is instantly seized with the mutinous spirit I have described. Hence I thought it my duty to beg the Secretary not to send more troops to this place. The Indiana regiments captured at Richmond and Nufordville have not yet arrived and I hope will not. It would be far better policy to send such regiments directly to Minnesota, to be armed and re-equipped there.

Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

LEW. WALLACE,
Major-General, &etc.
pp. 569/61