From the Richmond Examiner, 5/14/1863
DEPARTURE OF PRISONERS. – Commissioner Ould returned from Fortress Monroe
on Tuesday evening, whether he had gone to arrange for the exchange of the
prisoners taken in the late battles on the Rappahannock. His mission, it would
seem, was successful, for on Tuesday midnight was received at the Libby prison
headquarters orders to parole and prepare for transportation to City Point,
yesterday morning, five thousand, or all of the Yankee prisoners held by the
Confederate Government and captured on the Rappahannock. – The prisoners were
gotten ready, and departed at noon for a march to City Point, under the escort
of Captain Wrenn’s cavalry. Captain Turner, the commandant of the prisons, and
about twenty-five assistants were engaged on Belle Island until a late hour last
night, paroling the prisoners, and about two thousand, in addition to the five
thousand above referred to, were sent off during the night to City Point. This
makes about seven thousand in all forwarded North, mainly of prisoners taken at
Chancellorsville and thereabouts. As an offset to this number the Yankee
Government has sent up nine hundred paroled Confederates, taken in the same
engagements. They have about five hundred more, and, if figures don’t lie,
there is a handsome balance on our side.
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