From the Richmond Dispatch, 9/26/1862, p. 2, c. 4

Releasing Prisoners. - The Secretary of War has issued an order to the parties in charge of the military prison in the Eastern District to discharge and send to their respective regiments all soldiers against whom no charges have been or are likely to be preferred. A list will be kept of the names, companies, and regiments, of all who are thus sent away; so that, if opportunity occurs, they may be tried for any offences that may be alleged against them. Most of the officers at whose instance these men were placed in prison are with the army, or have been killed or wounded, and the men whom they caused to be arrested have languished in prison, many of them for weeks and months, for the most trivial offences; some of them, indeed, for no offence at all. In pursuance of this order, several hundreds of able-bodied men will be restored to the army, where they are so much needed, and to which they all express their willingness to return. If there were some mode devised by which soldiers who are incarcerated could obtain a speedy hearing, the country would be saved the heavy expense of maintaining them in idleness, and innocent men be spared the cruel punishment of a long confinement, revolting alike to their feelings and to justice. Fifty will be sent to Winchester to day.

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