From the Richmond Dispatch, 2/27/1863, p. 1, c. 3

Selling Soldiers’ Discharges – The detectives of Major Griswold’s office yesterday arrested and put in Castle Thunder a man named John Stephens, belonging to company I, 1st Georgia regiment, on the charge of selling bogus discharges to soldiers belonging to the Confederate army. He had on his person, when arrested twenty-eight blank discharges, ready for signature, and a considerable sum which he had accumulated by the sale of the article. Any soldier who could furnish five dollars could get a discharge. The frequency of perfectly hearty and sound men being discharged from the army led to an inquiry, which disclosed the whole affair and ended in the arrest of Stephens, who will be tried before Court Martial for his offence.

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