O.R.--SERIES II--VOLUME IV [S# 117]

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM JUNE 13, 1862, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1862.--#27

LOUISVILLE, KY., October 27, 1862.

His Excellency E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War, Washington.

SIR: I have learned by a slip from a Richmond paper that Major Jordan, of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, has been delivered and sent from Libby Prison to Castle Thunder under charges that he allowed the men under his command to commit outrages on the citizens of Sparta, Tenn. Major Jordan never had his forces in Sparta but once. Morgan made a raid into Kentucky and arrived at Cave City on the 11th of May, 1862. I was at Bowling Green with one squad of cavalry and ran him out of this State at Burkesville. Major Jordan was at Gallatin, and he crossed over by Lebanon to McMinnville and chased him eight miles beyond Sparta. He made no stay at Sparta but returned immediately. Major Jordan was very strict in his discipline and I have never heard of any outrages committed by his men at Sparta or at any other place. Major Jordan was captured near Tompkinsville, Ky., on the 9th of July, 1862, under the following circumstances: He was stationed at that place at that time in command of three companies of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and had Company E also with him en route to join me at Albany, Clinton County, Ky. We were both under the command of Colonel Owens. I was with Colonel Owen at Albany and had only Company K with me. General J. T. Boyle then commanded all the U.S. forces in Kentucky. By his orders we did not consider Morgan and the rest of them commanding the men who made the raids into Kentucky as soldiers but only as marauders. When Morgan with a force of about 1,800 men made the attack on Major Jordan on the 9th of July he did not consider under his orders he ought to surrender to him. Consequently Major Jordan <ar117_661> fought to the last, and when forced by the fire of artillery cut his way out. He killed 31 of the gang, including 1 colonel, and lost in killed 3 men and 1 lieutenant. They took about 16 prisoners, mostly men in the hospital and unfit for duty. Jordan was captured some miles out by reason of a wound his horse had received. He refused to be paroled by Morgan on the ground that he was not a Confederate officer, but only a marauder. This refusal on his part has made an enemy of Morgan and all his friends, and I fear that they intend to destroy the major to gratify private malice. General Boyle has promised me to write to you on the subject and to solicit your aid in relieving him from this unjust persecution. I feel a deep interest in Major Jordan's welfare and hope that you will do something to aid him' in escaping this unjust treatment. He is a first-rate officer and a gentleman and incapable of allowing his men to do anything unjustifiable in war.

G. B. BROWN,
Major, Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry.

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