General Winder received me with politeness and told me that his Government refused to exchange me for a citizen. I then expressed to him my belief that I could through the influence of my friends effect a change in the treatment of the Privateers could I be sent with the assurance of a willingness to reciprocate. By his advice I made the application in writing through him to the Confederate Secretary of War. I expect to hear the result of my application in a day or two. He also gave me a pass to the Jail where the Hostages are confined, the first time that any of us have had permission to enter. Colonel Lee and Major Revere were delighted to see me but my heart sank within me when I saw the hole that they were in. No prison in New England is so miserable and uncomfortable. I believe that no seven imprisoned men in the North are so illy cared for as these. _Richmond, January 19, 1862_ Letter to Gen. J. H. Winder: "General:--The undersigned Commissioned officers of the United States Army respectfully ask your attention to the following proposition: "Learning that there are at Fortress Monroe and at Norfolk officers of the Confederate States Army including Col. Pegram and other field officers part of whom are placed upon their parole and all seeking an exchange--We propose that they be exchanged rank for rank with Col. Lee and other officers now confined in Henrico County Jail and that we be permitted to take their places to be held as hostages for the men confined in New York. Our reasons for this application are the ill health of the officers referred to, arising from the unwholesome place in which they are confined. The fact that they have since their confinement been treated more rigorously than the Privateers in New York (in proof of which we refer you to the Hon. M. Faulkner of the Confederacy), contrary as we believe to your own expressed intentions, and because our own rank is sufficiently above that of the Privateers to make the accomplishment of your object equally safe and more humane. We ask your consideration of the fact that had you not held field officers as prisoners of war we should have in all probability occupied their places and that you would have considered the safety of the privateers sufficiently guaranteed. Also if the officers lost their characters as prisoners of war, when they were forced to assume that of Hostages, should they not receive equal treatment with their substitutes, and is rank a matter of moment? On the other hand if they are still to be considered as Prisoners of War ought they not to be treated as such, and do you not gain as much as ourselves in exchanging them for officers of equal rank? "Very respectfully your Obedient Servants,