Our Government disavowed Couch's action instantly, and ordered the paroles to be treated as of no force, whereupon the Rebel Government ordered back into the field twelve thousand of the prisoners captured by Grant's army at Vicksburg.
5.

The paroling now stopped abruptly, leaving in the hands of both sides the prisoners captured at Gettysburg, except the militia above mentioned.
The Rebels added considerably to those in their hands by their captures at Chickamauga, while we gained a great many at Mission Ridge, Cumberland Gap and elsewhere, so that at the time we arrived in Richmond the Rebels had about fifteen thousand prisoners in their hands and our Government had about twenty-five thousand.
6.

The rebels now began demanding that the prisoners on both sides be exchanged--man for man--as far as they went, and the remainder paroled.
Our Government offered to exchange man for man, but declined--on account of the previous bad faith of the Rebels--to release the balance on parole.

The Rebels also refused to make any concessions in regard to the treatment of officers and men of colored regiments.
7.

At this juncture General B.F.Butler was appointed to the command of the Department of the Blackwater, which made him an ex-officio Commissioner of Exchange.