From the Memphis (Tenn.) Daily Appeal, 7/11/1862, p. 1, c. 3

The Yankee Prisoners – Scenes and Incidents in Richmond.

From the Richmond Examiner.]

During Saturday between twenty-five hundred and three thousand Yankees, taken on Friday evening at Gaines’ Mill, in Hanover, thirteen miles east of Richmond, were brought in and lodged in prison. The Pennsylvania 11th (reserves) and the 4th New Jersey were taken entire, every commissioned officer, colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, surgeons, and assistant surgeon falling into our hands. Beyond these two regiments the prisoners were mostly United States regulars, with a slight sprinkling of blue Connecticut Yankees.

When the 11th Pennsylvania marched into town, their rear was brought up by six negro men and a boy about fifteen. Five of the men wore Yankee uniform pants, while the boy was decked out in a full Union uniform. The negroes were the property of Mrs. Watts and other citizens of Hanover, who had run off from their owners to cast their lot with the Yankees. A gentleman asked the boy, how dare he make his appearance in Richmond with that uniform on? The negro replied, pointing deprecatingly toward the Yankees in front of him, “De’ give ‘um to me.”

The Libby prison being quickly filled to its capacity, it was necessary to procure other quarters for the remaining Yankees. Mr. Wm. Gleanor’s factory was secured for this purpose, and by 8 o’clock, P. M., was also crowded. The operation of housing Yankees is a much slower and more tedious process than might be supposed. They are first drawn up in column before the prison, and then by fours marched into the clerk’s office, where their names and description and place of capture are taken down. They are then led off and turned into their quarters.

Saturday, while the 11th Pennsylvania were being received, one of the members, Robert Holliday, of company F, attempted to pass a ten dollar counterfeit Confederate note through the instrumentality of a little boy named James Ballou. He gave the note to the little fellow and told him to run over to a baker’s and get him some bread. A gentleman standing near saw the transaction, and stopping the boy examined the note. It proved to be a counterfeit of the Philadelphia manufacture. The note was carried to Commissioner William F. Watson. It is a question whether the Confederate law against the counterfeiting our national currency will apply as against a prisoner of war. The attempt to pass a counterfeit Confederate note is certainly an act of hostility against our government, and most criminal in a man who had thrown down his arms and surrendered. This question, however, will be settled by the proper authorities. As regards the Virginia negroes taken in Yankee uniform, we think a most salutary effect would be produced by hanging them in a public manner. If every slave taken in the enemy’s service were immediately shot or hung, Yankee newspaper correspondents would soon lost their most prolific source of information. Contrabands would “cease to come in.”

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