President Abraham Lincoln, Calling the Confederacy the “Disloyal States” Frees and Banishes a Confederate, Son of a Kentucky Supporter of the Union

This letter was formerly property of the President of MIT generations ago and has not been on the market in more than 50 years

 

“…parole Major Clarence Prentice now a rebel prisoner in Camp Chase, Ohio, to remain outside the limits of both the loyal and disloyal States, or so-called ‘Confederate States,’ of the United States of America, during the present rebellion, and to abstain from in any wise aiding or abetting said rebellion.”

 

This remarkable letter, written to a prominent Union supporter in a border state, whose son had gone to join the Confederacy, vividly demonstrates how the war split families

 

This very document was cited by Nathan Raab in his article for the New York Times over a decade ago

When the Civil War began, it was clear that the border states of Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland held the key to victory. President Lincoln especially thought that maintaining the Union without holding Kentucky would not be possible. He wrote, “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we can not hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us.” So he was always solicitous of Kentucky and Kentuckians.

George Prentice was 28 when he came to Kentucky in 1830 to write a campaign biography entitled The Biography of Henry Clay and remained in this state until his death on January 22, 1870. Prentice became the editor of the Louisville Journal, the newspaper of the Whig Party. The main focus of this paper was the promotion of Henry Clay’s agenda and his multiple presidential campaigns. Prentice brought the Journal from upstart newspaper to the most widely read newspaper in the western United States because of his wit and command of the English language. Prentice supported John Bell and his Unionist platform in the 1860 election, calling for the Southern states to stay in the Union. Upon the onset of hostilities and Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops, Prentice urged that Kentucky remain a neutral state because of his fear that Kentucky would join the Confederacy. Prentice became part of Lincoln’s core group of Kentucky advisors for Kentucky affairs during the war. In the Civil War, the Prentice family was divided; George was against secession, and his two sons fought in the Confederate army. One was killed in action and the other was captured and sent to a Union prison.

On April 28, 1863, Prentice wrote Lincoln, asking for a favor – the freedom of his son. He wrote, “Mr. Lincoln, I have a great favor to ask of you. Hear me! My only child, Clarence J. Prentice, God help him, is a major in the Confederate service. A few weeks ago he came into Kentucky and being cut off from his command he came by night to his home to see me and his mother and his baby. He was seen coming and in a few hours arrested. He is now at Camp Chase and his mother in Columbus. He desires I know to serve no longer in the war. He would be a great loss to the Confederates, for he has been one of their most effective officers.

“I do not suppose…that you can parole my boy upon his taking the noncombatant’s oath to remain in the United States though I should be most happy if you could; but I fervently appeal to you to let him go upon his taking that simple oath anywhere outside of the United States and of the rebel Confederacy. I know his plans. His mother will go with him and he will never bear arms against us again. I will be surety for this with fortune and life. I have written to General Burnside to let my son remain at Camp Chase till I hear from you. Please let it be soon for I am most unhappy.”

Not receiving a response promptly, Prentice again wrote Lincoln on May 6, asking for his son’s release. “I wrote to you last week in regard to my son, Major Clarence Prentice, now a rebel prisoner at Camp Chase. He would ere this have been forwarded for exchange, but Gen. Burnside, at my solicitation, consented to have him detained until I could have time to hear from you. I think there has been time, but I have received nothing from you either by mail or telegraph. I know that the pressure of the affairs of state upon you is very great. Perhaps you did not read my letter at all.

“Major Prentice is the only child left to me. My household is very desolate. My son is tired of war, though unfortunately he thinks the South right. I ask you to direct his release upon his taking the non-combatant’s oath and giving bond and security for its scrupulous observance. If you cannot do this, as I painfully fear you cannot, I earnestly appeal to you to parole him to stay outside of both the United States and the Southern Confederacy until after the rebellion.

“I should scarcely venture, Mr. President, to make this appeal to you but I think I have served the Union cause faithfully, devotedly, and successfully. I have suffered very much and sacrificed very much in its behalf – more, I am sure than any other man in Kentucky: and I am likely, even at the best, to suffer and sacrifice much hereafter. I think there is not a candid and intelligent Union man in this state who would hesitate to say to you that I have saved it to the Union politically. And now, dear sir, pray grant me what I ask in behalf of my only son. His mother is half delirious, and so am I. I am scarcely capable of performing my daily duties to my country, but, if my request is granted, I feel buoyant with new life…”

Lincoln took notice and, with Kentucky in mind, ordered the younger Prentice’s release but with a crucial caveat – his son must leave the entirety of the United States, including the secessionist area. Document signed, endorsement on the verso of Prentice’s letter of May 6, Executive Mansion May 16th. 1863. “The Secretary of War will please instruct Major General Burnside to parole Major Clarence Prentice now a rebel prisoner in Camp Chase, Ohio, to remain outside the limits of both the loyal and disloyal States, or so-called ‘Confederate States,’ of the United States of America, during the present rebellion, and to abstain from in any wise aiding or abetting said rebellion. A Lincoln.”

This endorsement orders the banishment of Prentice’s son, stipulating that he remain “outside the limits of both the loyal and disloyal States, or so-called ‘Confederate States’.” We have never seen such a banishment order signed by Lincoln on the market.

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton placed his endorsement under Lincoln’s, indicating that this sheet of paper had also gone to Gen. Burnside. “ Major Genl. Burnside…follow the instruction of the above order.”

Records show that Prentice’s April 28 letter bears three endorsements, written after Lincoln’s endorsement of May 16. The first, Joseph Holt to Stanton, states: “Clarence J. Prentice himself has made no communication to the Government purposes. When prisoners of war are willing to take the oath of allegiance it is the practice to permit them to do so. When they are not thus willing they have been invariably exchanged under the cartel. The intermediate course now proposed has not been pursued because the Government would thereby lose the advantage of the exchange and because no satisfactory…guaranty would exist that the prisoner thus tenderly dealt with would not at the first opportunity reenter the rebel military service….He left his home in a State then and still loyal and voluntarily and wantonly banded with traitors…It is for the Secretary to determine whether the established policy…shall be modified in his favor.”

The second endorsement, Brigadier General Edward R. S. Canby to Colonel William Hoffman, commissary general of prisoners, is dated May 22: “Colonel: I submitted this paper to the Secretary of War yesterday and he said that he was under the impression that the President had given an order permitting Prentice to go abroad. Has it been done?”

The third endorsement, Hoffman to Canby, undated, is as follows: “There is no record in this office of any special orders in the case of Major Prentice…He was sent from Camp Chase to City Point for exchange.”

Oddly considering Lincoln’s order, Major Clarence Prentice was exchanged rather than banished. Perhaps the logistics of banishment were too complex. After exchange, Prentice fought on until the end of the war as major and later colonel in the Confederate Army.

This letter was formerly property of the President of MIT generations ago and has not been on the market in more than 50 years.