Order Concerning R. H. Baptist1Jump to section
Washington, February 16, 1865.
Let Captain R. H. Baptiste, a Prisoner of War at Johnson's Island, be paroled for special Exchanges and suffered to go South. This order is given at the special request of Mr. George D. Prentice.
A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] DS, owned by W. Easton Louttit, Jr., Providence, Rhode Island. A letter of Captain R. H. Baptist, October 22, 1864, to George D. Prentice, offering to give evidence in the forthcoming trial of Colonel Clarence J. Prentice, CSA, was enclosed by George D. Prentice to Secretary Seward on October 25, 1864: ``Capt Baptist, who formerly served under my son . . . and is now a prisoner . . . at Johnson's Island, writes to me some facts which would be of vast importance to my erring child in his approaching trial . . . and which Capt. B. says he would state on oath . . . if he could be paroled to the Southern Confederacy or exchanged. . . . I think that the exchange of Capt Baptist would subserve the cause of truth, humanity and justice. . . .'' (DLC-RTL).
Clarence J. Prentice was tried for murder of a man named White at Abingdon, Virginia, and was acquitted.