Pres. Lincoln and Alec Stephens Agreement at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference

[David Lockmiller]

(04-07-2017 10:17 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  David, thanks for posting this information. I cannot help with your question, but I found an image of Lincoln's letter here.

Is it possible this was at first not an exchange agreement, but rather it was simply Lincoln originally promising (when the two men were together at the Hampton Roads Conference) to get Lieutenant John A. Stephens released as a favor to an old friend without asking anything in return (at that time)?

The meeting had lasted about four hours when Stephens brought it to a close.

"Well, Stephens," Lincoln said, "there has been nothing we could do for our country. Is there anything that I can do for you personally?"

"Nothing," Stephens said. And then he thought of something. "Unless you can send me my nephew, who has been twenty months a prisoner at Johnson's Island," a famously uncongenial prison camp for Southern officers on Lake Erie.

"I shall be glad to do it," Lincoln said, "if you will send back one of our young lieutenants. Let me have his name." When Stephens happily obliged, the president wrote it down and asked considerate questions about Lieutenant John A. Stephens and his family. ("Our One Common Country," page 198.)

Therefore, Roger, it was a reciprocal promise of prisoner exchange made at the time of the Hampton Roads Peace Conference on February 3, 1865 of one Southern lieutenant named John A. Stephens released by Lincoln in exchange for an undetermined Union lieutenant to be released later by his friend Alec Stephens. The Union lieutenant to be exchanged was adequately described by Lincoln in his February 10, 1865 note to A.H. Stephens as "that officer imprisoned at Richmond whose physical condition most urgently requires his release." The note was to be carried by Lieutenant John A. Stephens to his uncle. ("Our One Common Country," page 229.)

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(04-07-2017 03:32 PM)Steve Wrote:  The record is for the right person, I've attached images of the most relevant documents in the file. The wording of Lincoln's telegram speaks of "an arrangement I made yesterday with his uncle", so that seems like it's more of an exchange agreement than a favor. Unfortunately, the last thing chronologically in the file is Stephens going to President Lincoln and doesn't have any specifics about his exchange.

If what you posted is correct and Stephens was immediately exchanged and not paroled, then there would not have been a Union officer released. It would have been up to Alexander Stephens to arrange the exchange/release of the Union officer after he received the letter.

Steve,

Thanks for this information. The first item appears to be in the handwriting of Lieutenant John A. Stephens in which he promises not to divulge any Union military intelligence gained during the term of his time in Washington. Many years later, his son seems to be referring to a physical exchange of prisoners being made at or near the line between the opposing military factions.