After March 1864, there was a steady, relatively small stream of individual releases of POWs who had applied for a Presidential Pardon and asked to take an oath of allegiance. The oath taken was the Lincoln Amnesty Oath set forth in December 1863 as part of Lincoln's Ten Per Cent Plan for Reconstruction. Under pressure not to release POWs under his 1863 plan for reconstruction, President Lincoln issued a clarification in March 1864 insisting that any prisoner could apply to him for pardon, which he had the power to grant under the Constitution. Those granted a pardon and ordered released would be required to take the December 1863 oath.

When pardons were granted, the named individuals were released on special orders from the War Department. My observation has been that a disproportionate number of those "early releases" were from Kentucky and Tennessee, states not considered to have been "in rebellion" by the Federal government. Those men from states in rebellion, such as Virginia , were generally not released until their states were covered by one of the four major military surrenders. My conclusion would be that Aaron Tazewell Saul had asked to take the oath before General Lee's surrender on 9 APR 1865 which covered the State of Virginia and only ordered released after this surrender.

General Orders No. 85 was issued on 8 MAY 1865. All POWs who had applied for a Presidential Pardon and asked to take the oath prior to the fall of Richmond on 2 APR 1865 were ordered released. All who were released under G. O. #85 took the Lincoln Amnesty Oath.

President Andrew Johnson issued his own Amnesty Proclamation on 28 MAY 1865 which prescribed a new version of the Amnesty Oath.

The Trans-Mississippi was the last Confederate command surrendered. The agreement is dated 26 MAY 1865 although it was not officially signed by Confederate Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith until 2 JUN 1865. With all Confederate forces in the field now covered by surrender agreements, General Orders No. 109 was forthcoming in early June 1865. It directed the release of all POWs from army captains down to the privates (including naval equivalent ranks). All were to take the War Department Oath of Allegiance, and afterwards could ask to take President Johnson's Amensty Oath as well. Specifically precluded from this release were (1) all of those POWs who fell into one of 14 categories singled out in President Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation, and (2) all POWs holding the rank of major and above (naval ranks included). Those who were precluded had to take the Amensty Oath and apply directly to the Office of the President for pardon and release. When granted, they then took the War Department Oath of Allegiance prior to their release. The captains and below covered by G. O. #109 were generaly all gone home by the end of June 1865. Those requiring a Presidential Pardon were generally released before the end of July 1865.

I have presented the essence of all of this as it played out at Fort Delaware on the Society website in a time-line under the category of "Going Home". Go to the Website Directory Page [www.fortdelaware.org] and scroll down to the bottom to find the link to "Going Home - A Time Line". General Orders No. 85 and 109 are discussed in more detail. These orders applied to all POW camps including Elmira.

Merry Christmas!!

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
Website: www.fortdelaware.org
E-mail: society@fortdelaware.org