Mr. Adee to Mr. Thiébaut.
My Dear Mr. Thiébaut: In further acknowledgment of your personal note of yesterday, requesting permission, on behalf of the families and friends of the officers and crew of the steamer Buena Ventura, recently captured by the Federal squadron, to communicate with the said officers and crew, I beg to inform you that I am now in receipt of a reply to my letter to the Attorney-General on the subject. Mr. Griggs states that the persons seized on the various vessels recently captured as prizes of war are now being harbored and protected at Key West [Page 790] Barracks, and that they are therefore at present in the custody and control of the War Department, but that he has directed the United States attorney for the southern district of Florida to cooperate with the officers of the War Department in permitting all proper communications from the respective families or friends to reach the officers and crew of the vessel in question.
In order to save any possible delay, I have, however, written the Secretary of War, requesting that the privilege you ask for the families and friends of the crew be granted, although I have little doubt that the instructions of the Attorney-General above referred to will have accomplished already the desired result.
I will again communicate with you on receiving any further information in the matter.
I am, etc.,