Confederatevets.com

O. C. Staunton.-A deserter from Mott's U. S. artillery which he says he joined in Baltimore because he heard it was coming into Virginia, and he could thus cross the lines and then desert. That company was stationed, however at the north end of the Chain Bridge and did not come into Virginia, and he deserted across the Eastern Branch of the Potomac and got to Mathias Point, where he crossed into Virginia and delivered himself to General Holmes, by whom he was permitted to go to Fredricksburg where he joined a volunteer company then being raised. He has been a skipper on the Southern coast. Says he married in North Carolina and has a child now living there, his wife being dead. There is nothing before me showing any charge against him, and I recommend that inquiry be made of General Holmes why he was sent to Richmond, and unless something be shown against him that he be discharged unless it be deemed proper to detain him as a hostage.