SAINT LOUIS, December 20, 1861.

Brigadier General U. S. GRANT,

Cairo, Ill.:

The person who sent the telegram about the prisoners has been discovered and placed in confinement. He has no authority whatever. You will hereafter be more careful about obeying telegrams from private persons countermanding orders from these headquarters.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI,
Cairo, December 22, 1861.

General L. POLK:

I send you under flag of truce some seventeen of the Camp Jackson prisoners who are released under the Fremont-Price agreement. These prisoners were brought here on Tuesday last, and would have been immediately forwarded to Columbus but that a dispatch was sent to me purporting to be official stating that they were impostors and were not the men they assumed to be. In consequence of this dispatch I arrested the parties here and put them at labor for a few hours and then sent them back to Saint Louis. It turned out, however, that the dispatch was a wicked hoax perpetrated by an individual in Saint Louis who has been arrested and will be properly punished. No one regrets the occurrence more than I do. Colonel Webster has charge of the expedition and will receive any communication you may desire to send me.

U. S. GRANT,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SAINT LOUIS, March 14, 1862.

Colonel J. C. KELTON,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.

COLONEL: I have the honor of submitting my report concerning the exchanges of Camp Jackson and Lexington prisoners. Said exchanges were made in pursuance of an agreement between Major General John C. Fremont, commanding the U. S. forces in this department, and General Sterling Price, commanding the rebel forces (styled Missouri State Guard), made on the 26th day of October, 1861. Said agreement authorized and ordered the exchange of certain officers and privates therein named and other privates to the number of 530, captured by the U. S. forces under command of General N. Lyon at Camp Jackson, Mo., May 10, 1861, for certain officers and privates therein named and other privates to the number of 530, captured by the rebel force (denominated Missouri State Guard) under the command of General Sterling Price at Lexington, Mo., September 20, 1861.

On the part of the rebels were named as commissioners to effect said exchange Colonel S. B. Curchill, Colonel D. H. Armstrong, Colonel J. R. Barrett, Major H. W. Williams and D. R. Barclay, esq., all residents of Saint Louis, appointed by General Sterling Price. On the part of the United States General S. R. Curtis, commandant of this military district, appointed Colonel John A. Gurley, commissioner. Colonel Gurley being compelled to repair to Washington to take his seat in Congress General