DEPOT QUARTERMASTER'S OFFICE,

Baltimore, Md., February 21, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C.

COLONEL: Some 700 rebel prisoners are confined in the city jail here, there being no room for them at Fort McHenry or Fort Delaware. I have made a contract with the warden of the jail to feed and lodge them at 20 cents a day and they are very well taken care of, but they are in a miserable, destitute situation for clothing, and Colonel Bliss, chief quartermaster Eighth Army Corps, has applied to me to know whether I can issue old clothing to about 100 desiring to take the oath of allegiance but for whose release there is no authority. I have the honor to refer the matter to you under General Orders, Numbers 67, War Department, 1862.

Very respectfully,

J. L. DONALDSON,

Quartermaster.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., February 23, 1863.

Major General H. G. WRIGHT,

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati.

GENERAL: The accompanying papers have been referred to Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow, agent for exchange of prisoners, who has returned them* with the following comment:

I cannot use these papers in effecting exchanges until it is shown or known what has become of the paroled men, or whether after being paroled they were sent through the lines. Will you please give orders that all parole papers shall show these points?

I have the honor to refer the matter to you that the attention of commanders may be called to what is required in such cases.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

(Same to Major General N. P. Banks, Nineteenth Army Corps, commanding Department of the Gulf.)

[First indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO,
Cincinnati, Ohio, February 26, 1863.

Respectfully referred through Major-General Rosecrans, commanding Department of the Cumberland, to Brigadier-General Baird, who is requested to return these papers to these headquarters with a statement as to the disposition made of these prisoners when paroled. What became of them?

By order of Major-General Wright:

C. W. FOSTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Second indorsement.]

HDQRS. THIRD DIVISION, ARMY OF KENTUCKY,
Franklin, Tenn., March 15, 1863.

It having been reported to me that a portion of the rebel sick left about Harrodsburg after the battle of Perryville had by some oversight

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*See Ludlow to Hoffman, February 18, p. 282.

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