ranks. The principle established by your order is correct but it is deemed best that both the enemy and our own men should be notified before it is enforced. A general order will be prepared and issued on this subject.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, Va., February 27, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I learn from Colonel Ludlow that citizen prisoners are to be mutually released. I have a letter from Honorable Washington Barrow, who is on parole at Saint Louis and who is desirous of going to Washington. I do not know the grounds of his arrest but if as I suppose it is for disloyalty in Tennessee he will no doubt fall within the general arrangement for the exchange of citizen prisoners. If I am mistaken in supposing that such an exchange is definitely arranged I would suggest that he be discharged upon the release of some one of our own prisoners at Richmond.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, February 27, 1863.

Brigadier General JAMES BOWEN,

Provost-Marshal-General, Department of the Gulf.

GENERAL: The general commanding directs that you immediately provide suitable quarters and keep in close custody all prisoners of war taken from the enemy, both officers and enlisted men, whose names appeared on the late register and who refused or neglected to comply with the special order requiring them to report on the 20th instant at the foot of Canal street for passage through the lines, &c., and that hereafter neither officers nor enlisted men be allowed their liberty within our lines without first taking the oath of allegiance, but will be kept in custody until a favorable opportunity offers to forward them through the lines under orders from these headquarters.

JOHN S. CLARK,

Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., February 27, 1863.

Brigadier General L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.

GENERAL: To enable me to distribute exchanged troops to their respective regiments and batteries it is necessary that I should know the army corps to which they belong and the department in which they are serving, and I have therefore the honor to request that I may be furnished with all requisite information for the above purpose.

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

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.