all seamen captured by rebel vessels on the waters referred to, and under this construction the captain and crew of the brig Machais are exchanged.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 28, 1863.

Brigadier-General PATRICK,

Provost-Marshal-General, Army of the Potomac:

Send to this Department under guard Arnold Harris*, recently arrested in Maryland, with his papers, horse and all his property.

By order of the Secretary of War:

P. H. WATSON,

Assistant Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, Va., February 28, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit a report of the examination of political prisoners by Judge Pierrepont and myself under your order of the 27th February, 1862, and of the disposition made of the cases acted upon us. The minutes of the proceedings and the testimony having been forwarded to you by the judge, there are a few details in regard to the cases disposed of at Fort McHenry which I am unable to furnish and for which I respectfully refer to the papers in your possession.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., February 28, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel W. H. LUDLOW,

Agent for Exchange of Prisoners, New York City.

COLONEL: Your letter of the 25th instant is received and in accordance with your request I have asked that the prisoners of war held at Fort Lafayette by order of the Secretary of the Navy may be placed at my disposal for exchange. In reply I am furnished by Mr. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, with a copy of a letter addressed by the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of War, a copy+ of which I inclose herewith, from which you will perceive that the Secretary of the Navy for reasons which he gives declines to consent to the exchange of the prisoners referred to. Mr Fox stated to me in conversation that pilots are rated as officers and inasmuch as the rebels have retained our naval they feel at liberty to detain others of like cases. I am at a loss to know how to consider rebel officers who were captured in Virginia and Maryland previous to the date of your las interview with Mr. Ould and who are now in our hospitals. There is nothing in Order Numbers 10 to meet such cases nor is there anything

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* For case of Arnold Harris, see Vol. II, this Series, p. 1515 et seq.

+ See p. 298

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