FORT MONROE, March 27, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

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

General Hitchcock informs me that the Secretary of War authorizes exchanges of officers man for man without reference to the cartel. Please send me immediately all Confederate officers you have at Washington, Baltimore and Fort Delaware, and order all at the West to be sent to you that I may use them for exchange. Our officers are suffering greatly.

WM. H. LUDLOW,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, March 27, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel GEORGE SANGSTER,

Commanding Camp Parole, Annapolis, Md.

COLONEL: In examine your accounts I find a very large number of employees at your headquarters and in the departments. At your headquarters you can be allowed extra pay for the sergeant-major, if he is a clerk, and for 6 additional clerks, for 1 postmaster and for 1 mail carrier at 25 cents a day. Express agents and orderlies will not be allowed extra pay. The commissary will be allowed 1 commissary-sergeant who, if he is not paid by the department, will be allowed 40 cents ad day; 2 clerks, 1 butcher at 40 cents per day and 3 laborers at 25 cents per day. There is no account of men employed in the quartermaster's department and I presume none have been employed since November.

There was no fund until November and yet I find large accounts paid out for September and October for which you had no authority. Under no circumstances will extra pay be allowed out of the fund to men who receive extra pay from either of the departments. On your January roll one clerk signs the names of three others. This is not proper nor can it be permitted. On the rolls presented for services in the quartermaster's department there are a number of men paid for loading wood. This cannot be permitted and if you have continued to employ men in this way you will pay them nothing. It is very commendable that the affairs of the camp have been managed with so much economy to the Government but it is expected at the same time that the fund which accumulates very rapidly should be judiciously expended and that employees in the several departments should be limited to the same numbers and the same rates of compensation as if paid in the usual way. The fund is mainly of the benefit of the men belonging to the camp and is not to be too liberally bestowed on individuals who have little to do. Your accounts should have been closed and sent in at the end of each month according to my instructions and not allowed to accumulate for six months. By this means you have given me no opportunity to approve or disapprove your course and now I have no alternative but to approve what I may not think right or leave you involved in large debts. Hereafter your accounts must be presented punctually at the end of the month and if there is occasion to deviate form my instructions you must refer the matter to me. I am unable to tell from your accounts what part is paid and what part is unpaid. Make up a statement to show this, giving the amount on, and then I will act on your estimates for $2,000 which