OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., April 4, 1863.

Major W. S. PIERSON,

Commanding Depot of Prisoners of War, Sandusky, Ohio.

MAJOR: In reply to your communication of March 30, 1863, in relation to building a chapel I am directed by the commissary-general of prisoners to inform you that he is perfectly willing that you should erect a chapel and also that one-half of the expense can be paid from the camp fund.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. T. HARTZ,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL SCHENCK'S HEADQUARTERS,

Baltimore, April 5, 1863.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners:

Please instruct officers to notify when I may expect prisoners to arrive in Baltimore. Twelve hundred have just arrived that I had no notice of and I am obliged to but them in public warehouses till I can procure a steamer.

J. L. DONALDSON, M

Lieutenant-Colonel and Quartermaster.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, April 5, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel J. L. DONALDSON,

Quartermaster, U. S. Army, Baltimore, Md.

COLONEL: Your telegram of this date is just received and I have replied by telegram giving you all the information I have in relation to the movement of prisoners. When I sent instructions to the West for this movement I requested that you might have timely so that there might be no delay for transportation, and Colonel Swords was directed by General Wright, in Department of the Ohio, to make the necessary arrangements. There must be some 8,000 to 10,000 prisoners to be forwarded in all and most or all of them are now on their way to Baltimore. About 5,000 are to come from Saint Louis and Alton (I gave you notice of 1,100 of these), 3,000 from Chicago and perhaps 2,000 from Camps Butler, Chase and Morton and the depot at Sandusky. These numbers will enable you to make an estimate of how much transportation you will require.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

HEADQUARTERS PAROLED PRISONERS,
Near Annapolis, Md., April 5, 1863.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose you complete rolls* of officers and men which arrived here on the 1st and 2nd of April, 1863, from Richmond on board of transport State of Maine, Captain John E. Mulford,

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* Omitted.

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