JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL'S OFFICE.

Washington, D. C., May 13, 1863

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. The sum of $1,000 taken from Don Ramon Mir while attempting to pass our lines without a pass was in the form of Confederate notes or bills of the Confederacy. As such they were seized by the provost court of New Orleans. Not only are these notes regarded by our Government as possessed of no pecuniary value, but they are also viewed as evidence of the existing rebellion and indicia of treason and as tending to excite a sympathy and an interest in the case of the rebels on the part of those who may use or receive them. They are illegal and disloyal publications and as such are ordered to be destroyed wherever found. An application therefore to restore these notes to their former possessor either in their original form or in Federal currency cannot be entertained. If Don Ramon Mir has other and equitable claims against the United States for property destroyed by our forces he is entitled to have them adjusted upon presenting the proper vouchers, but his present claim is quite a separate and independent matter.

J. HOLT.

Judge-Advocate-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS.

Washington, May 13, 1863

Major General A. E. BURNSIDE,

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio.

GENERAL: I desire respectfully to call your attention to the following matter: A few days since I received from Colonel Simonson, commanding Camp Carrington, muster and descriptive rolls of paroled prisoners at that camp, furnished as he states pursuant to General Orders, Numbers 46, current series. The order referred to applies to men absent without authority, paroled prisoners included, and requires that they should be sent to general camps designated in General Orders, Numbers 72, of June, 1862, and it requires that the military commandant shall make tri-monthly reports of men so forwarded. Colonel Simonson neither forwarded the men nor made the reports required and from his rolls I am unable to say whether the names of these men have ever been presented for exchange or not or whether they are covered by the recent declaration of exchanges by having been delivered at City Point. General Orders Numbers 72 names the camps at which paroled prisoners are to be assembled and the commanders of these camps are required to furnish me with rolls of all men who join or leave, and with a monthly and semi-monthly return showing all alterations. Previous to November last it was permitted that paroled prisoners belonging to Indiana regiments should be assembled at Camp Morton, but since that time the Secretary of War has repeatedly refused to permit special camps to be appropriated to paroled troops of particular States. If the men on Colonel Simonson's rolls were delivered at City Point as I presume they were they were ordered from Annapolis to Camp Chase, from which place they deserted, being encouraged to do so in hopes they could go to Camp Carrington and remain there without fear of punishment, and in this it would seem they have been disappointed. You will readily understand the confusion and detriment to the service which must result from such a state of things, and I respectfully, request you will give such instructions as will secure a compliance with the orders from the War