stores, &c., any of which could have taken 250 men and would have been thus guarded.

Colonel Lagow leaves for Vicksburg himself and Colonel Mansfield, Fifty-fourth Indiana, reports to me for orders, having received none. He reports 1,400 men. I have ordered all that can go on the Emerald to go on that boat; the remainder await transportation at Fort Pickering. Colonel Mansfield also reports that the prisoners have suffered for want of provisions.

I send them by order of General Halleck, officers to Sandusky, men, half to Indianapolis and half to Fort Delaware.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. A. HURLBUT,

Major-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Washington, D. C., May 29, 1863.

Major General A. E. BURNSIDE,

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio.

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a letter* which I addressed to the commander of the District of Eastern Kentucky in reply to two letters received from him reporting the release of prisoners. By a similar report of the release of prisoners of war from General White of May 12+ made through your headquarters, which I have the honor to inclose herewith, it appears that the general puts a very different construction from mine upon the orders of the War Department referred to, and I have therefore respectfully to request that you will take such action in the matter as you may deem proper. At is now stands I have no means of knowing anything about the prisoners held in the Eastern District of Kentucky except as I receive occasionally a report from the officer in command of prisoners that he has released.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Washington, D. C., May 29, 1863.

Major General A. E. BURNSIDE,

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio.

GENERAL: I had yesterday the honor to communicate to you the authority of the General-in-Chief to transfer the Fifty-first and Seventy-third Indiana Regiments on parole at Camp Chase to Indianapolis until exchanged, and I have most respectfully to request you will direct the officer in command at that camp to which they are assigned to furnish me rolls of them with a return at the end of this month if the transfer is made in the meantime, and to furnish me hereafter such report as I may call for.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

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*Omitted here; see Hoffman to Gallup, May 5, p. 558.

+See White to Thomas, p. 595.

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