INDIANAPOLIS, July 11, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

It is stated in dispatches that Captain John M. Flinn, of the Fifty-first Regiment Indiana Volunteers, a prisoner at Richmond, is to be executed in retaliation for a spy tried and executed by General Burnside. It would be deliberate murder if this threat is carried out, and I trust your Department will notify the rebel Government that if it is done strong retaliatory measures will be adopted.

O. P. MORTON,

Governor of Indiana.

PORT HUDSON, LA., July 11, 1863.

Major General N. P. BANKS,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Port Hudson, La.:

GENERAL: I respectfully request to be informed whether the portion of the C. S. troops who reside in New Orleans, and also those who reside within the U. S. lines in this vicinity, after having been paroled, will be permitted to go to their homes, to remain until exchange; and also whether such troops will be permitted to pass beyond the U. S. lines when they shall have been regularly exchanged?*

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRANK GARDNER,

Major-General, C. S. Army.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, July 11, 1863.

Colonel G. H. CROSMAN,

Assistant Quartermaster-General, Philadelphia:

COLONEL: The following is a copy of a telegram this day sent you, viz:

Send a steam water-boat to Fort Delaware for service while so many prisoners are confined there. It is reported that the water is not good, and that there is much sickness attributed to the use of water, producing diarrhea. Take prompt measures to remove all ground of complaint.

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General.

SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, July 11, 1863.

Colonel R. C. WOOD,

Assistant Surgeon-General, U. S. Army, Saint Louis, Mo.:

SIR: It is reported to the Commissary-General of Prisoners by Major Henderickson, commanding, that the military prison at Alton, Ill., is infected with smallpox, from which the most faithful effort will not free it. You will please instruct a medical inspector to examine into the circumstances attending upon the existence, and more especially the persistence, of the disease in this prison, and to recommend to Major Hendrickson such means of disinfection, police, isolation, and vaccination as may be proper in the peculiar circumstances. It is not believed that it will be necessary to even temporarily close this prison, but should it prove so, the proper recommendations will be made by you in

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*For reply, see Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part I, p. 634.

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