That the exchanges were again interrupted in May last by the operation of an act of the Confederate Congress, which was another gross violation of the cartel and the laws and usages of war, and which consigned to execution and other punishments certain of our captured officers and men. Will you please furnish Mr. Stephens with a copy of my communication to you and protest of 14th of June last on this subject, and also inform him that under that act of Confederate Congress officers, though their release has been demanded and equivalents in your officers tendered, which equivalents have been sent back to Fort Monroe from City Point?

Please also inform him that I have again and again invited your authorities to a return to the cartel in exchange of officers, and that such invitation has not been responded to.

I cannot but believe that with a statement of these plain facts so well known to you and to me, Mr. Stephens will readily see that your authorities are alone at fault, and that he will in the humane spirit with which he entered on his mission earnestly recommend the ignoring or repeal of the act of your Congress, which is such a clear violation of the cartel, and a fruitful-I may say only-source of the practical difficulties now surrounding the exchange of officers.

I have indulged the hope that the magnanimous treatment of your officers captured at Vicksburg, and their release upon parole, would have prompted the immediate release on parole of all our officers held by you.

That hope I have not abandoned.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. H. LUDLOW,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, July 15, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners:

COLONEL: I herewith inclose to you a receipt. My instructions to Captain Fillebrown, assistant adjutant-general, who came on in charge of prisoners of war from the West, were to distribute the money and valuables to the prisoners themselves, taking their receipt therefor, before delivering them at City Point.

I see a statement in the Richmond papers that these packages contained counterfeit Confederate money instead of the real money which was taken from the prisoner at Alton. The matter has not yet been brought officially to my notice, though I suppose it soon will be.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. H. LUDLOW,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.

[Inclosure.]

CITY POINT, VA., June 8, 1863.

Received of Captain H. C. Fillebrown, assistant adjutant-general, U. S. Volunteer, forty-nine packages containing money and valuables.

J. T. THOMPSON,

Captain, Commanding at City Point.