CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, Va., July 17, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel WILLIAM H. LUDLOW, Agent of Exchange:

SIR: In my communication to you of the 13th instant, declaring the exchange of certain officers who had been captured and paroled at Vicksburg, I only did what you yourself have frequently done. On at least one occasion you went further than I presumed to go. You declared your men exchanged when you had no equivalents to offer. You say in your letter of the 14th instant that you decline to unite with mein my declaration, and request me to notify the officers that their exchange cannot be recognized. I call your attention to the fifth article of the cartel, which provides that "each party, upon the discharge of prisoners of the other party, is authorized to discharge an equal number of their own officers or men from parole. " I have exercised a clear right under the cartel-one that you have exercised over and over again. I have already delivered to you the equivalents of these officers, which equivalents you may declare exchanged.

My right to declare these officers exchanged does not depend upon your assent. After I have given you equivalents their exchange is perfected by my declaration, whether you decline to unite with me or not. I shall not, therefore, give the notice which you request.

The officers referred to are already rightfully and properly exchanged. The right to declare officers and men exchanged, where equivalents have been delivered, is one that I cannot yield, and I am unwilling to bind myself by an agreement not to exercise that right "until we meet. "

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD,

Agent of Exchange.

CHARLESTON, S. C., July 17, 1863-6 p. m.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector-General, Richmond, Va.:

Enemy still actively constructing batteries on Morris Island. Since our reconnaissance of yesterday he has evacuated James Island, concentrating his forces on Little Folly and Morris Islands. His loss yesterday was about forty negroes killed and fourteen prisoners; several of latter claim to be free, from Massachusetts. Shall they be turned over to State authorities with the other negroes?

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE,
Vicksburg, Miss., July 18, 1863.

Major General J. B. McPHERSON,

Commanding Seventeenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: You will take immediate charge of transporting to the steamer and embarking of the Confederate sick and wounded for New Orleans or other points to which they are to be transported by water.

Make requisitions on Lieutenant-Colonel Bingham, chief quartermaster, for river transportation and for such land transportation, ambulances, &c., as you may require, and for medical and commissary supplies on the medical director and chief commissary of the department. You will see that this order is promptly executed.

By order of Major General U. S. Grant:

JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.