the remainder will soon be completed. It seems somewhat unjust that severe labor without compensation should be obtained from a portion of the prisoners, while others remain inn idleness; though I am not sufficiently acquainted with prison discipline to propose any measure unless it be give a small compensation to the laborers out of the prison fund.

[JULY 25, 1863- For Vollum to Hammond, in relation to transportation of wounded Confederate prisoners from the battle-field of Gettysburg, &c., see Series I, Vol XXVII, Part I, p. 25.]

[JULY 26, 1863- For correspondence, &c., not found herein, relating to Brigadier General, John H. Morgan's raid into Indiana and Ohio and capture, see Series I, Vol XXIII, Part I, p. 632 et esq.]

SAINT LOUIS, July 26, 1863.

Brigadier-General McNEIL, Springfield:

Inform the bearer of flag of truce that the exchange notice published in Richmond and which he quotes is decided by our authorities too general in its terms, and is now under revision by the commissioners for exchange. The prisoners will be disposed of according to the final agreement of the commissioners if it is found to apply to their cases. Also please report to me the cases in question in order that I may determine whether they come under existing rules. Dismiss the flag with warning of the consequence of the unjustifiable retaliation the enemy proposes. You are right in detaining the bearers of concealed letters.

J. M. SCHOFIELD,

Major-General.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, July 26, 1863.

Colonel LUDLOW, Agent of Exchange:

SIR: Your communication of the 22nd contest my declaration of exchanges of officers made on the 17th instant. You say "the cartel provides for the exchanges of equal rank until such are exhausted and then for equivalents". If you had been at Fortress Monroe, where you could have seen the cartel, instead of New York, from which your letter is dated, you would have written no such paragraph. There is nothing in the cartel which contains any such doctrine, or which favors it. Every provision is against it. Your own and my practice has been opposed to it. I again say to you what I have already stated in my communication of the 17th instant, that your assent is not needed to the declared exchange, and I shall not notify the officers whom I have declared exchanged, as you request. I have allowed you to declare exchanges when the number of prisoners in our hands has been the greater. This has been the case from the day when we first met, in the fall of last year, to the capture of Vicksburg. Now, when you have scarcely received official advices of your superiority in prisoners, you boast of the fact, and declare that I cannot give an equivalent for the general officers I have declared exchanged. The point you make is worth nothing, even as you have stated it. You know we have no lieutenant-generals or major-generals of yours in our hands. For that