[First indorsement.]

SECRETARY OF WAR:

The papers relative to this subject were submitted some time ago. None of the negroes captured were of South Carolina, nor were there any of them slaves at the commencement of the war.

J. A. G.

[Second indorsement.]

AUGUST 14, 1863.

The resolutions of Congress are explicit that negroes captured in arms shall be surrendered to the authorities of the States in which they are taken.

J. A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, August 9, 1863.

Honorable R. OULD, Agent of Exchange, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: I return you a communication* purporting to have been written by one S. P. Moore, Surgeon-General, &c. No paper containing a word disrespectful to the Government under which I have the honor to serve will be forwarded. Yours of the 5th ultimo inclosing the above, coming under the same category, is also returned.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. A. MEREDITH,

Brigadier-General and Commissioner for Exchange.

[Indorsement.]

Notwithstanding the objectionable language in the complaint of the rebel surgeon I recommend that these papers be transmitted to the commanding officer at Fort Delaware for a report.

E. A. HITCHCOCK,

Major General of Vols. and Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners.

MILITARY PRISON, Alton, Ill., August 9, 1863.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners:

COLONEL: I received your telegraphic dispatch of the 6th in relation to cost of building and lease of lot for smallpox hospital at this place in due time, and would have replied to it sooner only that it was not known till yesterday whether we could get a place within a reasonable distance of the prison to locate the establishment. I have not made and estimate of the coast of the cost of the building like that suggested by me for the reason that it has been decided by the Surgeon-General of the Army, who has sent instructions to that effect to the officers of his department at Saint Louis, that hospital tents shall be used for the purpose of a smallpox hospital at this place. Requisitions have been already sent to the quartermaster's department for these tents, and so soon as received they will be put on the ground selected, and the hospital put into operation as soon after as possible. We have had great difficulty in getting a place within a reasonable distance of the prison and suitable in all respects to locate the hospital. Persons owning land and living in the vicinity of Alton are strongly opposed to having an establishment of the kind on or near their premises, hence

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* See Ould to Meredith, August 5, with inclosure, p. 181.

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