[First indorsement.]

SEPTEMBER 1, 1863.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL:

Could this request be complied with? Has any Federal money been lately captured or otherwise come under the control of the Department?

J. A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

[Second indorsement.]

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, September 4, 1863.

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War.

Captain Morfit, assistant quartermaster, on duty with Brigadier General John H. Winder in this city, has in his possession $3,400 captured from Colonel Streight by General Morgan, and about $10,000 taken from officers and men of U. S. Army, held captive at this point. As to the propriety of using this money it is for the War Department to determine. I think it questionable whether it could be safely conveyed to our officers held as prisoner of war at Johnson's Island, and suggest a reference of the question to Colonel Ould for opinion.

A. R. LAWTON,

Quartermaster-General.

HDQRS. HOFFMAN'S BATT., DEPOT PRISONERS OF WAR,
Near Sandusky, Ohio, August 14, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I inclose your letter to J. A. Seddon, Secretary of War. * On my return from the East, on seeing your first letter respecting clothing I directed all orders for clothing to be stopped. Probably but little will arrive which would conflict with your orders and require to be sent back. I have furnished copy of your letter to the officer charged with examination of packages. Unless these prisoners receive clothing from some quarter many will soon be without change of underclothing and many nearly naked. Sometimes a box of clothing comes that has been made up in a neighborhood and designed for many--generally cheap clothing and sometimes second-hand. Under your present order it would prevent its delivery without it is gray. By the orders I have issued the prisoners have become afraid to buy nice clothing even if they could, for fear it will be taken from them, and I think it would in the end save the Government furnishing clothing in extreme destitute cases if common clothing was delivered without regard to color. I call your attention to this view of the matter. I also have to report that boxes of clothing come here, including different description from what you allow, with a permit from General Burnside, viz, including boots.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. S. PIERSON,

Major Hoffman's Battalion, Commanding.

[AUGUST 14, 1863. --For Burnside's General Field Orders, Numbers 2, in relation to the treatment of Confederate prisoners of war, see Series I, Vol. XXX, Part III, p. 30.]

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*See next, ante, without indorsements.

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