[Inclosure.]

OFFICE COMMISSIONER FOR EXCHANGE,

Fortress Monroe, Va., September 18, 1863.

All civilians who may have been arrested by the Confederate authorities and delivered on parole at City Point or at other places across our lines on or before the 6th of May, 1863, are hereby discharged from any and every obligation contained in any parole they may have given to the enemy.

S. A. MEREDITH,

Brigadier-General and Commissioner for Exchange.

[Indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, October 20, 1863.

COLONEL: I return the inclosed as you desire. It is deemed best not to include this in the general order declaring exchange of soldiers; at any rate, just now.

E. D. TOWNSEND.

LIBBY PRISON, Richmond, September 18, 1863.

Pursuant to previous notice, a meeting of the officers of the U. S. Army now confined in Libby Prison as prisoners of war was convened for the purpose of considering their condition and treatment while in such confinement and the best and proper means of improving the same. On motion, Major E. N. Bates, Eightieth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, was called to preside, and Major Harry White, Sixty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, was elected secretary of the meeting. Upon the organization the chair was called upon to state the object of the meeting. To this call he responded by stating that this meeting as he was informed was called by the officers confined in Libby Prison to consult upon the best means of improving our physical condition while in confinement, and to inform the United States Government of our treatment by the Confederate authorities, and to correct any misrepresentation or misapprehension touching the same. The meeting was attended by nearly all of the officers confined in the prison, and much feeling was manifested in the object of the meeting.

On motion, a committee of three officers was appointed by the chair to report the sense of the meeting. The chair appointed on said committee Lieutenant-Colonel Williams, [Twenty-fifth] Regiment Ohio Volunteers; Dr. William Spencer, assistant surgeon Seventy-third Indiana Volunteers; Captain B. F. Fisher, Signal Corps, U. S. Army. This committee withdrew a few moments and returned with the following report, which was read to the meeting and instantly adopted with the manifestation of much feeling and not a dissenting voice:

LIBBY PRISON, Richmond, September 18, 1863.

Major E. N. BATES,

President of Meeting of Officers, Prisoners of War, in Libby Prison:

SIR: Your committed appointed to report the sense of this meeting on the matters it was called to consider would respectfully report as follows:

Whereas the officers of the U. S. Army now confined in this prison as prisoners of war have understood a communication, dated September, 1863, signed by two officers of the U. S. Army of advanced rank, confined here, represents the entire satisfaction of those two officers with the treatment received at the hands of the Confederate Government and the officials of the prison, which paper has been given to the authorities now holding us, and will doubtless be forwarded through our commissioners of exchange to our Government and be otherwise made public.

While the said communication undertakes only to give the individual opinions of its signers, we yet fear by improper inference therefrom the opinions and feelings of the officers, prisoners here, may be compromised and our Government be misinformed thereby. We deem it proper and necessary to make a fair and truthful statement of