the door to an infinite number of applications for such preferences, and those who failed and their friends would make loud complaints of partiality, which there would be much room for. We had no colonel on parole who could be made an equivalent for Colonel T. P. Dockery, Nineteenth Arkansas, declared exchanged by Mr. Ould, and I would suggest that you call on him to release a colonel from Richmond as an equivalent. He will probably not consent to it, but you have a clear right to make the demand. I will make inquiries in relation to the treatment of General Morgan's officers. I will furnish you with an abstracts of the officers and men covered by Mr. Ould's declarations.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., October 21, 1863.

Brigadier General JOHN S. MASON, Commanding, Columbus, Ohio:

GENERAL: I have the honor to request you will inform me of the treatment received by General Morgan and his officers on their arrival at Columbus. They complain that on being placed in the penitentiary they were treated as being convicts, in being shaved and having their hair cut short. Please give me all the details and the authority for any peculiar treatment which they may have received. It has been reported that their money, watches, and other property was taken from them. Please informs me if this report be true, and if so, what disposition was made of the money and property?

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., October 21, 1863.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN,

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

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith my report of inspection of U. S. military prisons and hospital at Saint Louis, Mo. I also visited Schofield Barracks in that city, but as they are used merely as a straggler's camp and for the temporary confinement of Federal soldiers, I at this place, and leave on the 23rd instant for Louisville, Ky.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. M. CLARK,

Surgeon and Acting Medical Inspector of Prisoners of War.

[Inclosure.]

Report of the inspection of the Gratiot and Myrtle Street Prisons and Hospital at saint Louis, Mo., October 18, 1863, by A. M. Clark, surgeon and acting medical inspector of prisoners of war.

Surgeon in charge - Actg. Asst. Surg. G. H. Hood, U. S. Army. Location of hospital - corner of Eighth and Gratiot streets. Vicinage-city. Drainage - tolerably good, into city sewer. Buildings - three large buildings, formerly used as a medical college, and four smaller, formerly