OFFICE COMMISSIONER FOR EXCHANGE,

Fort Monroe, Va., November 3, 1863.

Major General E. A. HITCHCOCK,

Commissioner of Exchange, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to report that the reply to my request for the release of the officers and crews of the Morning Light, Velocity, and Harriet Lane was as follows:

If the officers and crews of those vessels are in confinement they are there because you refuse to release the officers and crews of Confederate vessels. The former are very likely to remain in confinement until you release the latter unless I have made some agreement which entitles them to a discharge. I am not aware of having done so.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD,

Agent of Exchange.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. A. MEREDITH,

Brigadier-General and Commissioner for Exchange.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Columbus, Ohio, November 3, 1863.

General JOHN H. MORGAN:

SIR: I have delayed answering your letter of the 31st ultimo until I could consult with the prison directors. It is not a part of my military duty to require more than your safe confinement in the Ohio penitentiary, giving you as far as practicable all of the privileges of prisoners of war.

As your place of confinement designated is the Ohio penitentiary, it is necessary that you should be subject to and observe the rules and regulations for the government of that institution.

The directors deem it necessary to keep the convicts entirely separate from your officers, and have required that at such times as they are going to or from their cells those of the prisoners of war must be closed. You will be allowed as much freedom on Sundays as the rules of the institution will admit of.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO S. MASON,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS COMMANDER OF THE POST,
Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., November 3, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

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

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following reply to the report of Dr. A. M. Clark, acting medical inspector of prisoners of war, as directed by you in your note of October 24, 1863:

First. Police of camp very much neglected, except in barracks of Invalid Corps.

From the 18th of August to the 26th of September the whole guard duty of the camp was performed by eight companies of the First Michigan Sharpshooters and two companies Sixty-fifth Illinois Infantry. The force was so small that the men were compelled to go on duty every other day, and there was but little time to do police duty. The invalids had been in camp but four or five days when the inspection