wounded at Chickamauga mostly, and now nearly recovered, the others having been sent to Belle Island. I wish to state how they fare. The rations are, for each man, twelve ounces of bread and two to three ounces of beef or mutton in twenty-four hours, given about 1 o'clock each day, and nothing else; no stoves, no fuel, no light at night, no soap. They have no straw or bunks and very insufficient clothing and blankets; not one in four has a blanket. They have very generally bad colds and cough incessantly. They are not allowed to purchase anything. What they get is got by stealth from the guard, who charge them two or three prices for everything they buy for them. I paid $1 for a small six-ounce loaf, but they usually get such a loaf for 50 cents, which is double the price out in the city for bread a little smaller. But the most of the privates were robbed of their money and have to live on their rations. So much for the private soldier.

The following is the substance of what General Dow and the officers generally desired me to communicate to you in relation to the comparative treatment they and the rebel officers in the North receive. From notes of his conversation:

We received twelve ounces bread daily, one-half gill rice, four ounces meat, vinegar and salt, one tallow candle to each room containing from 175 to 200 officers. They furnish stoves only for cooking purposes, and scarcely sufficient. We have to furnish our own cooking and table utensils, have to do our own cooking and rise very early, and then have no means of cooking more than two meals a day. We sleep on the floor without blankets (except as our Government furnishes them to us), are kept in close confinement in closely packed rooms, dark, deep, and insufficiently ventilated, though our windows have no glass in them. Now, we protest against the treatment their officers receive from our Government and we ask that they be placed in similar position until we and our men are better treated.

They would have sent a petition signed by every officer, but I thought it not safe to undertake to bring it through. They do not ask our Government to retaliate on the private soldier in captivity, but upon the officers.

Let me add, the officers who return South, whether they escape or are released, as the chaplains recently, almost uniformly misrepresent the treatment they receive and from it justify the treatment our officers receive.

Respectfully,

JOHN HUSSEY,

Delegate U. S. Christian Commission.

FLAG-OF-TRUCEBOAT,

Near Fort Monroe, Va., November 7, 1863.

General Dow makes the following suggestion, which, of course, will require to be handled with the utmost care and secrecy: That our Government send him $100,000 of the Confederate currency, which he understands our Government has in its possession, sealed up first in tin can sand they packed in other cans containing jellies, butter, molasses, solidified milk, &c., and all sent to him via the Sanitary Commission, or with its mark, within voice of its agent, and he will distributes aid money among the officers at the rate of $100 to each man and give the Government credit on pay-roll at the rate of $7 to $1.

Respectfully,

JOHN HUSSEY,

Delegate U. S. Christian Commission.