than half of them are occupying the officers' quarters, which is very objectionable, as this wilfully injures the quarters very much, and besides compels our own officers to be restricted to a very scant allowance. They are immediately to be moved into four rooms designed for soldiers, which will accommodate 160 men. There are some basement rooms belonging to the officers' quarters, where some special cases are now confined and which can still be used for this purpose. They will receive from thirty to fifty.

There is quite an extensive building on the parole ground, now partly occupied by the engineers, which will very well quarter one company, and if it can be used for this purpose six of the casemate rooms may be vacated, which will afford room for the reception of 240 prisoners, thus making the whole number that can be accommodated between 400 and 500.

I was informed by Major Blunt, the engineer in charge of the work, through Captain McKim, the quartermaster in Boston, that the building referred to can conveniently be spared by his department, and I respectfully recommend that the arrangement suggested by authorized. The present garrison will suffice for the number of prisoners proposed.

I visited Fort Independence also, which lies between Fort Warren and the city of Boston. It is a small work and there is no part of it that is well adapted to received prisoners, though if it were necessary eight or ten special cases might be taken care of there.

On Tuesday I visited Fort Adams, which is on a point of land in Narraganestt Bay, about two miles by water for Newport, R. I. This is a very extensive work, but it has limited accommodations for the garrison, none of which could be made available for prisoners. There are more quarters for officers than are mow required, but some of them are occupied by laundresses, and others leak so much as to make them uninhabitable. There are, however, twenty casements which are not armed and are only occupied as store-rooms for gun carriages and for workshops; these could be fitted up to receive about 500 prisoners, five of them being used for hospital purposes. The floors are of heavy plank and are so very open that it would be necessary to calk them; windows would have to be made in the end of the casemate which is boarded in, and the embrasures would require granting and glazing. There is a gallery for guns below this range of casemates, part of which could be used as a kitchen; but the danger from fire would make this very objectionable. A kitchen might be constructed on the parole on the parole ground, but it would be much in the way and but a short distance from the magazine, where 500 barrels of powders are stored. The garrison consists of two companies of recruits of the Fifteenth Infantry and a few assignable recruits.

There are no sinks inside the forts which the prisoners could use and they would have to pass to them outside during the daytime and use tubs in their rooms at night. The extent of the work and the numerous openings into the casemates make it very convenient for prisoners on the outside to communicate with those within unless prevented by a strong and vigilant guard.

If prisoners of war are to be confined there the garrison should not be less three full companies.

On Thursday I visited Fort Mifflin, on the banks of the Delaware, about seven miles below Philadelphia. It is a small work, having at present no place of confinement for prisoners but three bomb-proofs, which have no other ventilation than by the doors, one in each, and

44 R R-SERIES II, VOL VI