OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., December 26, 1863.

Major General N. P. BANKS,

Commanding Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, La.:

GENERAL: Some time in July last the War Department found it necessary to suspend the operation of so much of General Orders, Numbers 60, of June 6, 1862, and Numbers 90, of July 26, 1862, as direct that medical officers and chaplains who may be captured shall be unconditionally discharged, they being non-combatants, but recently, the cause of the suspension having been removed, the orders above alluded to have again been put in full force.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

(Same to Major General U. S. Grant, commanding Division of the Mississippi, Chattanooga, Tenn.)

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., December 26, 1863.

Brigadier General A. SCHOEPF, Commanding Fort Delaware, Del.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th instant in relation to the erection of a hospital on the New Jersey shore, and in reply I have to inform you that the Secretary of War approves your suggestion to substitute a tent hospital, it you find one necessary, for the frame hospital ordered.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

ASSISTANT INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

HEADQUARTERS NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS,
New Iberia, La., December 26, 1863.

Captain H. L. PIERSON, Jr.,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Provost-Marshal-General:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report to you that the prisoners of war sent up by you were yesterday delivered to the Confederate authorities in exchange for prisoners of ours in their hands.

Colonel Vincent, C. S. Army, has applied for permission to have a trunk of female apparel sent out to his wife from New Orleans. Major General W. B. Franklin has himself no objection to allowing this, provided the provost-marshal-general deems it advisable and proper.

If the request is brought to your notice by Colonel Vincent's friends in New Orleans I have to request you to give it such consideration as you think best.

Should any such trunk be sent to us to forward, we shall, of course, understand that it has been carefully examined.

The major-general commanding desires me to call your attention to the fact that the Confederate prisoners, both officers and men, who arrived from New Orleans were accompanied by a large amount of baggage, consisting of extra suits of clothing, spurs, belts, files, cotton, needles, playing-cards (by the gross), and writing-paper (by the ream).

I am, captain, your obedient servant,

EDWARD L. MOLINEUX,

Colonel and Commissioner of Exchange of Prisoners.