one for this escape. The camp is very badly arranged for the custody of prisoners of war. There are so many persons who have access to the camp, from the necessity of the case, that secret intercourse with prisoners of war is sometimes kept up, notwithstanding the utmost vigilance.

I have the honor to report further that I haven been compelled to institute many reforms in the camp, chief of which is the removal of the prisoners' barracks from the southeast corner of the camp to the west side of the camp, by which I get all the prisoners together in one part of the camp. Heretofore they have been so divided up as to make the guard duty nearly double what it ought to be and also to make it difficult to prevent access to and communication with the prisoners of war by unauthorized persons. I have the honor further to state that a prisoner of war, once beyond the camp lines, finds in this city so many active friends and sympathizers as to render his recapture almost impossible. Among the necessary changes in the barracks to guard against tunneling the floors of all barracks where tunneling has been detected have been taken up and filled in with sand. In conclusion, I may be permitted to state that, if I were not thoroughly familiar with the arrangements of the camp and barracks, and did not know so well their defects, I might attribute the escape to want of proper vigilance on the part of the officers in command, but under the circumstances and from the investigation I have made, I am satisfied that lack of vigilance on the part of the officers has been no ingredient in the means used to make the escape.

I have the honor to be, colonel, your obedient servant,

WM. W. ORME,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., January 20, 1864.

Brigadier General H. D. TERRY,

Commanding Sandusky Depot, Sandusky, Ohio:

Please see that rolls called for in my letter of the 5th instant to Lieutenant-Colonel Pierson are completed, and be ready for the movement of prisoners when ordered. An ordinary roll of each party will be required for this office. Please reply.

W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., January 20, 1864.

WARD H. LAMON, Esq.,

U. S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I am informed by E. C. Carrington, U. S. district attorney, that by an order from the U. S. court of this District $52. 30 in U. S. Treasury notes and $50 in gold, belonging to D. T. Chandler, and $36 in U. S. Treasury notes and $207 in gold, belonging to W. D. Cassin, will be placed in your hands by the assistant treasurer of the United States to be paid to me, and I beg to inform you that it will be agreeable to me to receive said money whenever it suits your convenience.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.