the spirit of the President's telegraph, I have not carried any sentence into execution. All sentences of death are under my order to be executed within forty-eight hours after the sentence is read to the prisoner. That sentence is not ordered to be read to the prisoner until the time and place are fixed for his execution, so that there would seem to me to be no propriety in noting anything of the President's order upon the proceedings I approve. No man has been pardoned or respited by the President, because the record has not been forwarded to him, so that I can make no record of any action of the President, because none has been taken. I must do my duty under the law, which is to approve or disapprove of the sentence, and to carry it into effect unless the President intervenes.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Commanding.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., January 28, 1864.

Colonel WILLIAM WALLACE, Commanding, Columbus, Ohio:

COLONEL: By direction of the Secretary of War you will please release Colonel B. W. Duke, Second Kentucky Cavalry, from the Ohio penitentiary at Columbus, where he is now held as a prisoner of war, and transfer him to Camp Chase on his parole not to pass the limits of the camp without authority from the War Department, nor to have any communication with any person by word or in writing, except by your authority, nor to do any act, directly or indirectly, against the authority or interests of the United States.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

RICHMOND, January 28, 1864.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War:

SIR: I am charged by the corporate authorities of Danville with a mission whose character will appear by a perusal of the accompanying papers, to which I ask your attention, and will be very much obliged if you will favor me with a reply as soon as by 10 o'clock to-morrow evening, to be left at the office of the Spotswood, as I desire to leave to-morrow afternoon on my return house.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. P. ATKINSON.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War of the Confederate States:

Your petitioners, the mayor and common council of Danville, would respectfully represent that we deem it our imperative duty earnestly to petition for the removal of the Yankee prisoners located among us to some other place, or at least outside the limits of the corporation of Danville. The reasons for this application, which are embodied in this petition, are explained by the certificates hereto annexed.

The hospitals of the prisoners and sick are located in the very heart of the town, and are not all in one place, but scattered in the most