therefore to request that his wife, who will present you this note, may be permitted to have an interview with him under the usual restrictions. Will you permit Mrs. Bond to replace such articles of clothing as her husband may have lost on the way from Fort McHenry to Point Lookout, not to exceed the prescribed allowance?

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

RICHMOND AND DANVILLE RAILROAD,

President's Office, Richmond, January 30, 1864.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War:

Will you do me the favor to give me a reply to the communication sent in to you yesterday* at any time during the day?

I have not sought a personal interview with you because I was unwilling to trespass on your time, which I know is so much occupied in attending to your pressing official duties.

Sixty of the prisoners escaped from the jail in Danville on night before last, and the remainder of them can get away whenever they shall make the attempt, there being, as I informed you at my last interview with you, no buildings in the town at all adequate to their safe-keeping.

If you would like to have a personal conference with me on the subject of my mission it will give me pleasure to call on you at any time to-day. I am at the Ballard House.

Yours, very respectfully,

TH. P. ATKINSON.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, EXECUTIVE DEPT.,

Richmond, Va., January 30, 1864.

The Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR:

SIR: I have the honor, by direction of the President, to forward for your attention and the proper action the following copy of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 25th instant:

Resolved, That the President be requested to inform this House what steps have been taken to carry out the provisions of the act of Congress of the 13th October, 1862, chapter 62, in relation to the arrest and disposition of slaves who have been recaptured from the enemy; what number of depots for their safe-keeping have been established, and whether public notice has been given in the newspapers of their arrest, as provided in said act.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BURTON N. HARRISON,

Private Secretary.

HEADQUARTERS FIRST BRIGADE, [January 31, 1864].

Major C. S. STRINGFELLOW, Dublin:

A flag of truce from Kanawha has arrived conveying a Mr. Maupin, of Cabell County, W. Va., who has been arrested as a hostage for Mr. Shaw, of Putnam, arrested by Colonel Ferguson and sent to Richmond. Mr. Maupin is under oath to disclose nothing and to return in twenty days unless Sheriff Shaw is released and returned. Mr. Maupin tells

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*See January 28, p. 888.

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