OFFICE COMMISSIONER FOR EXCHANGE,

Fort Monroe, Va., February 24, 1864.

Honorable ROBERT OULD, Agent for Exchange, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: Will you please inform me as to the whereabouts and present condition of Captain Frederick B. Doten, Company F, Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteers? He was captured on the 6th instant, in Sedgwick's advance over the Rapidan.

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

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General and Commissioner for Exchange.

OFFICE COMMISSIONER FOR EXCHANGE,

Fort Monroe, Va., February 24, 1864.

Honorable ROBERT OULD, Commissioner for Exchange, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: I beg leave to inclose a letter from the father of Captain Waller, who has been supposed by the Confederate authorities to be confined in the State prison, and of whom Captain Ives has been ordered to solitary confinement in irons as a hostage; you will see that the whole matter is a mistake, to which I beg to call you attention.

Please inform me whether the irons have been removed from Ives and his associate.

Will you, under the circumstances, exchange Ives for Waller?

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

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General and Commissioner for Exchange.

THE STATE OF OHIO, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Columbus, February 24, 1864.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: On Saturday last it was discovered that the band of Morgan's men in the Ohio penitentiary had arranged for an attempt at escape by an assault with weapons upon the guard. They had stolen, one by one, a lot of the table knives, and, by the use of files procured at the time of escape of John Morgan and the stone floors of their cells, had ground them to sharp-pointed and dangerous weapons. A through, and to them unexpected, search was made and nine of these knives and two files taken from them, filling the number we were informed they possessed. I have cleared the west wing of convicts and placed these prisoners there. They are now entirely isolated from convicts and all but their proper guards. Their meals will be served to them in this wing, and all eating implements counted out and in to them daily. The leaders of this band are desperate men, capable of any crime. The disclosure of this plot was made by one of the band, whose life would be in danger if his name of the fact of such a communication was known. His conduct has been very good thus far. If it holds good in the future I will take the liberty of presenting his case to you for consideration.

Very respectfully,

JNO BROUGH.