failed were are compelled as a last resource to complaint o you. The provost-marshal visited us once, and after we had stated the case to him he said he would remedy it, but that is the last we have heard of it. We are also kept in close confinement all the time, whilst convicts of all kinds have the run of the yard all day. We have complained to the jailer, but he says he has too much to do, and cannot look out for us. We appeal to you, and hope to [get] relief from one whom we have always heard spoken of as a brave soldier and a humane man.

WM. A. YOUNG,

A. J. HENDRICKS,

W. J. WATTS,

CHARLES E. HORNEY,

JAMES BAILY,

In behalf of 24 prisoners confined in the tower of Charleston Jail, S. C.

[Indorsement.]

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, &C.,
March 16, 1864.

Respectfully referred to inspector-general for a rigid investigation and report.

By command of General Beauregard:

JNO M. OTEY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., March 17, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a report received from Colonel W. P. Richardson, commanding Camp Chase, of the shooting of five prisoners by the guard at that camp.

On the 15th of January, as soon as I heard of these transactions, I called on Colonel Wallace, commanding Camp Chase, for a full report of the several cases, which was received January 25, but being unsatisfactory, as coming from subordinate officers, and not going sufficiently into details, I directed him to investigate the cases fully and report all the particulars in his own name. He was relieved from command of the camp before the order could be executed and the duty has been performed by Colonel Richardson, the present commander. The apprehensions which prevailed at the time of a revolt of the prisoners justified a more than usual severity in enforcing orders by the guard, and three of the cases seem to have sufficient justification; but in the two cases where the sentinel fired into the barracks in consequence of a light in the stove, the circumstances were not such as to justify such harsh measures, though the sentinels seem only to have obeyed their orders.

The most censurable feature in these several cases is the fact that a prisoner, Henry Hupman, who was wounded about 9 o'clock in the evening, was suffered to lie in his bed bleeding for half an hour before permission was given to burn a candle, while his mess mates bound up the wound, and then it was 11 o'clock the next morning before the surgeon in charge dressed his wounds. This was a gross neglect of duty by the commanding officer, the officer of the day, and the surgeon in charge. Colonel W. Wallace, Fifteenth Ohio, was the commander of the camp at the time, though he had placed Lieutenant Colonel A. H. Poten in the