The major-general commanding directs that you use a sufficient force to prevent these prisoners from escaping, as well as to prevent the possibility of harm to them from outside pressure, and that you bring them safely to Houston as soon as possible.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this communication and state when you will leave with the prisoners for Houston.

EDMUND P. TURNER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

SHREVEPORT, March 26, 1864.

Major-General MAGRUDER:

Detain in confinement the following-named prisoners, to wit: R. R. Peebles, D. J. Baldwin, A. F. Zinke, Ernst Zeeliger, and Reinhardt Hillebrand.

By command of Lieutenant-General Smith:

W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., April 4, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to very respectfully call your attention to the fact that there is some want of uniformity of practice and some want of understanding by department commanders in regard to the control of prisoners of war, and I would, therefore, respectfully advise that an order be issued explanatory of the orders and regulations heretofore issued on this subject.

General Orders, Numbers 67, of 1862, places the supervision of prisoners of war at the several depots in the hands of the Commissary-General of Prisoners, and paragraph 136, Appendix B, Revised Army Regulations, directs that after prisoners are sent to the general depot by commanders in the field or of department their charge of them ceases, which necessarily requires the department commanders to be directly responsible to the Commissary-General of Prisoners. By the interposition of one or more intermediate commanders, as district or department commanders, the responsibility is much weakened and correspondence is unavoidably much delayed, and it is, therefore, advisable that communications and reports of all kinds pass directly to and from the Commissary-General of Prisoners. Generally my correspondence has taken this course, and I am not aware that it has been attended with any inconvenience, but I believe it is thought by some of the department commanders that the usual rule should not be departed from.

When not otherwise provided, guards for the depots should be detailed by the department commanders on the application of the Commissary-General of Prisoners and should not be relieved or changed without informing him of the fact, but all returns and reports of these guards should be made by the department commander, to whom they are responsible for their discipline and good conduct. At temporary depots established south of the Ohio River generals who order them should appointment should be reported to the Commissary-General of Prisoners, and the officer so appointed should be required to make promptly all the returns and reports required of depot commanders.