Commanders of departments and armies in the field should require in all cases full rolls of prisoners, giving rank, regiment, and company, and time and place of capture, to be forwarded without delay to the Commissary-General of Prisoners with a letter of transmittal showing what disposition was made of them and any other information that may be useful. All rolls should be signed by the officer who prepares them, and when prisoners are delivered by one officer to another he should take a receipt for all delivered, and on the rolls under the head of remarks he should account for all not delivered.

Surgeons in charge of hospitals to which prisoners of war are sent should be held accountable for them, and should be required to observe all regulations which govern depots.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA,
Cumberland, Md., April 4, 1864.

Brigadier General E. R. S. CANBY,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: In forwarding the inclosed papers it may be proper to call your attention to the fact that on the 19th day of January last a letter from Major-General Milroy informed you that one W. S. Dooley, a citizen, had been arrested at Winchester by the rebel forces and taken a prisoner to Richmond. The matter was at once referred by you to the then commanding general of this department for investigation and such action in the premises as he might deem proper and report. Whereupon two citizens of Winchester, the Rev. A. H. H. Boyd and a Mr. Conrad, rank secessionists, were arrested and held as hostages. They were subsequently released from close confinement on bond and parole to allow them an opportunity of applying for the release of Dooley. It appears that their efforts have resulted in obtaining these papers, copes of some claimed to have been found on the person of Dooley at the time of his arrest.

They claim that it clearly appears from these papers that Dooley is and should be held as a prisoner of war, and that therefore they should be released.

I would respectfully suggest that it would be well to communicate with the provost-marshal at Baltimore and ascertain from him the capacity in which Dooley was employed by the Government, whether as a mere detective (as his passes might indicate) employed to investigate frauds against the Government, or as a spy, or to recruit negroes. If in the first capacity he cannot properly be held as a prisoner of war, and until he is safely returned the hostages should be retained in our custody. If in the second capacity (as a spy) he would upon conviction be subjected to the usual penalties recognized by the law of nations, and in this case the hostages ought to be released. If, however, as in the last case proposed, Dooley was engaged in recruiting negroes he committed no crime recognized as much by the law of nations, and whatever penalties the rebel authorities may arbitrarily seek to impose against him, or other persons engaged in like business, should meet with prompt retaliation at our hands. In this case the hostages should be held until Dooley is safely returned.

Very respectfully,

F. SIGEL,

Major-General.