direction of Surgeon Clark on account of the prison fund will cost in the neighborhood of $30,000.

These improvements are being made by Captain Reynolds, assistant quartermaster. I have agreed with him to appropriate monthly out of the prison fund $4,000 for the payment of indebtedness created by him in the construction of the above works, which will all be completed by the end of this month. One month's estimates have already been made for work done and materials furnished, amounting to about $16,000, and one appropriation of $4,000 has been paid thereon, 75 per centum of the indebtedness remaining unpaid. At this rate of payment it will be six of eight months at least before the whole cost of the work can be liquidated by the prison fund.

The parties furnishing lumber and doing the carpenter work and roofing cannot afford to wait such a length of time for their money, and if they are compelled to it can but be expected that the work will cost the Government more than if payment could be made on its completion. The contractors have to pay cash for materials and labor and are men of comparatively limited means.

Captain Reynolds has signified his willingness to pay this indebtedness with quartermaster's funds, the amount to be refunded out of the prison fund in monthly installments of from $3,000 to $5,000, if properly authorized so to do by the Quartermaster-General.

Upon the foregoing statement of facts I have the honor to recommend that the Quartermaster-General be requested to make the proper authorization and advance the money upon Captain Reynold's estimate of funds required.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. J. JOHNSON,

Colonel Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, Commanding Post.

HDQRS. TWENTY-FIRST WISCONSIN VOL. INFANTRY,
Camp on Lookout Mountain, Tenn., April 16, 1864.

Major SOUTHARD HOFFMAN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department of the Cumberland:

MAJOR: On the 20th of September last, while in command of my regiment, I was taken prisoner by the enemy at the battle of Chickamauga. In company with about 1,800 prisoners taken at that battle I was marched and carried by rail to Richmond, Va.

At Tunnel Hill, Ga., all the non-commissioned officers and privates of the above prisoners were ordered by the Confederate commander of the post to stand in line and give up their rubber blankets, which was done.

At Atlanta, Ga., the same prisoners were ordered by Confederate officers to pass by detachments into an inclosure, and as each non-commissioned officer and private passed in he was stripped by Confederate officers of his blanket and overcoat. I protested to those officers against taking their overcoats and blankets as being inhuman and cruel and against the laws of civilized warfare. They did not deny the charge, but vindicated themselves by saying that the order for taking their overcoats and blankets was from the commander of the department and that it must be executed.

The night after the execution of this order and the following nights on our way to Richmond the non-commissioned officers and privates lay upon the ground without any covering except their common clothes.