master-General cannot be requested to authorize Captain Reynolds to advance the funds necessary to pay the expense of erecting the hospital for the prisoners of war. In your last report of the extent and cost of the work the estimate was $24,000, $6,000 more than the first estimate, ad the continuance of the work was authorized with the understanding that it was to be paid for out of the prison fund, and, as already some $12,000 to $15,000 of the fund has been expended in the purchase of materials and for labor, it was expected that the large monthly savings ould readily cover the balance as it became due. It appears from your present report that there is yet some $30,000 to be paid. You will therefore please prepare immediately a detailed statement of the amount of the prison fund thus far expended on the buildings erected and in progress, showing the quantity and cost of the different articles purchased and the amount paid for labor. State also the amount of material on hand, what amount will be required, and what further expenditures will be necessary to complete the work. If any part of the work was done by contract state what the contract was with all the particulars so that the matter may be clearly understood.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

SANDUSKY, OHIO, April 21, 1864.

Colonel HOFFMAN:

Transportation cannot be furnished until to-morrow, when they will be sent. The railway company here takes the contract to take them through. Shall not send invalids who refuse to go because they wish to take the oath.

H. D. TERRY,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES CONFEDERATE STATES,
Richmond, April 21, 1864.

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE,

Governor of North Carolina, Raleigh:

SIR: I have the pleasure to congratulate you upon the recent brilliant affair at Plymouth under the leadership of the young North Carolinian, Brigadier-General Hoke. May we have many more such to refer to hereafter as part of the history of the campaign of 1864. The President directs that the negroes captured by our forces be turned over to you for the present, and he requests of you that if upon investigation will ascertain that any of them belong to citizens of North Carolina you will cause them to be restored to their respective owners. If any are owned in other States you will pleasure communicate to me their number and the names and places of residence of their owners, and have them retained in strict custody until the President's views in reference to such may be conveyed to you. To avoid as far as possible all complications with the military authorities of the United States in regard to the disposition which will be made of this class of prisoners, the President respectfully requests Your Excellency to take the necessary steps to have the matter of such disposition kept out of the newspapers of the State, and in every available way to shun its obtaining any publicity as far as consistent with the proposed restoration. I have the