to provide for a thousand more at some other depot, and there is no place available so suitable as Fort Delaware. I would therefore request you will be prepared to receive the number above mentioned.

If we should be cramped for room for enlisted men, and have no officers to dispose of, I will possibly be able to send those now at Fort Delaware to some other point.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, April 28, 1864.

Major General B. F. BUTLER, &c., Fort Monroe, Va.:

SIR: I inclose herewith a copy of a communication received by the Department from Clarence Miller, dated March 13, 1864, from Libby Prison, Richmond, where he has been held for over a year, having been captured on the North Carolina coast in January, 1863, in consequence of the wreck of the vessel, the U. S. steamer Columbia, on which he was serving. He states in his letter the grounds of his detention.

By a declaration of exchange in May, 1863, as reported by Colonel Ludlow on the 30th of that month to the Adjutant-General of the United States, "all officers and men of the steamers Hatteras, Mercedita, Queen of the West, Harriet Lane, Isaac Smith, Columbia, Indianola, and schooner Vassar" were declared duly exchanged. Notwithstanding this, Clarence Miller is still held, not being recognized as a soldier entitled to treatment as a prisoner of war. There are others similarly situated, concerning whom the Department had frequent correspondence with Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow. Is there no prospect of anything being done for them?

Very respectfully, &c.,

G. V. FOX,

Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

[Inclosure.]

LIBBY PRISON, Richmond, Va., March 13, 1864.

Honorable GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy:

SIR: On the 11th of November, 1861, I shipped on board the gun-boat Sciota, at Philadelphia, Pa., as landsman. In December, 1862, I was taken sick and sent to Brooklyn hospital, N. Y., and as soon as I recovered my health was sent to receiving ship North Carolina; from her to gun-boat Columbia, commanding officer Captain Couiser [Couthouy]. We were shipwrecked off Wilmington, N. C., in January. 1863, and I was taken prisoner by the Confederates and sent to Richmond. Being of African descent (though nearly white) I have not been exchanged, as they do not recognize me as a soldier entitled to treatment as a prisoner of war. My home is in Philadelphia, Pa., and I am a freeman by birth. If it is in your power I most earnestly request that you try and get me released.

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

CLARENCE MILLER.

P. S. - I send this through by an exchanged prisoner of war.