OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL OF PRISONERS,

ROCK ISLAND BARRACKS,

Rock Island, Ill., April 29, 1864.

Colonel A. J. JOHNSON,

Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, Commanding Post:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report in accordance with instructions from your office dated April 20, 1864, requiring the provost-marshal of prisoners of furnish a "weekly report of the condition of the police of the barracks, hospitals, outhouses, and grounds of the prison," that the avenues of the prison have been for the past three weeks and are still undergoing a thorough course of grading, and with the recently adopted system of surface drainage (which will be completed in about ten days) promise to soon become hard, dry, and easily kept free from filth.

The inside of prison barracks has recently been thoroughly whitewashed, rendering them clean, light, and measurably free from smell.

Water is plentifully supplied by the present temporary arrangement, which will answer very well for the number of prisoners now on hand, but would prove inadequate fora larger number.

The system of privies recently adopted is a complete success so far as cleanliness is concerned, although an immense amount of labor is necessary to keep them in such a condition. The hospitals are frequently and thoroughly scrubbed and whitewashed, and their grounds policed daily by details from the prison.

I have the honor to report the general condition of the prison as good and continually improving, under the rigid system of policing now in progress, from 400 to 500 men being employed daily in perfecting the work.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. P. CARAHER,

Lieutenant-Colonel Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps,

Provost-Marshal of Prisoners.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ROCK ISLAND BARRACKS, May 1, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to Colonel William Hoffman, U. S. Army, Commissary-General of Prisoners, with the remark that in a personal inspection of the prison which I make nearly every day that the within report is correct.

A. J. JOHNSON,
Colonel Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, Commanding Post.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 100.
Richmond, April 29, 1864.

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XXIII. Captain Walter Bowie, Company G, Fortieth Regiment Virginia Volunteers, will proceed without delay to Americus, Ga., and make a thorough and minute inspection of the Federal prisoners in that vicinity, and will report to this office upon their management and condition.

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.