HOUSTON, May 19, 1864.

Captain W. G. WEBB, Commanding Post, Anderson, Tex.:

The major-general commanding wishes to know if in your opinion the court-house at Anderson can be made sufficiently secure to hold the political prisoners at present in confinement there.

He directs that Doctor Peebles will not be taken back to the jail, if, in the opinion of Doctor Carr, his life will be endangered thereby. Also that you make requisition on the Labor Bureau for one to be used as a cook for these prisoners. It has been represented to the major-general that the jailer states, inasmuch as the trap door of the deems it to be raised to afford ventilation to the room below, that he deems it necessary to chain to the floor a prisoner named Rose. The general does not think this necessary and wishes you to request the jailer to allow him to be unchained, as he does not think there is much probability of his escape, as the jail is well guarded, and should he decline to do this you will state it to the Governor, with the request that the order the jailer to comply with the request, if he has the authority.

L. G. ALDRICH,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, May 20, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to turn over to the War Department for exchange the following-named naval prisoners now confined at Fort Warren: S. Burrows, of South Carolina; J. P. Chapman, of South Carolina; John Carnighan, of South Carolina; Louis Green, of Alabama; A. P. Girard, of Alabama; W. W. Helm, of Mississippi; M. L. Hobson, of Virginia; Mark Hardin, of Georgia; Henry Kelley, of Florida; William T. Thompson, of Pennsylvania.

Very respectfully, &c.,

GIDEON WELLES,

Secretary of War.

[Indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, May 23, 1864.

Respectfully referred to the Commissary-General of Prisoners, to be filed for future reference and guidance in the cases to which these lists belong.

LOIS H. PELOUZE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

POINT LOOKOUT, MD., May 20, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to report that pursuant to your instructions I arrived at this post this morning at 7 o'clock and proceeded at once to examine into the condition of the force placed here in charge of the prisoners of war, the measures taken for their security, and all other matters in this connection, on which I have the honor to submit the following report:

The command at this post, under Colonel Draper, Thirty-sixth U. S. Colored Infantry, consists of the Fifth New Hampshire, 438 men; Fourth Rhode Island, 320; Thirty-sixth U. S. Colored Infantry, 753;