thereof as relates to the insufficiently of the guard at Point Lookout has been referred to General Halleck, who will make proper provision for the subject. The question of the replacing of the sailing vessel by a steam gun-boat will be referred to the proper department. Adverting to your inquiry whether the President's instructions to Major-General Butler, dated January 4, 1864, are still in force, I am directed by the Secretary of War to inform you that those regulations are to be taken as having no present application, and as suspended until further orders.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. A. HARDIE,

Colonel and Inspector-General.

RICHMOND, VA., May 25, 1864.

Brigadier General J. H. WINDER, Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to make the following report in reference to military prison at Andersonville, Ga., to which place I was ordered by you in communication dated 31st [30] of April, for the purpose of making an inspection and reporting on same.

Portions of the encampment I found in very filthy condition, the proper drainage of the grounds has been very much neglected, and the police of the entire encampment, until very recently, has been very defective, but every effort is being made by the commandant of the interior prison to put it in good condition, and in this connection I beg leave to call your attention to the facts mentioned in Captain Wirz's report, which I herewith inclose, viz:

That it has been only weeks since I received axes, spades, &c., from Columbus to cut ditches, &c.

No encampment on so large a scale as Camp Sumter can be properly policed and drained without an abundant supply of these materials, and as they had only been furnished two weeks before I reached Andersonville it is a wonder to me that the camp is in as good condition as I find it; its condition previous to that time must have been wretched. Much yet remains to be done to render it habitable, but judging from the energy which has marked Captain Wirz's conduct in respect to the management of the prisoners at Andersonville, there is every reason to believe that there will be a continued improvement. The camp is supplied, at least for drinking purposes, with excellent water from a stream which runs through the center of the stockade. I do not regard the stream of sufficient volume and velocity for the purpose required at so extensive a prison and would advise that wells be dug on the higher portions of the grounds, and if the number of prisoners is very much increased and this camp made, as I suppose it will be, the grand receptacle for prisoners captured throughout the Confederacy, then I would by all means recommend that another area be inclosed with a to the present one and that the grounds selected be on a stream about one-quarter of a mile south of the present camp.

This stream is of a volume and velocity at least ten times greater than the one which runs through the grounds now occupied. In regard to the present location of the hospital within the stockade, I regard it as the very worst place possible for it, and I think that any sensible man who has any experience in the management of prisoners will, upon inspection of this post, agree with me. It is needless for me to detail objections to the present location of the hospital. They are fully stated in the report of the surgeon of the post, which I herewith inclose, and I would earnestly advise its immediately removal.