their custody. We must use the prisoners we have for the release of our brave boys who are in the enemy's possession. So soon as I can come in possession of the requisite number of paroles I will make the exchange you request; until then the officers and men must wait, unless in the meantime we get a majority of prisoners. In that latter event I will take pleasure in giving prisoners in hand for our paroled soldiers.

A day or two ago I dispatched a messenger to Major Szymanski, giving him instructions as to Trans-Mississippi matters.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

RO. OULD,

Agent of Exchange.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., June 5, 1864.

Colonel A. J. JOHNSON,

Commanding Depot Prisoners of War, Rock Island, Ill.:

COLONEL: Your letters of the 9th and 29th ultimo in relation to the expenditures for the construction of the hospital for prisoners of war are received. I am not able to ascertain from the report of Captain Reynolds how much of the whole cost is applicable to the hospital and how much to the smallpox hospital. Please give me the number and dimensions of the buildings erected for the latter purpose and their cost, and state if they have been paid for, and by whom. If they have not been paid for please state what amount is due. Please give me also a statement of the whole cost of the hospital, how much of it has been paid, and what is still due. The instructions to Surgeon Clark did not contemplate that he would order the erection of so extensive a hospital without the approval of this office, and much less was it anticipated that he would authorize the erection of any building to be paid out of funds which had not yet been collected. Such an order could not be carried out except by such an arrangement as was made by Captain Reynolds, which was injudicious and not authorized, and should not have been entered into until it had been referred to the Quartermaster-General and this office for approval. I have understood that Captain Reynolds has been ordered to be relieved, which must necessarily lead to much embarrassment in the settlement of his accounts for these disbursements. In all my letters on this subject I have urged the observance of the strictest economy, but from the items given in the report of Captain Reynolds I am led to believe that the expense was not as much considered as it should have been. One building of fourteen rooms, plastered, seems to be an extravagant allowance for the surgeons. A patent range at a cost of $600 is also an extravagant item. Of the other items I cannot well judge, but they seem to be on a too liberal scale; much more so than is proper in providing for rebel prisoners. In your letter of the 11th of February, 1864, you state that the erection of the buildings has been contracted for $18,000. In the report of Captain Reynolds, which accompanied your letter of the 23rd of March, he gives as the cost $24,225, considered by him a liberal estimate, and it was on this estimate, and it was on this estimate that the completion of the work was authorized in my letter of the 4th of April. Any expenditure beyond that amount should not have been made without authority. The estimate now presented by Captain Reynolds reaches the sum of $29,914. 55, and I fear that there will be still other amounts to be added. As I stated in my letter of the 21st of April, I cannot ask the Quartermaster-General to authorize Captain Reynolds to advance