charge, and permits them to cultivate a small garden within the walls of the prison, the produce of which will greatly add to their comfort and health.

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

C. McRAE SELPH,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

ANDERSON, June 6, 1864.

Captain L. G. ALDRICH:

A mob of 100 men within two miles of this place threatens to take out of my hands the political prisoners to execute them. They are expecting re-enforcements.

C. P. SMITH,

Lieutenant, Commanding Captain Webb's Company.

JUNE 6, 1864.

General BRAXTON BRAGG, Richmond:

Inspection report for the week ending May 31.

The post of Richmond (General Winder's old command), Major I. H. Carrington commanding, embraces, first, provost-marshal's department, consisting of a passport office and a police organization; second, Federal prisons; third, prison for Confederate offenders and deserters from the enemy; fourth, forwarding barracks for soldiers en route through Richmond; fifth, staff department. *

The Federal prisons. - Major Turner, commanding, assisted by three lieutenants, are in the lower part of the city. Employees - two clerks, one a soldier, the other a conscript, both able bodied, detailed for special fitness and long familiarity with the business by the Secretary of War; three policemen, disabled soldiers; one warden, a conscript detailed by Secretary of War; one commissary-sergeant; two soldiers detailed by the Secretary of War and Yankee deserters, cooks.

There were 2,239 prisoners on the day of the inspection.

The wards, with the exception of those of one building, were clean and free from vermin. Major Turner gave as an excuse for the condition of the dirty building that no brooms could be procured by requisition on the post quartermaster, Major Parkhill. This officer explained to me that he was not allowed to purchase, and that the department quartermaster charged with furnishing such supplies had none in store. The rooms assigned to officers were particularly clean and airy; a few officers are confined in cells as hostages. They are allowed to take exercise a few hours each day in a large basement, and the cells are cleaned and aired. These cells are well ventilated, and confinement in them does not differ much, except in being solitary, from confinement in other parts of the prison.

The rations for several days had been one-third of a pound of bacon, one pound of corn bread, and one-tenth of a pound of rice. For twenty days in May the prisoners were without meat, but this was during that time that our communications southward were interrupted. Two pounds of bread and as much peas as they could eat were then issued.

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*Only so much of this report as relates to "Federal prisons" is printed.

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