Washburn, composed of three officers, who were directed to inspect the prison thoroughly and report at length. They found it to consist of three stories, the ground floors having gratings and being used respectively for Federal, Confederate, and citizen prisoners. The front room on the second floor of the middle tier is used for the office, and immediately in its rear is the room used for female prisoners, which is without ventilation or light, badly policed, bed and clothing directly, and everything in confusion. Visitors are permitted to hold conversation with prisoners freely. The quarters of the prison guard are in disorder and badly policed; rations cooked and eaten in the same room, and the place absolutely filthy. The officer's prison, second story, south tier, has no ventilation; the utensils in the cooking department dirty, though the officers' cook-room, in good condition; laundry and colored female prison, and colored hospital, said to contain a wagon load of dirt; a patient sick and bed with pneumonia, with a ball and chain on; chain-gang room in basement dark, cold, damp, and filled with disgusting odors.

The report proceeds with much minuteness to detail the cases of prisoners. This portion not being susceptible of condensation, a reference to the copy thereof herewith is respectfully invited. The general tenor of the report is decidedly against the administration of affairs, and shows that, through inadvertence, neglect, or want of time, many cases of hardship and injustice appear to have existed, while the sanitary police of the establishment seems to have been wretchedly inefficient.

The report concludes as follows:

The building is unfit for the purpose for which it is used. Great improvements have been made in it during the administration of Captain Williams, all of which will more fully and at large appear in the report of Captain Williams, which is hereunto annexed and made part of this record.

Captain Williams laid before the commission a statement setting forth a history of his connection with the prison and endeavoring to show that his management thereof had been an improvement upon that of his predecessor; that the defective ventilation was solely the fault of the construction of the building; that the guards were changed so often that he could not make them efficient; that the delays attending the administration of justice were attributable to the insufficient number of officers assigned to the duty of examining the cases, and that he had made every exertion to discharge the duties devolved upon his position. He submitted also the certificate of the superintendent of general hospitals, who considered the hospital in good order and the prison as well conducted as circumstances admitted.

In submitting his case to the President this officer says that he graduated at West Point in 1852 and has never before been under charges, and that he can refer to Lieutenant-General Grant and Major-General Sherman as to his character. He files the following:

First. A testimonial from Major-General Hurlbut, who says:

Captain George A. Williams, First U. S. Infantry, assumed the duty of provost-marshal at Memphis at my request. For a long time and until my removal he reported daily to me and confidentially. I know, therefore, his duties and the manner in which he has performed them, and I affirm from such knowledge that his place in that department cannot be filled so far as I know by any other officer. I know him to be of the highest courage, physical and moral, no respecter of persons or positions in the line of his duty, of incorruptible integrity and of zealous honor. Inaccessible to bribes, he is equally so to those blandishments which sometimes succeed. Neither man nor woman can turn him from his duty. He believes rebellion a crime, and traitors criminals, in which I concur. His administration at Memphis has satisfied all loyal men, and has given umbrage only to the host of plunderers and thieves and their allies.