ANDERSONVILLE, July 25, 1864.

General S. COOPER:

There are 29,400 prisoners, 2,650 troops, 500 negroes and other laborers and not a ration at the post. There is great danger in this state of things. I have ordered that at least ten days' rations should be kept on hand, but it has never been done.

JNO H. WINDER,

Commanding.

[First indorsement.]

Respectfully submitted to Commissary-General.

H. L. CLAY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Second indorsement.]

The relation which subsists between commissaries of post and the commanding officer, so far as relates to the subsistence of prisoners of war, is quite different from their duties connected with troops. In the former relation the commanding officer of the post has nothing to do with the person employed in feeding the prisoners; if he things the prisoners are likely to rebel on account of food he should state the case to the Commissary-General.

A reference to the acts approved May 21, 1861, and February 17, 1864, is conclusive.

Prisoners, either soldiers or sailors, were first turned over to the Quartermaster-General to be kept in custody and fed by him and his subordinates under direction of the Secretary of War.

Now the latter part of these duties are by law devolved on the commissary-General. If General Winder has the custody of the prisoners of war he is so far a subordinate of the Quartermaster-General. The Commissary-General claims to control everything relating to subsisting them through his subordinates. If the commanding officer of the post thinks anything about supplies is going it is his duty to report his views to the Commissary-General. General Winder has no right to give any orders on the subject according to my understanding of the laws, and practice hitherto, when the Quartermaster-General had charge of the prisoners' subsistence and the Commissary-General furnished the stores.

The supplies for the prisoners are furnished by the district commissary, Second District of Georgia, who has long been under orders to send stores for the army of Virginia as fast as possible hither.

Had General Winder Winder's orders for ten days' rations for over 32,000 men to be kept ahead been complied with, I should have countermanded it to the district commissary. The reason against such accumulation are greater now than before. The West Point Railroad is cut. Fifteen or twenty days will be required to repair it if we succeed in keeping it open; hence the support of the Army of Tennessee is on Georgia, which must still furnish Virginia with stores. Alabama had previously supplied the former army with corn, while the troops on the waters of th Atlantic drew from Georgia and South Carolina.

Meanwhile we have no money either to buy or impress provisions See my paper of July 2 instant. General Winder thinks the prisoners should have ten days' ahead, while the army may be restricted in a day's ration. And during this campaign around Richmond, with all the roads cut, a deficiency below what here would have been critical.