[Second indorsement.]

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, August 5, 1864.

Respectfully returned to the Adjutant and Inspector-General with the recommendation that Captain L. L. Varnadoe, assistant quartermaster, Twentieth Georgia Battalion, be ordered to report to Brigadier-General Winder for assignment to duty as within indicated.

A. R. LAWTON,

Quartermaster-General.

E. P. Scammon, brigadier-general, U. S. Army, Charleston, S. C., inclosing surgeon's certificate, and asking to be exchanged or paroled*.

[Indorsement.]

JULY 30, 1864.

Returned to the Honorable Secretary of War.

My own view is that if we yield in one of special exchange we are overwhelmed. Moreover, the Federal authorities would not so far respect the parole mentioned by General Scammon as to let him return. Several officers heretofore were sent off with such paroles, and the U. S. War Department has declared them exchanged. If General Scammon's conduct was such as to entitle him to special favor he might be sent off on general parole, but I more than doubt the policy of naming his equivalent. If we did, how could we refuse to do the same thing in other equally meritorious cases?

[RO. OULD.]

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, Va., July 30, 1864.

PETER HAMILTON, Esq.:

SIR: You have been selected by this Department, and are hereby commissioned, to make a full examination into the cases of all prisoners not connected with the Confederate Army held in confinement by the military authorities of the Confederate States of America at any militia post or prison in the State of Alabama.

You will communicate this appointment to Major General D. H. Maury and inquire where such prisoners are confined, and with as little delay as practicable will repair to the respective posts or prisoners and enter upon the discharge of the duties assigned. You are authorized to require the production of all documentary testimony and military orders respecting such prisoners; may examine any witness who can be produced for or against them, and may hear any statements which the prisoners desire or are willing to make. You are authorized to discharge, either absolutely or upon such oath or parole as you may think proper, all prisoners against whom no well-founded suspicion of having violated any law of the Confederate States may exist, or where longer detention you may think not demanded by the public interest, and to transfer to the civil authorities of the State or Confederacy such prisoners as you may think answerable to their jurisdiction. Orders will be issued to Major-General Mauray to render you every facility in the discharge of your duties, and to obey your instructions in regard to the prisoners you may examine. A full report of your proceedings under

* Scammon's papers not found.