all men of their command bathe at stated intervals and that their clothes are washed at least once a week. For this purpose soap should be issued to the prisoners.

Improvement in rations. - The meal, if possible, should be bolted before being issued. Arrangements should be speedily made by which rice, beans, and other antiscorbutics should be issued. During the present season green corn might be issued in lieu of bread ration, if not regularly, at least three times a week. If possible, the prisoners should be supplied with vinegar occasionally, and an occasional issue of molasses in lieu of the meat ration would tend greatly to correct the scurvy, which prevails to a great extent.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ISAIAH H. WHITE,

Chief of Surgeon of Post.

HEADQUARTERS DEPOT FOR PRISONERS OF WAR,
Elmira, N. Y., August 7, 1864.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I am out of tents for prisoners of war, and I respectfully request that you will urge the Quartermaster-General to forward a supply according to the requisition I forwarded to you a few days since before the next detachment of prisoners arrive here. Tents had to be supplied to six companies Veteran Reserve Corps, four regiments of militia, and one battery. Part of another regiment of militia - Twenty-eighth New York - has arrived and it is probable the remainder of it will arrive during the week. The latter I have put in Barracks, Numbers 1, having to tent for it. Two of the wards for hospitals are so nearly completed that it is probable that they can be used for the sick in a day or two. It will be necessary to erect three more as soon as lumber can be obtained, and also another mess-room and kitchen; the mess-room to seat about 2,000. Shall old citizens' clothes be issued to the prisoners? There are some on hand that have been turned in by provost-marshals, being clothing taken from deserters and others. Application has been made by one prisoner for permission to purchase a few shoemakers' tools and leather, for the purpose of mending and making shoes for the prisoners. Shall it be permitted?

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. EASTMAN,

Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. Army, Commanding Depot.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF WESTERN VIRGINIA AND E. TENNESSEE,
Abingdon, Va., August 7, 1864.

Brigadier General S. P. CARTER,

Provost-Marshal-General of East Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.:

GENERAL: I am authorized to submit through you to the commanding general of the U. S. forces in East Tennessee the following proposition:

There are now held by the Federal and Confederate authorities quite a number of non-combatants, who have been arrested at different times upon slight offenses within the district referred to. Such arrests contribute very slightly to the solution of our present difficulties either