OFFICE AGENT OF EXCHANGE,

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, La., August 10, 1864.

Major IG. SZYMANSKI, C. S. Army,

Agent of Exchange, Trans-Mississippi Department:

MAJOR: I have the honor to inclose to you herewith an official copy of General Orders, Numbers 107, headquarters Department of the Gulf,* containing an enumeration by name of the officers and men, amounting to an equivalent for 110 privates of the paroled prisoners delivered to me June 17th, now declared exchanged in pursuance of our agreement of July 22. I also beg leave to call your attention to the fact that one Captain William Austin, master of a transport steamer in the Confederate service, was delivered to you at the time of our late exchange of prisoners as a citizen, without exchange. You will doubtless remember that he was entered on our lists of prisoners as a "captain" and that some discussion arose as to the terms upon which he should be delivered, resulting in his being simply released as a citizen non-combatant, without equivalent.

I have now to request that you will release Captain William M. Dana, the master of the transport steamer John Warner, as an equivalent for Captain Austin.

I think you will concede the equity of this request. In any case I ask that you will bring Captain Dana with you to our next meeting for exchange, and if the above proposal is not satisfactory I will render you an ample equivalent for his release.

You have no doubt heard of the capture by our naval forces in Mobile Bay of a considerable number of officers and men of the C. S. Navy. I have l already asked for authority to exchange a sufficient number of officers and men of this capture for the officers and men of the U. S. Navy now prisoners at Camp Ford. This authority will undoubtedly be granted, and if so, I shall have the honor to propose such an exchange at the earliest opportunity. I hope that I may very soon receive from you the list of the officers and men of the Louisiana brigade to be exchanged and that that exchange may be consummated without unnecessary delay.

I send with this some letter for citizens and prisoners within your lines which I beg you will have forwarded to their several destinations.

I am, major, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

CHARLES C. DWIGHT,

Colonel and Agent of Exchange, Military Division of West Mississippi.

CIRCULAR,
OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Numbers 4.
Washington, D. C., August 10, 1864.

I. By direction of the Secretary of War it is ordered that hereafter no supplies of any kind will be furnished to prisoners of war by their relatives or friends, except in cases of illness, when near relatives will be permitted to send them such articles of food as may be approved by the surgeon in charge of the hospital, to whose care they will in all cases be addressed. Necessary clothing may be furnished by near relatives to destitute prisoners, subject to the approval of the commanding officer of the post where they are confined. Outer garments must be of gray or dark mixed color and of inferior quality. Only one suit of outer clothing and a change of underclothing will be allowed.

---------------

* See p. 539.

---------------