but were relieved by General Butler. At the same time I thought those we held were relieved from close confinement. I know such an order was given.

[RO. OULD.]

COLUMBUS, OHIO, August 11, 1864.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN,

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

COLONEL: Inclosed I have the honor to transmit report of inspection of Camp Chase, Ohio, camp for prisoners of war. Owing to the improvements snow in progress at this camp the police is not as good as it otherwise would be. By the end of this week there will be completed in all seventeen barracks, accommodating 198 prisoners each, averaging 100 feet by 22. Your order authorizing barracks sufficient to increase capacity of prison to 8,000 is being rapidly executed. The tents now in use are to be abandoned as quarters are erected. The sinks are well managed, being so constructed that water drainage is secured daily. The plan devised for the purpose will do very well in summer; in the winter the offal will have to be removed by the prisoners to a proper distance from camp. The rations are good and sufficient, limited in variety. Since the potato does not form a part of the soldier's ration the prisoners are deprived of vegetables unless upon the surgeon's certificate. I would respectfully suggest for the health of he prisoners the commanding officer of each be instructed to have issued, purchased from the prison fund, three times a week, such antiscorbutics as may at the season of the year the most economical. The suggestion is offered as the surgeon in charge may not feel authorized to recommend an issue of vegetables until disease has already appeared.

The prison fund on hand ending July was $18,278. 69; hospital fund $422. 28. Both appear, judiciously managed and properly expended. The individual accounts of prisoners are well managed, satisfactorily to the prisoners and without loss to the officer in charge.

Orders to the guard are plain; instructions to the prisoners defining their privileges definite; trade with the sutler by checks. The hospital accommodation is limited. A necessary exists for building exists for building a suitable hospital consisting of six wards, accommodating each sixty patients, with proper administrative building, kitchen, attached, if the capacity of the prison is to be increased to 8,000. The cost of the material for such a building will be near $10,000. A site was selected and place explained, so that your instructions can be carried out without delay if you think proper to order the building.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. ALEXANDER,

Surgeon, U. S. Army.

[Inclosure.]

Report of a medical inspection of the camp and hospital of the prison, Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, commanded by Colonel Richardson, U. S. Volunteers, made on the 10th and 11th days of August, 1864, by Surg. C. T. Alexander, acting medical inspector, U. S. Army.

1. Camp, name and geographical position - Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio. 2. Topography of surrounding country - Scioto Valley. 3. Topography of locality, soil, drainage - level plain, loam, surface. 4. Water, source, supply, quality, effects - wells, abundant, good. 5. Fuel, whence obtained, kind, supply- wood, abundant, good. 6. Local