often. The hospital department is well supplied with good and comfortable bedding. The kitchens are in excellent order, and the general condition of both prison and prisoners is good. No charge has taken places in place last report.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. P. CARAHER,

Lieutenant-Colonel Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, and Provost-Marshal of Prisoners.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ROCK ISLAND BARRACKS,
Rock Island, Ill., August 18, 1864.

Approved and respectfully forwarded to Colonel William Hoffman, U. S. Army, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

After an inspection of the prison and hospital I fully concur with the within report.

A. J. JOHNSON,

Colonel Fourth Regiment veteran Reserve Corps, Commanding Post.

MOBILE, August 16, 1864.

Honorable JOHN A. CAMPBELL, Assistant Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 25th of July, containing authority and instructions about the examination of prisoners under arrest by military authorities. I have furnished a copy of General Maury, and have notified the military authorities of my readiness to proceed with the duties assigned me. I will accept the position assigned and proceed with the performance of the duties.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. HAMILTON,

HEADQUARTERS FURLOW'S BATTALION,
Camp Sumter, Anderson, Ga., August 16, 1864.

Brigadier General J. H. WINDER:

DEAR SIR: You ask me for my opinion and the result of my

observation as to the propriety of having admitted to parole a certain number of Yankee prisoners at this post. This I shall cheerfully proceed to do. I have been connected with this post about one month, with my quarters immediately opposite (a deep cut in the railroad separating us) to a camp and workshops occupied by quite a number of paroled prisoners. I have seen them daily at their work and meet them in my walks, and have never seen them otherwise than quiet and orderly-in fact comparing favorably, with a like number of our own troops; also, I have observed squads of paroled prisoners at work at other points about the post, and have never noticed anything in their conduct calculated to create a suspicion that any danger or evil would result from their parole. Their condition is so much improved and the penalty for any impropriety (a return to the stockade) so feared by them, they have every inducement to strictly obey orders and avoid every impropriety. Several cases have come to my knowledge of conversations with the negroes at work around the post, but invariably on the subject of a purchase of watermelons or peaches, and as the work in which the negroes are engaged will soon be completed, this evil, of one, will be but temporary. My residence and my planting interests are in this county, and I am well acquainted with the citizens residing around this