Castle and finally to this place. That I should be kept nearly two years, with no shadow of a charge against me, and still retained after the order of the Secretary of War, seems too strange to have been intentional.

Very respectfully submitted, by

FRANK B. DORAN

[Indorsement.]

SEPTEMBER 3, 1864.

Respectfully returned to the Honorable Secretary of War.

This flippant Yankee is where he ought to be. Know nothing about any order having been issued for his release. The enemy constantly arrests and detains our people under the same circumstances. I respectfully recommend that this party be kept where he is until be can be put to some use.

RO. OULD,

Agent of Exchange.

HEADQUARTERS POST, Richmond, Va., August 18, 1864.

Major GARNETT ANDREWS, Assistant Adjutant - General:

MAJOR: I have the honor to make the following report of inspection of military prison, Columbia, S. C., under Special Orders, Numbers 182, Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, August 3, 1864:

I found Captain R. D. Senn performing the duties of commandant of prison, acting under Major A. J. Green, commandant of post. Captain Senn was commissioned September 9, 1863, as enrolling officer; ordered by commission to report to Major Melton, former commandant of post at Columbia, to be assigned to command of post guard. Captain Senn, each one commissioned as drill master, viz, First Lieutenant George C. Gill, Second Lieutenant Rufus N. Richbourg, and Second Lieutenant George W. Belcher. Captain Senn has charge of the whole guard for the city - 214 men, composed partially of reserves and light - duty men holding surgeon's certificates. These men are in no distinct organization, but Captain Senn considers the whole as one company under himself and the officers above mentioned, although there is no authority organizing them into a company. There are thirty-six posts in the city - only twelve of these around the prison. Hence only a portion of Captain Senn's time can be given to the prison.

There is no order establishing are regular military prison for prisoners of war. Prisoners have been turned over, from time to time, to Captain Senn as commandant of the guard. The building used as a prison is the country jail. There are 132 officers and 99 privates, making an aggregate of 231 Federal prisoners. There are also twenty-seven Confederate deserters confined in the same building, but in different apartments from Federal prisoners. The jail, being the county jail, is also used for the confinement of civil prisoners, which gives access to several different authorities, which is very inconsistent with the character of a military prison.

Three or four tunnel shave been discovered, and several prisoners escaped, but recaptured; one prisoner wounded while attempting to escape through the tunnel. There are ten posts around the jail in the day and twelve at night. Most of the privates are confined in the yard of the jail, which is formed by a rottenwood fence. Hence the sentinels are the only security against escape. There are also sentinels