OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL OF PRISONERS,

ROCK ISLAND BARRACKS,

Rock Island, Ill., September 12, 1864.

Colonel A. J. JOHNSON,

Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, Commanding Post:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report the condition of prison and prison hospital for the week ending to-day as follows:

The avenues and streets, by continued policing, are clean and free from all filth. The building, being scrubbed twice a week and daily inspected, are in very good order. The kitchens of both departments are in excellent condition. The general appearance of the prisoners is clean and comfortable. No change of importance since the last report.

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

A. P. CARAHER,

Lieutenant Colonel Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps,

Provost-Marshal of Prisoners.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ROCK ISLAND BARRACKS, ILL.,
September 14, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to Colonel William Hoffman, U. S. Army, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

The condition of the prison is as herein stated. The One hundred and thirty-third Illinois (100-days' men) left on the 12th instant. We have now here the One hundred and ninety-seventh Pennsylvania, four companies of the Forty-eighth Iowa (both 100-days' men), and the three companies Second Battalion. Circular 65, current series, Adjutant-General's Office, will cause a further depletion of the garrison, though General Paine, district commander, has promised us more troops, and they are expected daily.

A. J. JOHNSON,

Colonel Fourth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, Commanding Post.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR-GENERAL,

Saint Louis, Mo., September 12, 1864.

Major O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Missouri:

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that, pursuant to instructions from the major-general commanding the department, I went to Alton, Ill., on the 10th instant to inspect the prison and troops stationed there as guards. I found the prison in admirable police, and all the improvements and alterations which were in progress when the general commanding last visited it going on well and rapidly. There is great need of a steam engine to force water for the use of the prison, and I recommend that one be sent immediately.

One the 9th instant a party of forty-six rebel prisoners, on their way to work outside the prison, attacked their guard, nine men of the Alton battalion, and succeeded in obtaining some of their muskets. The guard, however, behaved with the utmost promptitude and energy, and the result was the killing of 7, the wounding of 5, and the recapture of all but 2 of the rebels. Much praise is due to the prison