HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., September 15, 1864.

Major General SAM. JONES,

Commanding Confederate Forces, Dept. of S. C., Ga., and Fla.:

GENERAL: On the 4th instant I received your letter of August 25 ultimo, in reply to mine of August 21, concerning the forwarding of sanitary supplies to the Union prisoners of war at Andersonville. You stated therein that these prisoners were not under your command, and that you had referred my letter to the officer having charge of them; also that you could not permit, as requested by me, any prisoner to take charge of these stores and act as quartermaster to distribute them, but offered to designate an officer of your own to receive and receipt to the proper officer of my command for them, and to hold him to a strict accountability for their proper delivery, for which offer please accept my acknowledgments.

I have now the further honor to acknowledge the receipt this day of your second letter upon this subject, dated the 13th instant, in which you inform me that the officer to whom you referred my request has replied that the prisoners will be allowed to receive the indicated stores, and appoint Charleston Harbor as the place for their delivery. The necessitous condition of these prisoners induced me to write you again on the 11th instant, in which letter, in order to obviate, if possible, the difference as to the selection of the person to take charge of these stores, I renewed the negotiation in a new form by asking permission for the Reverend Father Hasson, a Catholic priest and non-combatant, to enter your lines with them and to superintend their issue at Andersonville.

Respectfully withholding any further reply to your letter of the 13th instant until I receive your answer to this request in regard to Father Hasson.

I am, your most obedient servant,

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., September 15, 1864.

Major General SAM. JONES,

Commanding Confederate Forces, Dept. of S. C., Ga., and Fla.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt this day of your communication of the 10th instant, asking whether Confederate officers prisoners of war are confined on Morris Island, between Batteries Gregg and Wagner; also what shelter is provided for them, and whether they receive, in all respects save location, the treatment accorded to prisoners of war among civilized nations.

In reply I have to state that according to the notice given you in my letter of August 15 ultimo I have placed the Confederate officers who are in my hands as prisoners of war upon Morris Island, near Cummings Point, in a position exposed to the fire of your guns. I propose to keep them there until officially notified by you that the Union officers and soldiers held by you at Charleston, under the fire of our guns, have been removed therefrom by you. So soon as you thus remove them I will place the prisoners committed to my custody in a quiet and secure position.