in retaliation for similar confinement of Major Goff, of the Fourth West Virginia Cavalry, at Richmond. On August 19 he was released from close confinement and sent to the hospital in consequence of ill-health, and Major Mills was put in his place, but on the 3rd of September he and all other prisoners in close confinement were ordered to be released and placed on the footing of other prisoners of war.

"Capts. D. C. Douglas, Davis, Smith, and Miller are in solitary confinement at Johnson's Island. Why is this?" There is no Captain Douglas at Johnson's Island, and no D. C. Douglas. There are several prisoners of the name of Douglas, but none in close confinement. There are several Smiths and several Millers at Johnson's Island, but none in close confinement. There were three men there recently under sentence. They were not officers, and are now held as other prisoners.

Embert, Hearn, Lyon, and Rodgers are charged with acting as spies. Sentenced to be hung on the 29th of August, 1864, as promulgated in General Orders, Numbers 61, department headquarters, dated Baltimore, Md., August 8, 1864. Sentence commuted by the President to hard labor in the penitentiary at Albany, N. Y., during the war. Transferred, in charge of Lieutenant Arthur Morris, to the penitentiary at Albany, N. Y., September 4, 1864, pursuant to Orders Numbers 274, War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C., August 31, 1864.

William Huddleston, first lieutenant, Fifteenth Arkansas Cavalry, Company A, captured at Natchez, Miss., January 3, 1864, transferred from Camp Chase to Fort Delaware, where he is held as a prisoner of war.

Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Lamar, Fourteenth Louisiana Infantry, was captured in Baltimore December 29, 1863, as a supposed spy. Escaped May 15, 1864.

John H. Barnes and Philip Trammell were sent from the Old Capitol Prison to the penitentiary at Albany, under sentence of general court-martial, per General Court-Martial Orders, Numbers 202, of War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, dated July 22, 1864.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

P. S. -Since writing the foregoing, by your instructions of this date, the prisoners who were released from close confinement on the 3rd instant, under the proposed arrangement with the rebel authorities that all prisoners so held should be released by both parties, have been returned to close confinement, except in the case of Major Mills, Major Goff having been exchanged, the rebel agent having deferred action on the proposition.

W. H.

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 17, 1864.

Colonel B. J. SWEET, Commanding Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill.:

COLONEL: You are authorized to erect buildings in the prison square, on the ground which is now vacant on the place, and arrange after the manner of those now up, except in the elevation of the floor from the ground, which I think is unnecessarily high. It is only necessary that they should be high enough to permit the ground to be conveniently policed, and to prevent the prisoners from making excavations without being detected. Every foot of lumber saved in this may lessen the expense. Make the expense as much under the estimate of $500 to the building as possible, and let the work be completed with as little delay as possible. If the opening in the floors of the barracks now up can be covered with lathing in the under side it will be greatly cheaper than