have again issued the necessary orders to the officer commanding upon Morris Island.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
Hilton Head, S. C., September 20, 1864.

Major General SAM. JONES,

Commanding Confederate Forces, Charleston, S. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, in which you decline to allow the Reverend Father Hasson, Catholic priest, to enter your lines for the purpose of superintending the distribution of sanitary supplies and clothing to the Union prisoners of war, but in which you renew your offer to receive such supplies and distribute them under the supervision of an officer of your forces. In this letter you also return to me my private letter of the 12th instant, addressed to Major-General Stoneman, now a prisoner in your hands, as containing allegations by you to be "unwarranted in fact and highly discourteous" to your "assumed Government. " You further suggest to me the advisability of not sending the above-named articles into your lines if I still entertain the views expressed by me in this letter. Since you thus include a private letter in our official correspondence, permit me to say that the Government desires to furnish all supplies needed for the comfort of our soldiers prisoners in the hands of your authorities, but is unable to do so because, in my language to General Stoneman, "the experiences in sending supplies to the officers and soldiers in Richmond last year were such as to show that the necessities of the Confederate officers and soldiers through whose hands they passed were such as to absorb the supplies sent to our men, which were pledged on Confederate honor to be delivered. " The Government is still ready, however, to forward supplies, provided you will designate officers from among the prisoners held by you who shall superintend their distribution. I cannot allow myself to be diverted from my fixed purpose of doing all within my power to alleviate the sufferings of our soldiers in your hands. I entertain no doubt as to your personal disposition to act with entire good faith in the delivery of private stores committed to your care. The stores mentioned in my communication of the 16th instant are the gift of the Sanitary Commission, and not the property of the Government.

In order, therefore, to carry out as far as I can the charitable design of the donors, I shall deliver these stores to your staff officer on the 23rd instant, when you have stated your willingness to receive them, relying upon your assurances as to their correct distribution. So long as you will continue to receive supplies furnished by charitable bodies or private citizens and supervise through one of your officers their delivery to the prisoners in your custody, I shall certainly, as an act of humanity to these suffering men, forward to you on fitting occasions all such supplies as are received by me. In return I shall be most happy to receive and in like manner deliver to your officers and men prisoners in my h packages sent by you.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.