them a medical officer or two, if necessary, with as many attendants and nurses, taken from the well prisoners, as may be required, and have them organized into companies of convenient size, so that all may receive proper attention. You will send a suitable guard under a field officer in charge of the prisoners, and give instructions in writing as to the service to be performed. The guard an prisoners will be furnished with cooked rations for two days. Require transportation of the quartermaster's department to Baltimore, and see that the cars are of a suitable character and well provided with lights and water. Direct the commanding officer not to give a certificate for the transportation unless the contract is fully complied with. The quartermaster at Baltimore will be directed to provide transportation to Point Lookout. Furnish the commanding officer with a list of all money, will be delivered to the rebel officer who receives them.

One of the parole-rolls, with the officer's receipt, will be returned through you to this office as evidence of the delivery. On arriving at Point Lookout the officer in charge will report to the commanding officer, Brigadier-General Barnes, and, if relieved from charge of the prisoners, he will turn over to the relieving officer the rolls, money, &c., taking a receipt therefor.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

P. S. - Report by telegram to the quartermaster at Baltimore, Lieutenant Colonel C. W. Thomas, and to this office the time at which the prisoners will leave at least twenty-four hours before their departure.

W. H.

[Indorsement.]

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., October 24, 1864.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War.

The accompanying copy of instructions given to Colonel B. F. Tracy, One hundred and twenty-seventh Colored Troops, commanding at Elmira, shows that, so far as orders could effect it, every precaution was taken to guard against unnecessary suffering by the prisoners ordered South, but from the within reports it appears that both the commanding officer and the medical officers not only failed to be governed by these orders, but neglected the ordinary prompting of humanity in the performance of their duties toward sick, men thus showing themselves to be wholly unfit for the positions they occupy, and it is respectfully recommended that they be immediately ordered to some other service.

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

MEDICAL DIRECTOR'S OFFICE MIDDLE DEPARTMENT, EIGHTH ARMY CORPS,

Baltimore, Md., October 13, 1864.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN, U. S. Army,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that a train of over 1,200 rebel prisoners arrived in this city to-day from Elmira, in route for City