CITY POINT, VA., October 12, 1864.

Major-General BUTLER:

Your correspondence with Judge Ould on the subject of exchanges, and also the affidavits upon which you rely for proof of the unwarrantable conduct of the enemy in employing prisoners of war at work on fortifications under fire, and your letter informing Mr. Ould of the steps taken the retaliate, are received and the whole approved. I will forward the whole to the Secretary of War, with my approval indorsed.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

CITY POINT, VA., October 12, 1864.

Major-General BUTLER:

The prisoners you ask for will be sent up to you immediately. Be certain that the enemy are working our prisoners in the trenches and go ahead. I would not so employ them, however, without knowing that the enemy was doing the same thing.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, ARMY OF THE JAMES, In the Field, October 12, 1864.

Hon. ROBERT OULD,
Commissioner of Exchange, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: I inclose herewith affidavits showing the employment of 110 U. S. colored soldiers by the military officers of the Confederate forces in the trenches near Fort Gilmer, a practice justified by no rule of war or claim heretofore made by the Confederate authorities.

I have ordered a like number of the officers and soldiers captured by us (preferably as many of the Virginia reserve forces, by whom this outrage is being done, as I have captured) into the canal at Dutch Gap and put them at hard labor, and shall continue to add to their number until this practice is stopped.

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

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, ARMY OF THE JAMES, October 12, 1864.

Samuel Miller, of Battery C, Eighteenth Virginia Battalion of Artillery, being duly sworn, deposes and says the he, with his company, has been for some weeks past stationed at Battery No. 8, situated on the intermediate lines between the Charles City and Darbytown roads, and that to his personal knowledge he knows of some seventy-five to eighty colored prisoners of war, clad in the uniform of the United States, to have been kept at work on fortifications and entrenchments in that vicinity and upon that line since Thursday, the 6th instant.

Deponent further says that he deserted and came away from his company this morning, up to which time they were still at work, to the best of his knowledge and belief.