hospitals, which are, as usual, provided with everything necessary to the comfort of the inmates, and at all times cared for in a commendable manner. Prison No. 3 also contains rebel enlisted men. It is the largest prison and contains the largest number of prisoners. The prisoners are all well drained, graded, and policed. The prisoners are supplied with healthy rations, which are issued at proper times and with great regularity. The prisons are under the immediate supervision of the same officers as heretofore, who manifest that same commendable interest to which reference has been made.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

F. S. PARKER,

Captain and Inspector of Prisoners.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES, Camp Chase, October 14, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded.

Many of the prisoners are poorly clad. The quartermaster at this post informs me that he has made requisitions upon you for the necessary amount, but that he has not been supplied. Government shoes are being issued to barefooted prisoners. The weather is becoming so cold as to make this necessary. If it was permitted something might be saved by furnishing the material for mending shoes, the labor to be performed by prisoners. The commissary is issuing from two to three days' rations per week of fish (lake fish) instead of meat. This, he claims, is necessary by the difficulty that exists in procuring supplies of pork or beef. The smallpox is prevailing in the prisons to a considerable extent, averaging this month ten cases per day. There are now 168 cases in the pest-house, which is entirely outside of the camp inclosure and at a considerable distance from it at the southeast corner of camp. All the prisoners, except perhaps some new arrivals who have not had the smallpox or been recently vaccinated have been subjected to that treatment.

W. P. RICHARDSON,
Colonel Twenty-Fifth Ohio Volunteers, Commanding.

FLORENCE, S. C., October 12, 1864.

Lieutenant-General HARDEE, Commanding Department:

GENERAL: I have the honor to make the following report of the condition of the Federal prisoners of war now confined near this post:

Colonel G. P. Harrison is in command of the prisoners as well as the troops on duty here guarding them. He has had charge of them only since they were removed to this point, about four weeks, and has, I am satisfied, used commendable energy in constructing the stockade and in improving the condition of the prisoners. The stockade in which most of the prisoners are confined is located about one mile and a half from this point, in a healthy position, and with a bold, running branch of pure water running through its center. The area embraced in the stockade is twenty-three and a half acres, of which about six acres near the branch is swampy and unsuitable for an encampment. The location on the whole is a healthy one.

The total number of prisoners is 12,362, in which are included 860 sick in hospital and 20 men out on parole. This number does not