In reply to what you have to say regarding the retaliatory measures I have been compelled to adopt to protect citizen planters and lessees in my vicinity, I can only that it is a matter of regret also with me.

Many citizens have been carried off (by marauders, scouts, &c.) from plantations in this vicinity. Some are reported to have been murdered, which I hope will not prove true. Among others who have been thus ruthlessly carried into captivity or foully dealt with I can mention the following: Messrs. Jackson and Staigg, taken from the Cameron and Chappel places in August; James H. Hill, from the Lochlan place; S. H. Coggswell, from the Adams plantation, near Warrenton, on the 13th of October; Daniel Knight, on Cook's plantation, August 11 - this is on the Jackson road seven miles out. I desire to know the fate of these gentlemen.

So long as the system of pillaging, and kidnaping from plantations occupied by lessees under the authority of the United States continues to be practiced as it has been heretofore, I shall be compelled to such measures of retaliation as are within my power, and will take pleasure in exchanging citizens so held as hostages for such as may have been carried off by your scouts or employees.

I beg leave to say in reply to that portion of your letter which refers to my order defining my lines that the order referred to is addressed only to those who acknowledge loyalty to the United States for their government and guidance.

I know of no lines in the country existing by agreement between any authority of the nation and those standing in arms against it.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.

CAHABA, ALA., October 16, 1864.

Colonel R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to forward the following report of my inspection of the post of Cahaba, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel S. Jones, Twenty-second Louisiana Regiment, and of the prison at this place for the confinement of Federal prisoners of war, under the immediate direction of Cap. H. A. M. Henderson, assistant commissioner of exchange:

The prison, of which I send a diagram herewith, is located immediately on the bank of the Alabama River, and was established under orders for the accommodation of 500 prisoners. Until taken for its present use the building was on old brick cotton-shed, around which has been erected a stockade, mainly composed of two-inch plank, set three feet in the ground, and about twelve feet high. About one-half the building, the central portion, is without a roof, and there are no inner walls. Good water, in sufficient quantity for the number originally intended, is supplied the prisoners from an artesian well in the vicinity, whence it is conducted in pipes under ground to be interior of the prison, when it flows into three sunken barrels, and thence through the sink into the river. There are bunks for about 500. No chimneys or means of warming the inclosure, and the smoke from open fires, which were built within the are for cooking purposes, was found insupportable, and the food has now to be prepared by squad cooks in the open or in that portion of the inclosure marked prison yard in the accompanying sketch.