Looking entirely to the alleviation of the sufferings of those held in captivity I will not interpose any obstacle to any plan that may be proposed which gives equal privileges to both belligerent.

Your obedient servant,

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS, October 18, 1864.

General JOHN C. BRECKINRDIGE:

I have no objection to your exchanging prisoners, man for man, free negroes included. Recaptured slaves of Confederate citizens will not be exchanged.

R. E. LEE.

GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 274.
Washington, October 19, 1864.

The following-named officers and enlisted men have been duly exchanged as prisoners of war in Charleston Harbor, S. C., October 3, 1864. They will join their regiments without delay: Captain J. G. McWilliams, Fifty-first Illinois Volunteers; Major F. Pruyn, Seventh New York Heavy Artillery; Hospital Steward J. C. Ault, Second Ohio Regiment.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., October 19, 1864.

Major-General BUTLER:

All officers and seamen of the rebel navy are collected at Fort Warren, of whom 35 officers and 62 seamen were sent South for exchange in the Circassian. The remaining 15 will be sent to you for exchange by the Navy Department. There are 23 officers and 205 seamen of the rebel navy prisoners at New Orleans. I will send you a list of naval prisoners held by the enemy when a list of those delivered is received. About 1,200 invalid prisoners are at Point Lookout prepared to be sent South, and about 2,000 at Western camps.

W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
October 19, 1864.

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT,

Commanding Armies of the United States:

GENERAL: I have received your letter of the 18th instant, accompanying copies of letters from Judge Ould, commissioner of exchange of prisoners on the part of the Confederate States, and the Honorable E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and Lieutenant-Colonel Mulford, assistant commissioner of exchange of the United States. I understand your letter to be an acceptance of the general proposition submitted by Judge Ould for the relief of the prisoners held by both parties, and shall transmit it to him that arrangements be made for carrying it into

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