If favored, I hope to be able to place this report in the hands of the Surgeon-General about the 1st of next May or June.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH JONES,

Surgeon, Provisional Army, C. S.

RICHMOND, VA., October 19, 1864.

General W. J. HARDEE, Charleston, S. C.:

The telegram of the 14th instant, in regard to the enlistment of Federal prisoners at Florence, was shown to the Secretary of War, who directs that they be detailed for work at their respective trades.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General.

RICHMOND, VA., October 19, 1864.

Brigadier General J. H. WINDER, Millen, Ga.:

The surplus prisoners at Cahaba should be transferred to Millen.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General.

CHICAGO, October 20, 1864.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

The undersigned members of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago, having been informed from authentic sources that a large number of Federal soldiers are languishing in Southern prisons, especially at Andersonville, Ga., destitute of shelter from rain and from the burning rays of the sun, without sufficient clothing to cover their nakedness; and that they are famishing with hunger that would gladly be appeased by the flesh of horses and of mules, and are consequently dying in untold numbers, pray you to effect and honorable exchange of prisoners without delay, or to retaliate by subjecting rebel prisoners to the same treatment in all respects.

We are aware that this, our petition, savors or cruelty, and no earthly consideration could induce us to inaugurate the measure were it not that the sufferings of our brothers in the field, who have gone forth to battle for the life of the Government with the assurance of all possible protection and care, appeals to us in a manner which induces us to urge retaliatory measures as a matter of necessity.

We claim not to be excelled in loyalty by any portion of the country and pledge ourselves for the prosecution of the war until the complete restoration of the Union is accomplished, asking no more and urging you to submit to nothing less than that such measures as rebels mete to loyal soldiers shall be measured to them again, whether in prison or on the battle-field.

They fire upon our pickets, we retaliate; they meet us in open field and engaged in wholesale slaughter, and we retaliate; they take our soldiers prisoners and submit them to such treatment as is sure to engender disease, starvation, death; but the prisoners taken by us are clothed, fed, and as comfortably cared for as are our own men, and