ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

November 14, 1864.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General:

GENERAL: Surgeon Brewer, C. S. Army, just returned from inspecting hospitals, and amongst others the prison hospital at Salisbury, reports to me that the insecurity of the prisoners at that place is the subject of common remark, the boards upon the inclosure being insecurely fastened, the prisoners occupying burrows as shelters, from which they can easily burrow under the inclosure, the guards being insufficient for detection and protection. Requisitions upon the commander of the reserve forces stationed there by the commandant of the prison are disregarded, and at one time the guard was withdrawn from one entire side of the inclosure. I have reported these facts to General Gardner, who, with great anxiety to rectify these evils, states his usability under existing arrangements to effect any good in connection with the prisoners, having no general control over the troops guarding them, or, in fact, over the prisoners themselves. As the life and safe-keeping of every prisoners is of the highest importance to us as pledges for the poor fellows in the hands of the enemy, I have deemed if a duty both to them and to the interests of the service to bring these facts to your attention, hopping you might cause measures to be adopted to remedy this, as well as the many other evils existing to our great reproach as a nation amongst the miserable wretches whom we are obliged to hold, and whose condition in every report sent up from their pens of misery strikingly illustrates the injury resulting from irresponsible management.

I am, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, NO. 284.
Washington, November 15, 1864.

Exchange of prisoners of war.

I. The following-named officers and enlisted men of the U. S. Navy, who were exchanged at Cox's Landing, on the James River, Va., October 16, 1864, are hereby declared so exchanged: *

II. The following-named enlisted men of the U. S. Army, who were delivered, in place of a like number of naval prisoners, at Cox's Landing, on the James River, Va., October 16, 1864, are hereby declared exchanged and will join their regiments without delay: +

III. The following named officers of the U. S. service, exchanged as prisoners of war on the Savannah River, opposite Oakley Island, Ga., November 3, 1864, for prisoners taken in arms against the United States are hereby declared so exchanged:

Captain J. E. Micher, Eighth-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, for Captain A. J. Lewis, Company G, Power's cavalry.

Captain James H. Platt, Jr., assistant chief quartermaster, Sixth Corps, Fourth Vermont Volunteers, for Captain E. J. Hall, assistant quartermaster, First Louisiana Cavalry.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*List (omitted) contains 264 names.

+Forty-eight names follow.

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