the complete reports. In reference to character of officers, their habits, &c., which should be ascertained in all inspections, let such statements be made upon a separate from your general report.

I am, colonel, respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

SALISBURY, November 26, 1864.

Major GARNETT ANDREWS:

Casualties-Guard, 2 killed, 10 wounded; prisoners, 14 killed, 35 wounded. Telegraph Secretary of War and General Holmes in regard to force. Guard insufficient and prisoners again threatening.

JNO H. GEE,

Major.

[First indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS POST, Richmond, November 27, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to the Adjutant and Inspector General.

Half of Major Gee's force has been taken away. He has little over 500 men to guard nearly 10,000 desperate prisoners.

In the absence of and for General Gardner:

GARNETT ANDREWS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Second indorsement.]

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

November 27, 1864.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War.

H. L. CLAY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, November 26, 1864.

General R. S. EWELL:

Yesterday at 2 o'clock prisoners at Salisbury, N. C., made an attempt to escape. They succeeded in getting arms from and killing two of the guards. The guard on the parapet witnessing the affair immediately opened with musketry and two pieces of artillery, killing between forty and fifty of the prisoners. Everything then quieted down. Nothing from Georgia.

J. T. CALDWELL,

Superintendent, &c.

OFFICE ASST. AGENT FOR EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS,

FLAG-OF-TRUCE STEAMER NEW YORK,

Venus Point, Savannah River, November 27, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to forwarded herewith the least Southern papers possible to obtain. I am unable to hear much either of General Sherman's or the enemy's movements. All persons I meet are very reserved, unusually so, and papers are very reluctantly brought forward. I learn that our forces are moving in three columns and covered by cavalry parties. The enemy are still in doubt as to the point