Sherman intends to strike. Re-enforcements from North Carolina have arrived at Augusta. More have been promised from farther north. I may be able to communicate more news by the next steamer, which will follow twenty-four hours later.

I have received about 4,500 prisoners. We are retarded by Sherman's movements. Our men have all been removed from the camps they occupied ten days since.

Our returned prisoners are in bad condition, particularly in regard to clothing, though on the whole their physical condition is not so bad as I had expected to see.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO E. MULFORD,

Lieutenant-Colonel and U. S. Assistant Agent for Exchange.

FORT WARREN, November 27, 1864.

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT, U. S. Army:

GENERAL: Pardon me for intruding a moment on your time. It would be a source of regret to you, I am sure, if the arrangement between yourself and General Lee (conceived and agreed to in a humane and liberal spirit, and which I to-day see noticed in the public prints with commendation) should fail to produce the good results intended by you and him from failure or oversight on the part of either Government to grant the necessary facilities for its prompt execution.

The rigors of winter in the North are approaching and there is but little time left to do all that is to be done, viz, to ascertain the relative wants of each prisons, to purchase or contract for clothing and blankets, to inspect and ship them, and distribute fairly among so many prisons. Most of this labor can be done or prepared for before the cotton reaches New York, so as to ship all articles as soon as sales are made. You can well understand what time can be saved by going to work at once with proper activity and with the proper number of agents.

Therefore (though in ignorance of what facilities may have been the subject of stipulation, and from a desire to avoid all causes of delay) I venture to address [you] on the subject as one who having originated the work may feel a desire to see it carried out to a humane result, and ask of you the favor of doing what you can with propriety to procure for me, if not already allowed, permission to associate with me six or more Confederate officers (among them General W. N. R. Beall), "on parole", to aid in effecting the satisfactory execution of the business. Similar facilities will, of course, be granted by Confederate authorities.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, general, your obedient servant,

I. R. TRIMBLE,

Major-General, Provisional Army, C. S.

HEADQUARTERS SUPERINTENDENT OF PRISON,
Johnson's Island, Ohio, November 27, 1864.

Colonel CHARLES W. HILL,

128th Ohio Vol. Infty., Commanding U. S. Forces, Johnson's Island:

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following inspection report of the condition of the prisoners of war at this station for the week ending November 27, 1864:

Conduct, good; cleanliness, good; clothing, comfortable, except a few needing trousers; bedding, half the prisoners without straw, but all