HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON,
Washington, D. C., December 3, 1864.

Colonel M. N. WISEWELL,

Commanding Military District of Washington:

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 December 3, 1864:

Conduct, good; cleanliness, medium; clothing, fair; bedding, fair; state of quarters, fair; state of mess-houses, medium; state of kitchen, medium, food; quality of, good; food, quantity of, sufficient; water, good; sinks, good; police of grounds, good; drainage, good; police of hospital, good; attendance of sick, regular; hospital diet, under medical direction; general health of prisoners, good; vigilance of guard, satisfactory.

Remarks and suggestions. - The condition of the kitchen at Old Capitol Prison is anything but creditable, considering the number of employees. The floor and tables were dirty and the walls dingy and blackened with smoke. Nothing in the culinary came up to the mark, with the exception of the cooking utensils. In my last report I recommended white-washing, and respectfully suggest the same again, as it is really required.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. M. RAPHALL,

Lieutenant, Sixth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, and Inspecting Officer.

[Indorsement.]

Instructions have been issued to the superintendent of the prison to remove the cause of complaint specified by the inspecting officer.

Respectfully referred to the Commissary-General of Prisoners.

In absence of the military governor:

THEODORE McGOWAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL OF EAST TENN.,

Knoxville, Tenn., December 3, 1864.

Captain R. MORROW,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Ohio:

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that in conformity with the permission of the major-general commanding the department on the 1st instant I proceeded under flag of truce to New Market, Tenn., where I met Brigadier-General Vaughn, of the rebel service, for the purpose of negotiating for the release of non-combatants from East Tennessee who are held by the Union States and rebel military authorities, respectively. I inclose an official copy of the cartel agreed upon by General Vaughn and myself, marked A*.

I have the honor to state further, for the information of the major-general commanding the department, that it was agreed in conversation between General Vaughn and myself that the wives and families of Union men, whether in the army or otherwise, within the rebel lines, desiring to come through to our lines, should be permitted to do so without molestation, and that the wives and families of rebels and female rebel sympathizers residing within our lines should be permitted to pass to the rebel lines, this being in accordance with instructions received from Major-General Sherman last summer.

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* See December 1, p. 1175.

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