[Third indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, December 29, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to Lieutenant-General Grant, with letter from General Beall of December 26, 1864. *

By order of Major-General Halleck:

J. C. KELTON,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

NEW YORK CITY, N. Y., December 15, 1864.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C.:

I have the honor to inclose copies of letters of 6th instant to General Grant and Colonel Ould,+ in reference to getting some assistants to aid me in the performance of my duty of supplying Confederate prisoners of war under the late arrangement. Having had no answer to either one of my communications I fear that they have been lost, and the importance of having the assistants is so great that I write directly to you. I would respectfully call you attention to the fourth paragraph of Mr. Ould's letter, which was agreed to:

The reception of the supplies and their subsequent distribution amongst the prisoners on both sides shall be certified by a committee of officers confined in the prisons so supplied, &c.

If I am not mistaken but few of the prisons have officers confined in them, and unless officers are transferred to the different prisons it will be impossible to comply with it is article. Had I six assistants, the number applied for, I could send them from prison to prison and have them distribute the supplies. For this purpose I would most respectfully ask that Captain Beall Hempstead, Captain J. R. Fellows, Captain R. M. Hewitt, Captain Q. A. Ross, Colonel M. L. Woods, and Colonel Powell, of Texas, all at Johnson's Island, Ohio, be paroled, and the first three directed to report to me at this place, the remaining three to be ready to leave the Island for any one of the prisons I may direct. I in this selection have taken three of my staff officers, and all the officers asked for are men of character, discretion, and honor, and would in nowise take advantage of the required parole.

I would also ask permission to send to the prisoners who have near relatives such articles of clothing, of a better quality than the Confederate authorities can send, as their relatives may desire to contribute.

I feel sure that the Confederate authorities will grant to the U. S. agent all I ask, and hope that the same may be granted me.

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

W. N. R. BEALL,

Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S.

LIBBY PRISON, Richmond, Va., December 15, 1864.

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

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that Lieutenant W. D. Hoff, D Company, Fifteenth West Virginia Infantry, and myself are held as hostages in close confinement in a cell under Libby Prison in retaliation for Lieutenant Gandy and Private George Dusky, who are held in close

---------------

* See Beall to Paine, p. 1277.

+ See pp. 1194, 1195.

---------------