State of kitchen - clean. Food, quality of - good. Food, quantity of - full prison ration. Water - sufficient. Sinks - clean. Police of grounds - good. Drainage - sufficient. Police of hospital - good. Attendance of sick - Confederate nurses. Hospital diet - prison ration. General health of prisoners - good. Vigilance of guard - good.

Remarks and suggestions. - I carefully inspected the military prison, hospital, and quarters occupied by the guards and found them in a clean condition. I would suggest that the pipes that carry the water to the prison by sunk deeper in the ground, as they are so near the surface that in cold weather they freeze up. At such times all the water used has to be carried over a square.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. B. FOLSOM,

Captain, 101st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Inspecting Officer.

CHARLESTON, December 24, 1864.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General:

Colonel Brooks' battalion, composed of Federal prisoners of war enlisted from prison into Confederate service, was found at Savannah to be utterly untrustworthy. The men deserted in large numbers, and finally mutinied, and were narrowly prevented from going over in a body to the enemy. The ringleaders were shot and the remainder sent back to prison. These men were selected with great care, and were principally foreigners, and this, therefore, a fair test of such troops. I recommend that all authority to organize similar commands be revoked.

W. J. HARDEE,

Lieutenant-General.

[Indorsement.]

Respectfully submitted to General B. Bragg.

JOHN W. RIELY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE, HEADQUARTERS POST,

Richmond, December 24, 1864.

Major I. H. CARRINGTON, Provost-Marshal:

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that I have investigated the cases of F. C. Rhode, commissary-sergeant Twentieth Pennsylvania Cavalry; James Palmer, Company C, Twentieth Pennsylvania Cavalry; W. H. Salisbury, Company L, First New York Cavalry; James Cassidy, Company A, Fifth New York Heavy Artillery, and C. Horsfield, Company D, Fifth New York Heavy Artillery, all referred to in your order of the 20th instant as committed to the Eastern Division military prison August 7, 1864, as prisoners of war and held as hostages, and still in custody at Castle Thunder, with the exception of F. C. Rhode, who is now at Hospital Numbers 13. There seems to have been no reports made in these cases since the commitment of the prisoners, who were all captured (as they concur in stating) by our forces on the retreat of General Hunter's U. S. forces from Lynchburg, Va.

The prisoner, F. C. Rhode, who seems to be quite an intelligent young man, stated that he is a native of Berks County, Pa., and enlisted in Philadelphia in Company H, Twentieth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was