Lieutenant-General Grant in his communication dated City Point, Va., November 12, states:

My instructions to the Federal commander in Mobile Bay to notify General maury of his readiness to receive and ship to New York City 1,000 bales of cotton, to be consigned to one of the parties you name, who shall have every facility asked by you, will be sent immediately. My instructions in this matter will have to go by way of Washington and New York City, and may be ten days in reaching their destination.

Rear-Admiral D. G. Farragut, U. S. Navy, on 22nd instant, in reply to a letter of inquiry from me, states: * * * "I have to inform you that no instructions in relation to passing cotton out of Mobile under the circumstances specified in your letter for the benefit of the prisoners had been received (I think that Rear-Admiral Farragut left Mobile Bay about the 3rd instant) up to the moment of my departure. " Thus you see that twelve days after the time General Grant said his instructions would reach Mobile Bay not one word had been heard of them. Humane men here, knowing the suffering of the prisoners, offered to sell the supplies to me in anticipation of the arrival of the cotton. On the 29th instant I applied to the Honorable Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, for permission to make such purchases. He declined granting such authority, as the application was deemed by him "to be an application to purchase goods on the credit of the so-called Confederate Government, which cannot be permitted. "

As it is clear that the failure of the cotton to arrive here is not attributable to the Confederate Government, I most respectfully renew the application to purchase the supplies in anticipation of the arrival of the cotton. If this still cannot be granted I desire permission to purchase the supplies on my own individual account and credit, and for which I will give nothing more than my individual note.

As the U. S. prisoners of war in the South are permitted to receive supplies from their relatives and friends I request that the same permission be granted the Confederate prisoners of war, and that I be authorized to receive and forward such contributions. In my application to the Secretary of War for assistants to aid me in my duties I did not ask, as General Halleck's reply to my letter states, to have them accompany me to the prisons, &c. I "could not, under my parole and instructions, visit places where Confederate prisoners are detained. " I desired the assistants, one to aid me in my duties in this city, the others to go to the prisons where there are no commissioned officers confined, there to receive and distribute the supplies in accordance with the agreement, which requires that the supplies shall be received by a committee of officers, who shall distribute them and render an account of said duty through their agents to the Government in the agreement. I understand the word "officers" to mean commissioned officers, and cannot therefore accept General Halleck's kind permission to send them (the supplies) "to non-commissioned officers and privates where there are no commissioned officers confined," and have therefore respectfully to request that commissioned officers be at once transferred to all prisons where there are only non-commissioned officers and privates, in order that the officers so transferred may receive and distribute the supplies as agreed upon. Knowing the following officers to be suitable for such duty I would suggest them for the transfer, viz: Colonel M. L. Woods, Major D. S. Printup, Colonel W. E. Murchison, Colonel B. W. Johnson, Fifteenth Regiment Arkansas Volunteers, Colonel George, of Mississippi, Colonel Powell, of Texas, Major Winchester, Captain Q. A. Ross, Beall's staff, Captain R. M. Hewitt, Miles' Legion, Captain James McMurray, Quartermaster's Department, and Captain J. R. Fellows, Beall's staff.