instructions, will be charged with the execution of this order. Report by letter your action in this matter.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. WESSELLS,

Brigadier General, U. S. Vols., Inspector and Com. General of Prisoners.

WASHINGTON, December 29, 1864.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

General Halleck informs me the necessary notice and orders in respect to the cotton were forwarded some time ago in duplicate to Generals Canby and Granger. They are repeated to-day.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
In Field, City Point, Va., December 30, 1864.

Official copy respectfully forwarded for the information of Judge Robert Ould, agent of exchange, C. S. Army.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., December 29, 1864. *

Major General B. F. BUTLER,

Commissioner for Exchange of Prisoners, Fort Monroe, Va.:

GENERAL: Some months since I requested General Meredith to propose to Mr. Ould to make an exchange of lists of officers held as prisoners of war by both parties, from time to time, and also lists of officers and soldiers who have died or may while so held. The proposition was accepted, and I have furnished through General Meredith full rolls of all officers held by us up to the 1st of October, and all officers and soldiers who have died up to eh 1st of April. In return I have received a roll of officers held at Richmond to October 26, and a list of less than 200 deaths, which, of course, is very far short of the number who have died.

I will forward to you to-day by mail a roll of 764 officers, captured since the 1st of September, which may contain the names of some who were on the roll heretofore furnished, as to insure that none should be omitted, I have gone back to the 1st of September. I send at the same time a list of 2,850 deaths, covering all cases not before reported.

I would respectfully suggest that before these rolls are delivered there should be a clear understanding with Mr. Ould that he will furnish in return as full rolls of all officers held in their prisons, and of all deaths of our officers and soldiers which have occurred in Richmond or elsewhere. The lists of deaths Mr. Ould has furnished fall very far short of what we have a right to expect. He has received lists of thousands, while he returns less than hundreds.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary-General of Prisoners.

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*Void; for letter under proper date, see Vol. VI, this series, p. 774.

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