COLUMBIA, January 17, 1865.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

The original location for prison, five miles below Columbia, has been abandoned by order of the President. Another locality, fourteen miles above Columbia, on the Charlotte railroad, has been selected and a considerable quantity of timber has been gotten out, and we shall continue the construction unless you think it unsafe. We have been delayed, waiting for the opinion of the district attorney as to the title to the land and the want of the purchase money, and now we are delayed, as the time of the last year's labor has expired and that for this year we have not been enabled yet to procure. Ask the Quartermaster-General to send the purchase money at once. He has been telegraphed to.

JOHN H. WINDER,

Brigadier-General.

[Indorsement.]

Respectfully submitted to His Excellency the President.

JOHN W. RIELY,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

(Copies to the Honorable Secretary of War and Quartermaster-General.)

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 6.
Washington, January 18, 1865.

A proposal having been made by Robert Ould on the 22nd of August last to "let all prisoners of war on each side be released from confinement (close) or in irons, as the case may be, and either placed in the condition of other prisoners or sent to their respective homes for their equivalents," which proposal was duly approved by the Secretary of War, it is hereby ordered that all Confederate prisoners of war that come within the terms of said accepted proposal be released and sent to Fort Monroe, there to be detained, subject to the orders of Lieutenant Colonel John E. Mulford, agent for the exchange of prisoners, to enable him to carry the proposal into effect. In executing this order the expression "confinement (close)" will be construed as meaning prisoners confined in cells.

By order of the Secretary of War:

W. A. NICHOLS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, January 18, 1865.

Lieutenant Colonel JOHN E. MULFORD, Assistant Agent of Exchange:

SIR: The Confederate authorities have been informed that the Honorable C. C. Clay, sr., and another prominent gentleman of Huntsville, Ala., have been arrested and taken to Nashville, where they are held as hostages for the safety of Judge Humphreys, formerly of the Confederate Army, and more lately a citizen of Madison County, Ala. Judge Humphreys was arrested by General Roddey, as I have been informed, for disloyalty. When that fact was made known to the Confederate authorities his release was ordered. It is not known whether he has