[Indorsement.]

JANUARY 25, 1865.

General WESSELLS, Commissary - General of Prisoners:

The design to the proposed exchange of prisoners of war in irons or cells is to dispose of disputed cases, and includes the parties at the Albany penitentiary. They will be delivered with others.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. A. HITCHCOCK,

Major - General of Prisoners.

[Inclosure.]

GENERAL COURT - MARTIAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPARTMENT ADJUTANT - GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 274.
Washington, August 31, 1864.

The sentences "to be hung," awarded by a military commission and promulgated in General Orders, Numbers 61, headquarters Middle Department, Eighth Army Corps, Baltimore, Md., August 8, 1864, in the cases of Samuel P. [B.] Hearn, Braxton Lyon, William H. Rogers, [Rodgers], and John R. H. Embert, citizens, are commuted by the President of the United States to "confinement at hard labor in the penitentiary during the war."

The penitentiary at Albany, N. Y., is designated as the place of their confinement, to which the prisoners will be sent under suitable guard by orders from the department commander and delivered to the warden for execution of their sentence.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant - General.

Report a military commission convened at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill, in obedience to the following order, viz:

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS POST.

Numbers 23.
Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., January 23, 1865.

* * * * * * * *

2. Military commission is hereby ordered to meet at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill, on Tuesday, the 24th instant, or as soon thereafter as practicable to investigate and report the facts in relation to the shooting of a prisoners of war while in the act of committing a nuisance in the prison square at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., on the night of January 20, 1865, by Private Newell Sanford, Company A, Eighth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, member of provost guard, prison square, and whether the said Private Sanford was justifiable in accordance with existing orders in shooting the prisoners of ar. Detail for the commission; Captain W. W. Bjerg, Company G, Eighth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps; Captain J. L. Hill, Twenty - fourth Ohio Battery light Artillery; Lieutenant J. W. Crawford, Company I, Eighth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps. The officers above named will perform the duties required in addition to their other duties. Having accomplished the object of this order, the commission is dissolved.

By command of L. C. Skinner, lieutenant - colonel Eighth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, commanding post:

E. R. P. SHURLY,
Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant - General.

CAMP DOUGLAS,

Chicago, Ill., February 10, 1865 - 10 a. m.

The commission met pursuant to the preceding order. Present, Captain J. L. Hill, Twenty - fourth Ohio Battery Light Artillery, and Lieutenant J. W. Crawford, Company I, Eighth Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, who proceeded to business and elicited from the testimony of witnesses, under oath, the following facts: That on the evening of the