CITY POINT, VA., February 22, 1865-7.30 p. m.

Major General H. W. HALLECK, Chief of Staff:

Please order General Gillmore to send here all rebel prisoners in his department for exchange.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

CITY POINT, VA., February 22, 1865-7.30 p. m.

Brigadier General W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners:

Please send for exchange all naval prisoners at Fort Lafayette and Fort Delaware. If Campbell and Marr have not been sent from Johnson's Island, have them sent forward at once. Some 15,000 of our prisoners will be received within the next six days, taking all in Virginia and North Carolina and those that were in South Carolina.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

CITY POINT, VA., February 22, 1865.

Major General J. M. SCHOFIELD, Fort Fisher:

General Lee reports to me to-day that you refused to receive our prisoners sent by him to Wilmington for exchange. I informed him in reply that you had not probably received my directions at that date. You will please receive all prisoners that the rebels may have to deliver to you and forward them to Annapolis. They were sent to Wilmington by special agreement, and should they fall into our hands by the fortunes of war, we should still be in honor bound to regard them as delivered to us by the enemy.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., February 22, 1865.

Major General H. W. HALLECK, Chief of Staff, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: In reference to the matter of supplying clothing to rebel prisoners by General Beall, as mentioned in the letter of Lieutenant-General Grant, referred to me on the 20th instant and received last evening, I have the honor to state that the rolls of those prisoners who desire to be exchanged at the several camps are already far advanced, and those who decline to be exchanged have already so expressed themselves, and it is not therefore probable that clothing will be distributed by General Beall's representatives to any but those who are to be immediately exchanged.

The number who decline to be exchanged will, I think, more than balance the excess of prisoners in our hands over those held by the enemy, and I presume Lieutenant-General Grant's letter is not to be understood as directing that blankets shall be taken from prisoners who wish to be exchanged and given to those who desire to take the oath of allegiance.

As far as practicable the instructions of Lieutenant-General Grant shall be carried out.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Bvt. Brigadier General, U. S. Army, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

19 R R - SERIES II, VOL VIII