HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
April 10, 1865.

CONFEDERATE OFFICER HAVING CHARGE OF PRISONERS,

Vicksburg:

All Federal officers and men who are held as prisoners by the Confederate authorities must be delivered at Vicksburg, or any other point where the Federal military authorities are willing to receive them. No equivalents are to be demanded. By agreement with General Grant equivalents are to be given on James River.

RO. OULD,

Agent of Exchange.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
April 10, 1865.

Captain G. A. WILLIAMS, Cairo, Ill.:

Please take the preceding dispatch to General Dana, Vicksburg, for delivery to the Confederate officer in charge of Federal prisoners near that point.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

Please give Colonel Henderson the necessary orders to make the rolls, so that he may deliver us a boat load by to-morrow noon. Colonel Henderson is in town, and any dispatch received from you will reach him if sent to these headquarters before 3 o'clock.

FREDERIC SPEED,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
OFFICE OF AGENT FOR EXCHANGE,

New Orleans, La., April 13, 1865.

Major IG. SZYMANSKI,

Asst. Agent for Exchange, Trans-Miss. Dept., C. S. Army:

SIR: As I have no prisoners whatsoever at my disposal which I could deliver to you, it will hardly be possible for me to proceed again to Red River Landing at present, unless some urgent business which you may have to communicate would require it.

From the inclosed letter, written by Colonel Dwight to General Hitchcock,* you will learn that no pains on the part of the exchange office have been spared to not only cancel indebtedness existing, but to relieve you also as early as possible of all U. S. prisoners now in Texas, but unfortunately the effort made has as yet not been successful, owing, probably, to some oversight, but I am in hopes that I will soon have a sufficient number of C. S. prisoners here to enable me to effect a speedy general exchange.

I will write at once to the Secretary of War and to the Commissary-General of Prisoners in regard to prisoners in the North, such as Generals Marmaduke and Cabell, and all prisoners belonging to Trans-Mississippi Department, and request that all be sent immediately to this depot for exchange. I shall also send for all blockade-runners.

If possible for you to parole any of our prisoners I shall be happy to take them, and will render equivalents at the earliest practicable moment. I will endeavor to get receipts for naval prisoners from Major Curell, at Mobile.

I have the honor to inclose extracts of Special Orders, Numbers 97,+ which will show you that the disposal of the cotton has been made agreeably to your instructions.

Should you wish to have another immediate rendezvous at Red River Landing on some matters of importance at present unknown to me,

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*See March 14, p. 396.

+See April 11, p. 487.

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