The unforeseen circumstances which have arisen may be expected to make some brief delay in the progress of the exchange business, but not to give rise to any imputation of breach of faith.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. J. T. DANA,

Major-General.

HDQRS. ARMY AND DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
Mobile, Ala., April 19, 1865.

Lieutenant General RICHARD TAYLOR, C. S. Army,

Commanding Dept. of Ala., Miss., and East La., Meridian, Miss.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 14th instant in relation to the exchange of prisoners captured in the operations near this city, and to state in reply that under the instructions of Lieutenant-General Grant I have considered that the question of exchange of all classes of prisoners was concluded and settled by his agreement with General Lee. Under the agreement I have delivered, and am delivering, all the Confederate prisoners of war that were within my immediate control, and have been notified by the general commissioner of exchange that the prisoners heretofore captured within the limits of my command and sent to the North would either be sent to me for delivery or would be delivered at some other point more convenient to the depot at which they were confined. There will be no delay in sending to Vicksburg the prisoners captured in this vicinity, except that occasioned by the preparation of the necessary rolls, and I presume that the first detachments have already left New Orleans on their way up the river. If the number that has been or may be delivered at Vicksburg should be in excess of the number now held by you, the balance will be turned over to your agent, requiring only that they should be paroled not to serve until duly exchanged, or until released from the obligations of their parole by the authority of the Government of the United States.*

Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

ED. R. S. CANBY,

Major-General, Commanding.

[APRIL 19-MAY 27, 1865.--For correspondence, &c., relating to negotiations for the surrender of the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department, see Series I, Vol. XLVIII, Parts I and II.]

GREENSBOROUGH, April 19, 1865.

Brigadier General B. T. JOHNSON, Commanding:

If the arsenal is a Confederate one you must hold the property and report to me by telegraph what that property is.

J. E. JOHNSTON.

[APRIL 19, 1865.]

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Greensborough:

The arsenal is Confederate property. Captain Brenizer, the officer in charge, was distributing iron and other property to his workmen in

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*For reply see Taylor to Canby, April 22, 1865, Series I, Vol. XLIX, Part II, p. 440.

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