ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, May 19, 1862.

Major General JOHN E. WOOL, U. S. Army,

Commanding Department of Virginia, Fort Monroe.

SIR: The commanding officers at Fort Columbus and camp on Johnson's Island have been directed to transfer to your custody Lieutenants Spier Whitaker, of Chapel Hill, N. C., and Thomas L. Sykes, now prisoners of war, to be exchanged for Lieutenants Noah N. Tyner, Fourteenth Iowa Volunteers, and D. S. Gordon, Second Cavalry, U. S. Army, respectively. The Secretary of War directs that upon their arrival at Fort Monroe you ntify the rebel officer nearest to you that they are there to be exchanged for the officers named, and upon the arrival of those officers from Richmond you are authorized to release Lieutenants Whitaker and Sykes.

I am, sir, &c.,

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, May 19, 1862.

Major General B. HUGER, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I have received your several dispatches of the 3rd and 11th instant, and also one of the 3d* from Brigadier-General Winder, informating me of the transportating of 862 prisoners of war, rank and file, which wee received with a number more, making I believe in all 886 at or near Newport News on the day appointed, all which would have been acknowledged before this if events in the field had not prevented. Yours of the 11th* would have been replied to immediately if I had known your whereabouts.

I was prepared to make exchanges on the terms you proposed in your communication of the 3rd instant, and I am now ready to exchange or release on parole until they can be fairly exchanged the privateersmen you mentioned provided you will exchange on parole upon the same terms the hostages now held on their accounts. I will have the privateersmen sent to this post to be forwarded to you at any place you may designate on the James River, provided you will send forward at the same time the hostages Colonels Corcoran and Willcox, &c. This being accomplished if I rightly understand your communication will open the way for all other exchanges.

I herewith forward the names of several officers to be exchanged should the above proposition be approved or sanctioned.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN E. WOOL,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, Va., May 19, 1862.

Major General B. HUGER, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I would propose the following exchanges:

Chaps. Henry Bowman for Captain H. H. Robertson, Twenty-seventh Virginia Regiment; Captain George W. Rockwood for Captain W. J. Seargeant, Twenty-third Virginia Regiment; First Lieutenant J. E. Green for

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*Not found.

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