[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

OFFICE ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER, U. S. ARMY,

Chicago, Ill., July 17, 1862.

Colonel JOSEPH H. TUCKER,

Commanding Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill.

COLONEL: I will thank you to send to this office as soon as convenient a certified copy of the order of Colonel Hoffman for transportation of rebel officers from this city to Sandusky, Ohio.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. POTTER,

Captain and Assistant Quartermaster, U. S. Army.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS, Camp Douglas, July 19, 1862.

Respectfully referred to Colonel W. Hoffman, Third U. S. Infantry, commissary-general of prisoners, with the request that he will instruct me as to whether I shall copies of his orders or correspondence with me.

JOSEPH H. TUCKER,
Colonel, Commanding.

P. S. - I have not been to Chicago for some days and have not seen Captain Potter and know nothing of this request except what is contained in this communication.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

Colonel J. H. TUCKER, Commanding.

SIR: In obedience to your orders I submit a brief statement of the condition of the hospitals and the sanitary state of the camp generally. There are seventy-five prisoners in the camp [hospital] and fifty-seven U. S. soldiers. The disease of the former are principally of the lungs and bowels, assuming a low form, and are complicated by a tendency to scurvy. The condition of the hospital generally is good, the patients cleanly and well cared for, ventilation good and the medical service intelligent and ably performed by the gentlemen with whom you have proposed to enter into contracts for that purpose. The frequent complaint that has reached your ears of neglect has arisen from the fact that four surgeons, the number you authorized, is not sufficient for the work. Five can by extraordinary exertion accomplish it, but without that number it cannot be done. The men sick among our troops are merely affected by slight colds and bowel disturbances, readily yielding to treatment. The service in barracks where attention to the slightly sick and the exercise of judaical supervision over the sanitary condition of the men is as important almost as the service at the hospital is performed by four assistant surgeons, aided occasionally by such additional services as we can secure from an occasional rebel surgeon who was taken prisoner in the ranks. In these quarters are between 200 and 300 men, and the number has been I find steadily increasing, who manifest a strong tendency to scurvy, which will eventually if not controlled give a fatal character to all forms of disease whatever their original character.

It may be proper to say here that, with a full sense of the importance of the subject and the responsibility devolving upon me I am instituting all proper measures to antagonize this great evil. The present