OFFICE OF PROVOST-MARSHAL, Wheeling, August 7, 1862.

Colonel W. D. WHIPPLE, Assistant Adjutant-General, Baltimore.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose letter* from Colonel Hoffman, commissary-general of prisoners, and respectfully if the commanding general sees fit that orders be issued to enable me to comply with the instructions of said letter, or that Colonel Hoffman be advised of the commanding general's pleasure in the matter. I have notified Colonel Hoffman that there is not now at this post nor at any post in Western Virginia from which I have been able to procure reports a single prisoner of war, as they have all been forwarded here and from he to Camp Chase, Ohio.

Very respectfully,

JOS. DARR, JR.,

Major and Provost-Marshal.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, Baltimore, Md., August 9, 1862.

Respectfully returned.

A letter from Major Darr to the commissary-general of prisoners of war will be all that he requires. Lists from other posts in the army corps where prisoners of war have been confined have already been furnished and the prisoners have been sent South.

By command, &c.:

WM. D. WHIPPLE,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

OFFICE OF PROVOST-MARSHAL, Wheeling, August 7, 1862.

Colonel WILLIAM HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

SIR: To enable you to understand what difference there is in my present position from what it was in the Mountain Department when provost-marshal-general I must refer to the change made when General Fremont was relieved of his command. General Wool, at Baltimore, commanding Middle Department, was placed in command of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Baltimore to Wheeling, and of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad from Grafton to Parkesburg, the latter a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. General Kelley, under General Wool, was to command the Railroad District known as the railroads referred to. In addition General Kelley was to extend his authority over certain counties adjoining said railroads; but as the following extract will show the general does not now know exactly what the limits of his command are:

JULY 26, 1862.

The limits and extent of the Middle Department as well as of my district are to my mind far from clear or well defined, and until the requisite information is obtained it is not deemed advisable to make an order in the premises.

B. F. KELLEY,

Brigadier-General.

To complicate matters, Brigadier-General Cox, commanding Kanawha District was intrusted with what is said to be a sort of independent command the limits of which I am led to infer are also somewhat uncertain. General Wool. General Kelley and General Cos now command in West Virginia. General Kelley reports for the railroad

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*Omitted here; Hoffman to Darr, August 4, p. 338.

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