4 o'clock in the afternoon about eighty prisoners of war whom I have ordered to be released on parole. Will you please have some one there who will receipt for them.

I have a letter from General Wadsworth, commanding the Military District of Washington, who says:

In the month of June I arrested General A. Rogers, of Londoun, Mr. Joshua C. Gunnell, of Fairfax, and five other citizens, retaining them as hostages for T. Turner and his four sons, Wybert and Peacock. On the 15th day of July General Rogers brought me a copy of an order from Mr. Randolph, Secretary of War, for the release of these men, whereupon I at once released General Rogers, Mr. Gunnell and five others. The parties ordered to be released by Mr. Randolph have not yet reached home and I understand are still in prison at Salisbury.

I avail myself of the opportunity of saying that I make it a rule to go every Sunday unless prevented by overruling necessity to Fort Wool, which is the receptacle in this department for political prisoners, for the purpose of inquiring personally into the cause of arrest in each case and of discharging the parties unless there is good reason for holding them in custody. I have to-day ordered all but four whose cases are of an aggravated character to be discharged on parole. A few weeks ago I released over 100 under the same circumstances and on the same condition.

I am advised by General Wadsworth that there are in the Old Capitol Prison at Washington 111 state prisoners against whom there are no charges which will prevent their exchange. He sends me the names of thirty-nine citizens known to be confined in Richmond and a list published in a New York paper of 241 confined at Salisbury. I have no authority to negotiate an exchange for these prisoners, but I think it not improper in anticipation of an early interview between General Thomas and yourself to call your attention to the subject and to suggest whether it would not be right to discharged on parole some of the citizens held by you in consideration of the large number discharged by me whose names I can furnish if desired.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, August 25, 1862.

OFFICER COMMANDING FORCES AT OPELOUSAS.

SIR: I have sent Mr. A. Deslondes to you, a well-known gentleman of this State, who has been captured and held by me under his parole as one of the hostages for the safety of Mr. Burbank and other peaceable citizens of the United States who have been taken by your forces. He has been selected as a messenger because he has peculiar and personal interest in the questions presented by him, and goes under his solemn parole to return in any event.

Mr. Deslondes bears a copy of a letter from the brother of Mr. Burbank to me disclosing a course of treatment toward a citizen of the State of Louisiana that I can hardly conceive to be true. One purpose I have in sending this note is to ask you to certify to me officially what is the treatment accorded to Mr. Burbank, so that I may relieve the mind of the brother from what I shall believe until officially informed to the contrary must be an exaggeration, and I have also desired the official information so that I might be in condition to act understandingly upon this and like cases.