court accordingly me at that hour, pursuant to adjournment. Present: Major Edmund Underwood, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry; Captain Alfred Gibbs, Third U. S. Cavalry; Captain V. K. Hart, Nineteenth U. S. Infantry, and called first Captain Charles C. Smith, Thirteenth U. S. Infantry, who being duly called and having heard (the order read was duly sworn by the judge - advocate and testified as follows:

About the morning of the 25th July last I was informed that some of the prisoners of war had escaped from the military prison, among whom was Colonel Magoffin, under sentence of death. I went up with another officer whose name I do not recollect to the rear of the prison whence we understood they had escaped. I saw at the end of post Numbers 5, who is stationed at the west end of the prison, a hole out of which I was informed some prisoners had escaped, among whom was Colonel Magoffin. The hole was just large enough for the egress of a man, about four feet from the outside of the wall. We went thence to the inside of the prison proper to try and find out where the hole was started. We searched the prison in what we supposed to be the vicinity of the hole, the cells, &c. ; seconded the flag - stones and found nothing. We then went outside the prison proper; but inside the walls and were unsuccessful. Eight of the escaped prisoners were afterwards recaptured.

Dorus E. Bates, first lieutenant, Thirteenth U. S. Infantry, being duly sworn; deposes:

I was officer of the day on or about 25th of July at the military prison. There was nothing unusual happened to my knowledge during the first part of the night. About 12 or 1 p. m. the sentinel on Numbers 5 gave the alarm; called for corporal of the guard. I went around with the corporal and the sentinel said - his beat is at the end of an alley surrounded by a low fence - he saw two men lying outside the end of the fence. He challenged them and snapped his piece at them when they escaped. I examined on the sentinel's post but found nothing. I remained at the guard - house ever night, and next morning at daylight the sentinel reported the fact of the hole [to the corporal] and he to me. I placed a sentinel over the hole, but could not find the entrance to the hole on the inside before I was relieved, but kept searching for it from daylight till guard - mount. I reported the fact to the commander of the prison, Lieutenant Irvins, as soon as I could have the rolls of the prisoners called.

Javan B. Irvine, first lieutenant, Thirteenth Infantry, being duly sworn, deposeth:

I was acting adjutant of the military prison. I came up to the office on the morning of the 25th of July about 7 a. m. and soon after Lieutenant Bates, the officer of the day, came in the office. I asked him if things were all right. He said that they were bad; that a number of prisoners had escaped and asked if I could tell him how many. I told him not until the morning reports were brought in. I asked him how and where they escaped. He said he could show me the hole where they came out but that was all. I went and looked at the hole outside. I thought they must have raised a flag - stone in the corridor and dug under the wall, as they has once before done in May. I examine the location and found that it was untouched and remained as before. When the rolls came in I took down the names of the absent. The chief of Colonel Magoffin's squad reported him missing. I was much surprised and ordered the officer of the day to take the key to Colonel Magoffin's room and go and see if he were there. He went up and came back and reported him missing, and reported that the padlock to Colonel Magoffin' room was unlocked, but was shut too and seemed to be locked. After I had gotten about twenty - eight names I gave them to the commanding officer. He ordered me to go and try and discover the entrance to the hole. I did so and after looking at the hole on outside I took the range to find the entrance. We went round to the rear of the prison where there was a range of evens covered with a shed, with a roof sloping from front to rear, about eighteenth, inches or a foot from the top of the oven in rear. These was a space of five or six feet in front of the ovens where the prisoners washed their clothes. After looking both front and rear and finding nothing Lieutenant Griffin stepped up on as bench and looked up and said," Here; s the place. " We then got up on top the oven and found the entrance to the excavation they had made. A hole had been cut down through one oven and the dirt thrown on top the two. The ovens had never been used for the prisoners. We could find no other trace of where the earth had been placed that was taken out. I examined the main excavation and found that the diameter was about eighteenth inches. The commanding officer ordered the ovens to be demolished and the trench filled up. The wall is at least twenty - five feet high and at least three feet thick at bottom. The hole was cut though this wall underground and the stones carried out.