On page 12:

First Lieutenants L. J. Wright and Hiram Barrows, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, and Second Lieutenant A. P. Dickinson, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, for Lieutenant Colonel E. Pendleton, Third Louisiana [Battalion].

On page 20:

Enlisted men captured at Murfreesborough, Tenn., by General Forrest fully exchanged.

A detachment of the enlisted men of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers and who were supposed to have been fully exchanged under the last clause quoted from the above order have since rejoined their regiment and are now at Bowling Green, Ky. They went back to their regiment and still are under apprehensions that they have not in fact been exchanged, which apprehensions grew out of the fact that a telegraph was received by Captain Fosses, inspector of cavalry at Louisville, on the 7th or 8th instant, signed by Brigadier-General Thomas, stating that the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, who were embraced under the clause quoted from page 20 of General Orders, Numbers 118, above referred to, and who were captured at same time and place with Ninth Michigan Volunteers, were not exchanged, they having up to that time supposed themselves fully exchanged under said order, and being then on their way to join their regiment under General Rosecrans. The doubt therefore which arises relative to the enlisted men of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers is this: If the paroled prisoners of the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry who were included in the last clause quoted from General Orders, Numbers 118, were not exchanged may it not be that the enlisted men of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers are also still unexchanged? The great importance to the men and to the service induces me to ask an early solution of this doubt. Will you be kind enough to investigate this matter and let me hear from you as soon as possible?

The next inquiry relates to myself and Lieutenant Henry M. Duffield, assistant-adjutant-general on my staff, but adjutant of the Ninth Michigan Volunteers, First Lieutenant L. J. Wright and Second Lieutenant A. P. Dickinson, of Ninth Michigan Volunteers. Am I and are they exchanged or not? The Orders, Numbers 118, by its terms exchanges myself and them, but at Louisville, Ky., I was advised of a telegraph addressed to Captain Fosses from your department stating that no paroled officer had as yet been exchanged. Also on the 8th instant a telegraph was addressed by General J. T. Boyle, of Louisville, at my instance, to Brigadier General L. Thomas, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, asking if the six companies Ninth Michigan Volunteers captured at Murfreesborough in July last were exchanged and whether they should be sent into the field, to which a reply was received from yourself under date of November 10 that the six companies Ninth Michigan Volunteers have not been exchanged. In reply to a second dispatch from General Boyle asking where the enlisted men of Ninth Michigan Volunteers should be sent and stating that one company was then in actual service and in the advance at Bowling Green, a dispatch was received from yourself dated November 11 stating that enlisted men captured at Murfreesborough by General Forrest were fully exchanged. Captain M. Mansfield and Lieutenant Hiram Barrows, Ninth Michigan Volunteers, are exchanged. Paroled troops not exchanged go to Camp Wallace, Columbus, Ohio. Copies of these telegraphs are herewith inclosed.

The critical situation of both officers and men under these circumstances and the necessity of that certainty of information which cannot always be had by telegraph compels me to solicit from you at as early a day as possible a full reply by letter to the inquiries herein made,