Officers will not be mentioned by name as they are included in the several classes unless there is some understanding that it shall be done for the information of both parties, and in that case they can be published in a separate order.

I have retained no copies of the rolls sent to-day, and it will be desirable if practicable that they should be returned to this office when the exchanges are effected.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

SAINT LOUIS, November 27, 1862.

Colonel J. HILDEBRAND, Commanding Alton Prison.

COLONEL: I send you to-day about 400 prisoners. The precise number I cannot this moment state, as the list is not corrected, but with them will be a list stating names and numbers. These prisoners have not been disposed of by this office and I request that you will retain them subject to my order. I send them to you now for the reason that our prisons are overcrowded. Gratiot Street [Prison] has nearly 1,000 prisoners in it, and of this number over 200 are sick. It is impossible to dispose of the cases of the prisoners sent you to-day for some time to come, and it therefore is a matter of necessity that I send them to Alton, where, as you informed me, you have now room for a much larger number than I now send you. By the letter of Colonel Hoffman to Colonel Gantt of 29th of October, 1862, a copy* of which I inclose herewith, you will see that I am authorized to release from the Alton prison all such prisoners as are sent there from this office upon charges which upon investigation prove to be unfounded. You will also observe that Colonel Hoffman writes that as far as practicable that such prisoners be held here until their cases are decided. For the reasons above stated it is not practicable to hold these prisoners here until their cases be decided.

Arrangements are on foot to procure another prison here and I hope it will be ready in ten days, when if you are overcrowded I can order these prisoners to be sent back to Saint Louis. They are men captured by General Merrill and many of them were enlisted and sworn into the rebel service and on their way to the South. I understand from Major-General Curtis that he is about to ascertain if they cannot be exchanged as prisoners of war. It is also supposed by General Curtis that a part of these prisoners should after a short imprisonment be released. This, however, he cannot determine until he consults with Brigadier-General Merrill in relation to it.

I have entered into this long statement to show that according to the instructions of Colonel Hoffman I can send these prisoners at this time to Altin and still retain control over them. I wish to guard against their being sent from Alton to Sandusky, in which event they get beyond the reach of my orders. I as, that prisoners now at Alton sent from this office whose cases have not been decided will be retained by you until a final decision can be made of their cases.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. A. DICK,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Provost-Marshal-General.

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*Omitted here; see p. 666.

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