[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

July 25, 1862.

AGENTS FOR THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, Aiken's.

GENTLEMEN: I have just learned that you will reach Aiken's at noon to-day expecting to meet there our agents for the exchange of prisoners. I regret to have to inform you that so far as I am aware no agents have yet been appointed for the purpose by our Government, but I have urged their immediate appointment and will at once repeat the request. I will advise General Lee of their appointment and the time when the meeting can take place, which I trust may be within a very brief period.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,

Knoxville, July 25, 1862.

Colonel J. J. FINLEY, Sixth Regiment Florida Volunteers.

COLONEL: The guard will deliver over to you J. P. Alley, a prisoner suspected of being a spy of the enemy. The major-general commanding directs me to say that he wishes him kept in closest guard beyond the possibility of escape, and if a single gun be fired by the enemy to-morrow morning the guard will be instructed by you to shoot the prisoner immediately putting him to death.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. L. CLAY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GRENADA, MISS., July 27, 1862.

Honorable G. W. RANDOLPH, Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.

SIR: I see by the newspapers that a general exchange of prisoners is about to be effected, and as the enemy have a class of prisoners in the West which they may not have elsewhere and whose cases may require some especial agreement I feel it my duty to call your attention to them. There are a number of persons now confined in the military prisons of Alton, Chicago and Saint Louis who were officers and soldiers, but whose terms of enlistment had expired and who had been discharged, but who were nevertheless taken by the enemy in Missouri because it was known that they were Southern and would probably re-enlist in the C. S. Army. These persons are held as prisoners of war, not as citizens, and are subject to exchange.

My brigade of Missouri Guard was disbanded in December, 1861, preparatory to a reorganization in the Confederate service in January. During the interval several hundred were captured, some of service upon being exchanged or released by order. Another class who will deserve attention are persons who having received the authority to raise companies and regiments, were captured before their complement of men had been raised and consequently before a legal organization had been had. These gentlemen are held as regular officers and the