OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., December 1, 1862.

Honorable EDWARD SALOMON,

Governor of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

GOVERNOR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ultimo,* together with the accompanying papers from paroled troops of Wisconsin at Camp Parole, near Annapolis, complaining of their treatment, and I beg to offer the following reply: Two or three weeks since I made a personal inspection of the condition of that camp and I found the men there as well provided for as at was possible for them to be under the circumstances, and wherever there were deficiencies, of which there were very few, measures were taken for their immediately supply. I went into a great many tents and made many inquiries as to their condition, but there were few or no complaints. Some few men wanted a jacket or some other article of clothing and these were being supplied as fast as possible. Provisions were in a superabundance. The police of the camp within the company grounds was very good, but just outside it was in places very filthy, because these very men probably who complain, with others, would not obey the orders in relation to such matters. I endeavored to provide a remedy for this evil by ordering a guard-house to be built in which to confine and punish such offenders. Men in camps away from their homes make many groundless complaints in the hope to obtain through the interference of their friends a transfer to their own States, and they do all they can by disobedience of orders and neglect of police to give themselves good cause to say that they are badly treated. An order announcing the recent exchanges will be published as soon as it is received from the printers, and it covers nearly all our paroled troops, except a part of those taken at Harper's Ferry and subsequently. Since the exchange the paroled troops from Iowa at Annapolis have been ordered to Benton Barracks, and any from Wisconsin who may be in this section will be immediately ordered to the same point. Ohio troops go to Camp Wallace, in that State.

Trusting that the above explanations will be satisfactory, I am, Governor, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., December 1, 1862.

Colonel G. DE KORPONAY,

Commanding Camp Banks, near Alexandria, Va.

COLONEL: All paroled men in your camp delivered at Aiken's Landing September 13, 1862, have been exchanged (see General Orders, Numbers 134, of September 19, 1862). The date (13th) is omitted in the order. Private I. J. Barry, Company A, One hundred and second Pennsylvania, is one of these men, and he and all exchanged at the same time should be mustered for their pay as soon as practicable. Some days since I gave to your adjutant a scale of rations to be issued to the fragments of companies under your command, the savings to be converted into a fund for the benefit of the whole command. With this fund purchase all articles that will in any way promote the health and comfort of the sick. If

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* See Vol. IV, this Series, p. 749.

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