WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, January 15, 1863.

Brigadier-General ELLIOTT, Madison, Wis.:

The questions presented on the habeas corpus have been referred by the President to the law officer of the Government with a view to procuring the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States. As soon as this opinion can be had you will receive instructions, but in the meantime the President directs that you retain the prisoners until you receive further instructions from him.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., January 15, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel F. A. DICk,

Provost-Marshal-General, Saint Louis, Mo.

COLONEL: Your letter of the 9th instant with the accompanying letter* of Mr. Bradley has been received. The latter has been referred to the President according to your indorsement thereon. In reply to your letter of the 9th instant+ I have to say that the prisoner (Singleton) referred to by you was released under a general order from the War Department which directed the release of all military prisoners who were willing to take the oath of allegiance under the instructions which I have heretofore given. All prisoners sent to Alton whose cases are under investigation are entirely beyond your control, and in order that their cases may be well understood at the prisons where they are held it is important that a full history of each individual case should be sent with them when they are transferred from Saint Louis. Nothing of the kind has heretofore been done and to supply this deficiency which has been much felt in determining on applications for release I some time since ordered Captain Freedley to Alton and saint Louis to obtain the charges, trial and sentence of all prisoners now held at any of the prisons above named. When a prisoner is transferred from Saint Louis to another prison this fact noted on your book closes his history with you.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

WASHINGTON, January 15, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel W. H. Ludlow, Agent for Exchange of Prisoners.

Is the declaration of exchanges published in the herald of 13th, signed R. Ould, correct? Are sutlers and their employees now on parole considered exchanged?

W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners.

ALTON MILITARY PRISON, Alton, Ill., January 15, 1863.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

COLONEL: Nearly 800 prisoners who were sent to Vicksburg for exchange but could not be landed there owing to the recent fight at

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* Not found.

+ See p. 166.

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