paroled and receipted for by General Rosecrans I respectfully ask that they be sent to Richmond to be forwarded through our lines.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. K. BEARD,

Inspector-General.

BRITISH CONSULATE, Charleston, December 28, 1862.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State, Richmond.

SIR: It is not nearly a month since your were so good as to promise to procure from the War Department some information respecting the reasons which may have led to the imprisonment at Salisbury, N. ., of John Carfoot, a subject of Her Majesty. As this person is still so far as I know held in confinement I beg leave to again direct your attention to the matter in order that he may be either brought at once to trial or speedily released.

I have the honor to be, sir, very your faithful and obedient servant,

ROBERT BUNCH.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 30, 1862.

Honorable R. R. COLLIER, Petersburg, Va.

SIR: In the absence of the President your letter to him of the 23rd instant has been referred to this Department for answer and you are respectfully informed that an additional person has been appointed to examine all prisoners and has instructions to discharge all those who are illegally detained.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 30, 1862.

BEVERLY R. WELLFORD, Jr., Esq.

SIR: You have been selected by this Department to proceed to Petersburg, Va., and Salisbury, N. C., for the purpose of making an examination of the entire body of prisoners who are detained in prison in either of those places under the military authority of the Confederate States and where the persons do not belong to the army of the Confederacy. You are authorized to call upon the provost-marshals and the officers having charge of the prisons in either of those places for the books and papers kept by them and for all the information they have respecting the cause of arrest and detention of any person held in confinement. You will make a record of all your proceedings under this commission and a report of your judgment in each particular case.

You are authorized to set at liberty all those against whom no well-grounded cause of suspicion exists of having violated any law or done any act hostile or injurious to the Confederate States. And as to those against whom suspicion is found properly to exist you will make a report of the facts and of your opinion and recommendation concerning them. You will notify the commanding officers of this commission and of the time you will commence your investigation and they will

51 R R-SERIES II, VOL V