application of your recent regulations so long as the Governor looks upon the matter from his present point of view and gives orders to the commanding officer conflicting with your regulations and with changes which ought to be immediately made.

Prison No. 3 contains nearly 1,100 prisoners, quite as many as at present the accommodations are prepared to receive. The buildings of boards over light frames are about 20 by 14, and eighteen men could be made comfortable in each. They are generally arranged in clusters of six, the buildings of each cluster about two feet and a half apart and the clusters separated from each other by narrow streets. Had the materials of each cluster been appropriated in erecting a single building, more room, better accommodations and an infinitely better arrangement of the camp as regards health and comfort would have been secured. As it is the air of the camp, and more particularly of the prison, is polluted and the stench is horrible. The prison buildings are without brooms and are extremely filthy and none of them have been whitewashed for months. They are heated to an insufferable extent by the stoves, which in all weathers drive the prisoners to the broiling sun or rain to avoid their heat, and are begrimed with smoke and grease, and the debris of cooking and cooking utensils. The spaces between the clusters of the quarters are heaped with the vilest accumulations of filth which has remained there for months, breeding sickness and pestilence. All the refuse of the prisoners' food, clothing and the general dirt of a camp is gathered here and no care has been taken for its removal. The streets, drains and gutters of the prison are in the same state and are so filled and filthy that they answer as cesspools of standing filth more than the purpose for which they [were] made. The sinks are open excavations with a single rail placed over them lengthwise. The main drain of the prison empties here when it is itself overflown, thus supplying constant moisture, by no means sufficient to drain off but a small part of the natural accumulation, but quite enough to insure rapid decomposition and load the air of the prison with the most nauseating and disgusting stench.

After a violent rain this refuse from more than a thousand men is partially carried without the high fence surrounding the prison and for a long distance lines the large open main gutter passing through Camp Chase. Further comment is unnecessary, in season of the hot weather, of the natural effects of such a cause. Suffice it to say that while it is a matter of constant representation and of the loudest complaint from all the prisoners, all the soldiers and all the doctors, the commanding officer and Governor, not a single step has been taken to remedy this terrible abomination. The ground of the prison is very irregular and soft, and after a rain the mud is very deep and the water and mud stands where formed and deposited until the sun dries it up. All of the quarters not shingled leak in the freest manner both at the roof and sides, and most of those with good roofs leak at the sides from the defects of the boarding and the holes knocked in the sides for ventilation or other purposes by the prisoners. They almost all require repairing. The buildings are set directly on the ground with the floors in very many instances in contact with it. The drainage is so incomplete that water falling accumulates under the buildings and remains there constantly.

Prison No. 2 is much smaller than the one above referred to; it contains about two hundred and fifty prisoners, who have for their accommodation three buildings about 100 by 15. These are divided by cross partitions of eighteen feet in length, each containing bunks for eighteen

men, with the stove, cooking utensils and provisions for each mess of eighteen. Two of these buildings are well constructed and have good roofs, shingled; they are raised from the ground six or eight inches, and by removing the accumulation of earth and mud and sawing off the side boards which run down below the floors a free circulation of air will be allowed beneath them. The third of these structures is somewhat smaller than the other two and is set flat upon the soft, muddy ground. It has a roof of boards much warped and leaks badly both at the top and sides. Its site is much lower than either of the others, and in fact it is the lowest part of the prison ground, and the floors are in some places quite as low if not lower than the general level surrounding them. In consequence of this it is very damp and unhealthy. In the third prison, or prison No. 1, there are two long buildings constructed in a similar manner and of the same dimensions as those already described. They are quite well raised from the ground, and by removing the accumulations of earth and rubbish from their sides and vicinity and sawing off the boards which are vertical and project below the floors a tolerably good ventilation will be secured beneath them. This prison has about one hundred and fifty inmates besides those contained in the hospital, which is a building of about 20 by 70 inclosed within the board fence. There are about thirty patients cared for daily by a doctor, a prisoner paroled with the limits of the camp. All the sick of each prison are daily attended in the same manner, but the whole is under the general charge of the surgeon of the camp, who has time to visit the sick prisoners, as he himself informed me, but once a week except in cases of great emergency. I will speak of this further on.

In both prisons, Nos. 1 and 2, the same statement precisely may be made relative to the drainage, the sinks and the utter neglect of whitewashing and policing. A terrible stench everywhere prevails, overpowering the nostrils and stomach of those not impermeated with it. I desire to add that in the prisons of the hospital that building by a singular want of judgment or carelessness occupies the lowest ground of the prison, all the refuse water of the camp is collected in its vicinity and it is immediately contiguous to one of the vile sinks. One whole side of this prison is entirely unguarded; there is no sentry's gallery or sentry except at night. In all the prisons the water with one or two exceptions is extremely bad. Some of the wells are but ten feet in depth, a few are fifteen and none over that. The prisoners in very many of the messes (of eighteen men) have nothing to wash themselves in, not even a basin or tub to wash their clothes.

The wood furnished is said by the commanding officer to be the same allowance as that of the soldier, viz, that of the Army Regulations. The prisoners complain that they do not have enough and there is a fault somewhere. I shall remedy it.

The provisions are very inferior. Beef is only tolerable and necks and shanks are issued. The salt pork is very soft, evidently still-fed. The flour is black and not properly ground-third-class. The bread is sour and dark and heavy. The bacon good. The corn-meal is good. The beans and pease as bad as they can be. The rice is floury and wormy. The sugar is miserable third-class brown sugar. The molasses inferior. The coffee the worst Rio. The candles tallow. The soap seldom resinous and never as good as the worst commonly issued in the Army. The potatoes bad. The salt, rock salt, coarsely ground. I found many of the prisoners in rags and on my calling the attention of the commanding officer to the fact he said that it was his object to make their friends clothe them. The prisoners have up to the present

time been allowed to retain in their possession $5, the balance has been placed in the hands of the quartermaster-general of the State. There is a little sutler's store to each prison and through a small hole he sells all articles usually sold by sutlers, except whisky, being paid in cash by the prisoners or receiving an order for the amount (should the prisoner have the money) on the quartermaster-general. Up to the present time no attempt has been made to regulate the prices of the sutler or to impose upon him a tax for sales to the prisoners more than the payment of a small post-office charge which has amounted to a dollar a day, and he seems to do exactly as he pleases.

Each of the prisons is placed under the sole control of a stout, coarse non-commissioned volunteer, a "three months' man," who alone superintends all of the roll-calls, issues all the provisions, has the entire charge of each prison under the commanding officer and does exactly as he pleases.

The prisoners are generally very quiet and well-behaved and express themselves as gladly willing to do anything to better their condition. Axes have generally been used; some few attempts to secrete them have been made, but upon depriving that prison of the use of axes until the missing one was restored they have been recovered. A few days since several burrows were discovered under the outer quarters next the fence in prison No. 3. These were horizontal holes about two feet in diameter which had been run almost to the fence.

I will now endeavor to state to you the means I have adopted to remedy some of these prominent evils.

I have (by the consent of the Governor) through the commanding officer directed the quartermaster to dig vaults in each prison at least ten feet deep, to line them with planks to keep out surface water and so to slope the ground above that no water can run into the vaults; over these vaults to build substantial privies with air chimneys and bench seats with a strong, firm board placed horizontally and one edge inclined at such an angle as will prevent an improper use of the seats. Each seat is to be provided with a hinge cover which when up strikes against this board and which when the prisoner leaves falls down whether closed or not, thus confining all stench and arranging to shut out water to decompose the filth. Each privy is to accommodate fifteen at one time and is to have a urinating trough which carries all deposit outside the prison walls into the general drain and not into the vault. There will thus be constructed at prison No. 3 accommodations for thirty men at once and at the other prisons for fifteen each. The present vaults or rather holes from which the filth passes into the main drain, and is extended through the camp are to be covered with earth packed firmly and if necessary it will be planked up to perfectly confine all stench. By this means and the free use of lime at all times in the privies the filth and stench will be confined to a single point and greatly diminished. When these vaults fill they are to be closed up and the privy removed to another prepared in the same manner. quartermaster is ordered to furnish immediately lime and whitewash brushes in sufficient abundance for rapidly whitewashing all the quarters in all the prisons. Fifty brooms will be immediately supplied to prison No. 3 and twenty-five to the other prisons; twelve to one and thirteen to the other. If necessary they will be purchased. The pris oners will be supplied by purchase elsewhere if they cannot be procured at the commissary department with tubs of the capacity of twenty gallons each. One of these will be given to every twenty men. This will involve the purchase of perhaps twenty tubs. The quarter

The

master will cause to be immediately raised so that the floors will be one foot from the ground all of the buildings in prison No. 3. He will place under them blocks and string pieces to firmly secure them on a foundation of such height. In prisons Nos. 1 and 2 he will have all the side covering of all the buildings removed below the floors by sawing it off, and all earth and rubbish removed from about them so as will allow the free circulation of air under the floors. In order that this measure may be effected in the middle building of prison No. 2 and that the roof and walls may be properly repaired it will be necessary that this building be taken down in sections of one-third at a time and re-constructed on a proper foundation. He will have constructed in front of all the prison quarters in all of the prisons raised platforms over the drains similar to those now placed there but more elevated and more extended. They will be placed as entrances to the quarters. He will cause all rubbish and piles of earth, embankments, &c, around the prison grounds in the vicinity of any of the buildings or between them to be at once removed, the rubbish and offal to be carried without the camp limits, and the earth to be used in the construction of roads and drains.

In all the prison grounds in those portions now used for a roadway there will be constructed a wagon road with a high curved surface and suitable side drains. In all portions now used as walks, walks will in the same manner be constructed with side drains. Drains will be made about each and all of the buildings, to be shallow as well as those of the roads and walks, but the whole so arranged as to be higher than the main drain of the prison leading from the wells, and which will receive all refuse water and carry it outside of the walls at suitable points. All of the ground of each prison will be graded and drained. in the most complete manner so that after rains there will be no standing water at any part of the grounds. The digging of vaults, whitewashing, draining, grading and constructing roads and walks in each camp will be done by prisoners detailed for the purpose and under proper guards, all other labor about the prisons designed to in any manner benefit the prisoners will be performed by prisoners so far as it is practicable. The quartermaster will cause to be erected on that side of prisons Nos. 1 and 2 which is now destitute of them galleries for sentries similar to those on other sides of the same prison. At the -entrance to this prison he will cause a proper arrangement to be made of drains and such grading done as.will conduct away from the vicinity all standing water or that which now runs toward the prison grounds. If necessary he will construct to this end a drain leading to the main sewer. In the outer guard house of this prison he will have constructed eight strong small cells for confining disobedient or violent prisoners. He will procure by purchase if necessary six pairs of handcuffs for á similar purpose. He will have the main sewer leading through Camp Chase properly cleaned out and planked over, commencing at prison No. 3. He will have all the prison wells in each prison opened and cleaned out by the prisoners without delay, and in case any of them are not fifteen feet in depth they will be deepened to that extent. He will have all of the stoves at present in prison No. 3 removed to the outside of the prison, and all shelters of whatever character which are not a part of the regular quarters will be removed at once from prison No. 3. In the other prisons these may for the present remain where they are erected-over the stoves on the outside of the quarters. He will purchase fourteen saws, eight of which will be for the use of prison No. 3 and three in each of the other prisons, and the prisoners will not be

allowed to chop their wood for the "Farmer's boilers" or stoves. They must be allowed to split it, however, when necessary, and here axes will be allowed them. The quartermaster will have immediately repaired the roofs of all the quarters in the prisons where necessary. None will be shingled which are not now shingled, but they will be improved with the same materials with which they are now covered so far as possible, and in all cases by the same method by which first covered. He will cause the six "Farmer's boilers" to be placed in prison No. 3 on the outside and near the line of single quarters next the sutler's store, one next to each building, and will erect over each of them a shelter of boards eight feet square and will cut a door from this shelter through the wall of the quarters for egress. In each of the prisons Nos. 1 and 2 the quartermaster will have removed to the outside of the quarters all stoves. They will be placed during the continuance of the warm weather next to the quarters, but no shelter will be constructed over them, the object of a shelter over the "Farmer's boilers" being to increase the kitchen room, which is small, for the large number of prisoners designed to be accommodated. In the issue of wood the quartermaster will personally see that the proper allowance is daily issued and delivered inside of the prison walls to the prisoners.

The commanding officer is held responsible for the immediate enforcement of these special instructions.

The commanding officer is required to detail daily two officers of police, one to prison No. 3 and the other to prisons Nos. 1 and 2. It shall be the duty of these officers to have the rolls called every morning at 8 o'clock of all the prisoners at each prison. He must be present personally and satisfy himself of the presence of the prisoners and will report immediately to the commanding officer, stating the number and giving the names of absentees if any. These officers will cause the prisons to be carefully and thoroughly policed twice during each day under their personal direction at the hours of 6.30 a. m. and 4.30 p. m. This will be done by the prisoners detailed in the proportion of one in eighteen. The police party will be formed, the rolls called and the tools for police distributed under the direction of the officers. When the policing is completed the party will be formed, the roll again called and the implements with the exception of the brooms placed without the prison walls. In policing the quarters are to be carefully swept and all rubbish, offal and dirt to be removed from within and about them, and all accumulations of whatever nature in the grounds of the prison or in it roads, walks or drains must be removed. The "officer of the day" will make a careful and thorough inspection of all the prisons twice in each day after police hours and will report to the commanding officer their condition as relates to the efficiency of the guards, the general security and discipline of the prisoners and the cleanliness and order in the prisons, together with such other matters as should specially come to the knowledge of the commanding officer. The commanding officer will see by a frequent personal inspection of the provisions furnished by the contractors that the stipulation of their contract requiring provisions of the first quality to be furnished be strictly enforced so far as procuring such provisions as are commonly furnished by the commissary department of the Regular Army, and if there be any doubt in his mind he will apply to the Commissary-General for a proper construction of the contract. If complaint of the quality of the provisions is such as to require a frequent recourse to referees as provided by the terms of the contract to pronounce upon the stores he