W. Hoffman letter June 21, 1863

Office Commissary-General of Prisoners,
Washington, D. C, June 21, 1863.
Lieut. Col. W. H. Ludlow,
Agent for Exchange, Fort Monroe, Va.:

Colonel:

A steamer will leave to-morrow with some 400 prisoners of war for delivery at City Point. I send with them a surgeon and chaplain to be delivered or not as you may think proper under the suspension existing of some of the provisions of the cartel. No transportation could be furnished at Philadelphia, and I have therefore sent from here the only available steamers in port to take the prisoners of war from Fort Delaware to City Point. They will be obliged to make two trips. Before the arrival of paroled prisoners from City Point I will be able to tell yon how many should be delivered here. I doubt if they have as many as they represent, for nearly all the missing of Milroy's command have come in. I send you by the captain of the steamer another package of rolls of paroled men at Camp Chase who are to be exchanged. They are from many different regiments, and I don't see how you can classify them except by saying "officers and enlisted men at Camp Chase" on rolls presented.
Surgeon Barnes, medical inspector, informs me that there are frequently more prisoners confined at Fort Norfolk than the place will accommodate without producing much sickness, and as, if I understand rightly, prisoners of war are held there only temporarily while waiting delivery at City Point under your direction, I request you will avoid crowding the fort by returning to Fort Delaware as many as it will not conveniently accommodate. If prisoners of war are held there who have been captured in that department, I should have rolls and returns of them. I am unable to say on what terms Varner was released, nor can I say whether he has gone beyond our lines. I will inquire.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
W. HOFFMAN,
Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary- General of Prisoners.

Fort Norfolk Documents

Before 1794, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865

Source of Information

55th Congress 3d Session House of Representatives Document No. 312
The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.
Published under the direction of the Hon. Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War,
By Brig. Gen. Fred C. Ainsworth, Chief of the record and pension office, war department, and Mr. Joseph W. Kirkley.
Series II – Volume VI.
Washington: Government printing office.
1899