Summary:
In this September, 1864, dispatch, Union Colonel W. Hoffman writes General Albin Schoepf concerning prisoner exchanges and treatment of Pennsylvania citizen-captives held by the Confederacy. Hoffman's interest was prompted by a letter from Chambersburg from ex-prisoner James Hamilton.

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Maj. Gen. A. SCHOEPF, Cmdg. Fort Delaware, Del.:

WASHINGTON, D. C.,

September 20, 1864.

GEN.:

The Secretary of War directs that the twenty-six citizen-prisoners recently sent from this city to Fort Delaware as hostages for a like number of citizens of Pennsylvania now in confinement in Salisbury, N. C., shall be treated and fed as far as practicable in the same manner that the prisoners are for whom they are hostages.

I inclose herewith a letter received from Mr. James Hamilton, late a prisoner at Salisbury, giving an account of the food and treatment he received while there, and I respectfully request you will make the treatment of the hostages referred to correspond with this in all particulars as far as practicable.

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

W. HOFFMAN,
Col. Third Infantry and Commissary-Gen. of Prisoners.

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Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Volume 7, Serial No. 120, Pages 849, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.