Unknown to Commissary-General of Prisoners, February 25, 1865

Elmira, N. Y., February 25, 1865.

Respectfully returned to the Commissary-General of Prisoners with the following extracts from the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Trotter, in charge of the detachment, as to transportation :

The train left Elmira at 5 p. m. February 13 and reached Baltimore, via Northern Central Railroad, at 10 a. m. February 15, after many delays. During the night of February 14 neither water nor lights were provided for any car upon the train, as required by the terms of the contract, and three of the prisoners died from the continued exposure. The train consisted of seventeen cars, with only one brakeman for the entire number, to which ten or more cattle cars were added when the train left Williamsport. * * * I would beg leave to call attention to the indifference of the officials of the Northern Central Railroad, who paid not the least attention to repeated applications for lights for the cars, which I was finally compelled to purchase myself. Neither did they supply any water or fuel after the train left

Elmira ARa The surgeon was strictly charged to send no one unable to endure the journey. It requires a pretty strong man, however, to endure a railroad journey of forty-one hours during such weather as prevailed at the time this party of prisoners was forwarded. B. F. TRACY, Colonel 127th U. S. Colored Troops, Commanding Depot.