CAMP CHASE, OHIO, September 4, 1864

Col. W. P. RICHARDSON, Commanding Post:

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of an inspection of camp and prisons for the week ending September 3, 1864:

Prison No. 1 contains all the rebel officers at this post. It is well policed and is in a healthy condition with the exception of the sink, which is being rapidly drained by a ditch leading from the prison east to the main sewer, running north and south parallel to the prison wall.
Prison No. 2 contains the same rubbish of which mention was made in my last report in consequence of the barracks still being in course of construction, and on which account policing cannot be so thoroughly done. This prison contains the hospitals, which are in a fine healthy condition, the bedding being frequently changed. Things appear neat and clean.
Prison No. 3 is still being graded and drained, and it is very well policed. The policing could be more thoroughly done if the facilities for cooking were such as to enable the prisoners to have their meals at designated hours. As it is they are cooking from morning until night--all hours of the day. There being only from one to two small inferior cooking-stoves for 200 men, it is impossible for them to get their meals ready at any particular hour. I would respectfully recommend that ranges be built in the barracks which will obviate this difficulty. It can be done at a very small expense. The labor can be performed by the prisoners.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to the officers in charge of the prisons (Lieutenants Sankey and Park) for their untiring efforts to maintain order and cleanliness in the prisons. Also for their efforts to secure the prisoners from escape. The fence surrounding the camp is being constructed, and is, in my opinion, too close to the prison walls on the east and south sides, the east side being only sixty feet and the south side being only forty feet from the prison walls. If the prisoners should succeed in digging forty feet from the prison and coming up upon the outside of the fence their escape would be certain, as the fence is of such a height as to entirely obstruct the view of the guard. With a very slight additional expense to the Government the fence could be placed at a proper distance from the prison, which, in my opinion, should not be less than 100 feet.

There is a citizen prisoner confined in camp by the name of James M. Lazzell, from Virginia, whom I suspect has been secretly conversing with the enlisted men in camp and exercising a deleterious influence over them. I would respectfully suggest that he be removed from this camp, or be more closely confined, where he cannot communicate with any enlisted men. The commandant of the post, by the able assistance of the colonel commanding the Eighty-eighth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, has changed the camp from a detestable mud hole to a fine healthy and well-organized camp. Their untiring efforts to promote the health and well-being of the camp deserve the highest commendation.
I am, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

F. S. PARKER,
Captain Company D, Camp Inspector