From the Richmond Whig, 9/3/1861

THE FEDERAL PRISONERS. - The Richmond correspondent of the Charleston Courier, in a recent letter, says:

One of the sergeants lately in charge of the prison where the captured Federals are confined, has given me the following interesting particulars: In the four prisons on Man street, the number of Federals confined is 1,375. At the hospital, where those more desperately wounded are treated, are 350 more. The captured officers number about 60. Congressman Ely is the most conspicuous character in the officers’ room. He is constantly in a state of nervous agitation, and eagerly joins in conversation with every stranger who enters the prison. Somebody has told him that he will be hung in case the privateers of the Savannah are treated as pirates. He abuses Lincoln and Seward in round terms for refusing to exchange prisoners. He burdens the mails with his complaints.

Col. Corcoran is inclined to be sulky and taciturn. He is evidently not an educated gentleman. Col. Wilcox, of Michigan, on the contrary, is an accomplished man, and knows how to behave himself. Col. Bowman, of Penn., and Lieut. Selden, U. S. N., are in close confinement, in imitation of the treatment of our men in the Tombs. The prisoners are permitted to write to their friends at the North, and to receive letters from them, all their correspondence passing through the hands of a censor. However, they write at least two hundred letter per day. A funny circumstance connected with their captivity is that among the prisoners are six large negroes, found in the ranks of the enemy at Manassas. They have been thrust into the same apartment with the white prisoners. The latter are clamorously indignant about it, but our authorities tell them that as they came over the Long Bridge to force negro equality on the South, it is more than right they should taste the sweets of their theory in a practical way.