Transcription: (Copy) Richmond Dec. 15 1864 W. H. S. Taylor, Esq. 2nd Auditor C[onfederate] S[tates] Treasury Sir: Your communication of the 7th inst. covering Inventories of the effects of several deceased soldiers is received. I have copies of all the Inventories ex cept in the case of McKae, but it was the Quarter master's receipts which I could not find, and which appear to have been mislaid. In regard to your remark that "the receipts from the Quartermaster should have been taken in duplicate [underscore] one of which should have been sent to this office" etc. I do not altogether comprehend how I could have any knowledge that this was necessary, seeing that no orders to that effect (as appears from your printed circular) was issued until May 25 1863 [underscore], long after the death of the parties named in your two communications, and six months after the Medi cal College Hospital ceased to admit soldiers for treatment. I should think that expost facto [underscore] regulations and orders as little binding as expost facto [underscore] laws. If receipts were to be given in duplicate in 1862 it is strange that the Quartermaster appointed to re ceive the effects of deceased solders did not give them thus, as he ought to have known his duty under the regulations at that time in force As to the "contract" with the government under which soldiers were received into the Medi- cal College Hospital, I think it wise to inform you that it was a verbal agreement or understanding that soldiers should be admitted and treated at a certain rate per week per man, nothing more: and I must emphatically decline to admit the force of your presumption that the Hospital is "no less liable as a contract Hospital for the preservation and disposition of the effects of the deceased than Confederate Hospitals." While the Hospital was used by the Government as a receptacle for soldiers in its services, all instruc tions received in regard to any effects were complied with, and all effects which the Quarter master appointed for that purpose was wil ling to receive were deposited in his hand. Beyond the scope of those instructions, we could not be presumed to know what was expected of us, and we must decline to hold ourselves responsible for the observance of regulations which were only pro mulgated long after the Government ceased to send its soldiers to our Hospital: And as two years have now elapsed since the last soldier was admitted, we must protest against the offices of the Government shifting the responsibility for the preservation of the effects of soldiers from themselves to us. Very Respectfully yours L. S. Joynes M.D. Pres[iden]t Med[ical] College Hospital, on behalf of the Faculty of the Medical College of Va [Endorsement:] Copy of a Letter to W.H.S. Taylor Esq. Second Auditor C[onfederate] S[tates] Treasury relating to effect of deceased soldiers [underscore] Decr. 15 1864 [underscore]