Inasmuch as by the order of Major-General Grant I am instructed to append the statement of other officers cognizant of the facts, I have requested those who had a view of these transactions to make their statements and transmit them to you. These statements are appended.*

In short, the transaction was seen by 4,000 brave men, who never showed their backs to the enemy, and was altogether too palpable to be passed over or equivocated upon. Captain Myers was informed of my official report, was informed of the order mustering him out of service, offered no defense or explanation, made no protests, demanded no trial, for he knew well that such conduct as his would be visited with but one penalty and that the highest.

The order disbanding the battery was made by Major-General Halleck upon my official report. His authority for so doing I never inquired into, but leave it for newspaper scribblers and their hangers-on to determine. I obeyed it, and know it to be just, and not only just, but merciful. I inclose herewith copies of all correspondence on the subject in my possession.*

I have now done with the official part of this correspondence, but hope to be pardoned if I touch upon the character of these sweeping and nameless accusations. The cowardly slanderer that wrote the article, and the more contemptible official who indorses it as capable of proof, either have published what they knew to be willful falsehood or have published slander without knowing or caring whether it be true or not. In either event they are beneath the notice of a gentleman. I simply say that the statements contained in my official report are true,. and if these wiseacres know anything, they know the penalty that belongs to a false official statement.

If for mere purposes of local popularity an office-hunter by profession is allowed to annoy officers who are still in the presence of the enemy, and who for months have guarded the approaches to the quiet corners where these insects spin their web it is too much. This man, B. Stanton, I suppose to be the great mania over all neighborhoods,whom the people of Ohio, for their sins, have elected lieutenant-governor, and who has already been condemned to eternal infamy by Major General W. T. Sherman. It is among the inflections and evils of a popular government that sometimes scum of this sort issues to the top in times of agitation, and, instead of being skimmed off and put with other rubbish, dances out his hour of apparent vigor on the summit of the popular effervescence. The scum, no doubt, think that their movement is a proof of their own power; but it only shows how strongly the popular feeling boils, at the same time slave and pander to popular prejudice, on the alert to find material to build up temporary prestige by appeals to the base and unworthy with the cant of "an enlightened public"with their mouths, while they mock its hunger with stones or feed it with poison; slaves, that recognize no personal manhood; cowards, who do not know that to the brave the suspicion even of cowardice is worse than death; cheats, that keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope; and sophistical fools, that do not know that a lie however well told is sure in the end to be overtaken and conquered by invincible truth. Men who have acquired position by skill in manufacturing caucuses, by newspaper falsehoods, by temporary tricks and devices, and all the machinations of party; not by service rendered in field or senate; not by manly, straightforward, independent thought, word, or act. These are among the thousand insects that now infest our Republic, and chief among these is the

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*Not found.

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