Today in History:

635 Series I Volume X-II Serial 11 - Shiloh Part II

Page 635 Chapter XXII. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.

that in telegraphing to the Secretary of War the opening of batteries on the evening before the evacuation of Corinth his was not mentioned. At the time I had not been informed that he had opened or established any battery within breaching distance of the enemy's works. I learned that afterward.

Please inform these gentlemen that no intentional injustice has been done them, and that full credit will be given to them as soon as I receive your official report on the operations before Corinth. Nothing could possibly be further from my mind than the intention to praise one officer at the expense of another equally meritorious.

Very respectfully,

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 3, 1865.

Major-General H. W. HALLECK, U. S. A.,

Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: The war has now ended and the events and incidents connected with it are passing into history. As I do not wish that any report or misconception which has been circulated to my prejudice and which is susceptible of explanation should stand recorded against me, and as the reasons which actuated me in preserving silence until this time no longer exist, I desire to invite your attention to a dispatch published in the newspapers, dated at Corinth, Miss., June 4, 1862, purporting to have been sent by you to the Secretary of War, and containing substantially the following words,viz: "General Pope is 30 miles south of Corinth, pushing the enemy hard. He already reports 10,000 prisoners and deserters and 15,000 stand of arms captured," &c. I do not know that you ever sent such a dispatch; but as I do know that I never made such a report, I infer that if you sent the dispatch in question you must have done so under a very great misapprehension. I have therefore to request that you furnish me a copy of any report made by me upon which such a dispatch as that in question was sent. I have full records of all my letters, dispatches, and reports to you during the operations at Corinth, and no such report is among them.

I am, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. POPE,

Major-General.

WASHINGTON, July 5, 1862.

Major-General JOHN POPE, Present:

GENERAL: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 3rd instant. As my papers are all boxed up for transportation to California, I am not able to refer to the dispatches to which you allude nor can I trust my memory in regard to communications made more than three years ago, further than to say that I never reported to the Secretary of War dispatches received from you which were not so received.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.


Page 635 Chapter XXII. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.