[Inclosure Numbers 3.] GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 136.
Washington, September 22, 1862.

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II. By direction of the President, Captain Benjamin P. Walker, commissary of subsistence, volunteer service, is hereby dismissed for habitual absence from his post and gross and willful neglect of duty.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure Numbers 4.]

CHICAGO, ILL., October 9, 1862.

His Excellency President LINCOLN:

Why was Captain B. P. Walker dismissed from service? Who preferred charges against him? You have been imposed upon, for the dismissal is great injustice. John H. Bradley, of Columbus, Ohio, will furnish you facts. Pray reconsider action.

SCHUYLER COLFAX.

[Inclosure Numbers 5.]

COLUMBUS, OHIO, November --, 1862.

His Excellency Honorable ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States.

SIR: On the 7th day of September, 1861, you appointed and on the 21st day of February, 1862, commissioned me commissary of subsistence, volunteer service. I was assigned to duty at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, and entered upon my duty and have performed it from the 16th day of October, 1861, until the 1st day of October, 1862, and always with a full understanding of what I was doing, and so far as I have ever known with a full sanction of the Commissary-General of the department. On the 10th day of October, 1862, I received your order dismissing me from the service for the following causes:

Habitual absence from his post and gross and willful neglect of duty.

I distinctly and emphatically state to you that those charges are false; that they have not even the color of truth, and I submit to you the accompanying evidence of the truth of what I allege.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

B. P. WALKER.

[Sub-inclosure.]

COLUMBUS, OHIO, November --, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of submitting for your consideration the following answer to certain charges preferred against me as assistant commissary of subsistence at Camp Chase, Ohio, ameboid in a report made by Captain H. M. Lazelle to Colonel William Hoffman, commissary-general for prisoners. These charges are of a very grave character; enough so to cause my dismissal from service. His first charge is based upon what he terms a perversion of a contract for supplying complete rations by Jacob and Louis Zettler, by stating that the fourth article of same provides that all stores furnished under it shall be of the first quality. The first article stipulates that the supplies