Executive Department, Iowa,
Des Moines, Feb. 17, 1862.
Schuyler Hamilton, Brigadier-General, Vols., U. S. A.,
Commanding St. Louis Dist., St. Louis. Mo.:
Sir — I received
your letter of the 10th inst., enclosing special Nos. 28 and 30, dated on the
9th and 10th inst., in relation to the Second Regiment Iowa Infantry. The
former of these orders commends that regiment very highly for their conduct to
certain prisoners that were for a long time in their custody. The latter is
intended to throw dishonorable reflection thereon on account of the robbing and
destruction committed by its members on the museum.
After mature reflection, I cannot consent to retain these
orders in my possession or to place them on the files of this department, and
therefore return them with the letters enclosing them. My reasons for so doing
are that by retaining and filing these orders I would, to some extent, admit
the justness of the imputations contained in the latter order. This I cannot
do, and there is, therefore, no other course open for me to pursue than the one
indicated. The good name of her soldiers is very dear to the people of Iowa,
and undeserved disgrace shall not by any act of mine attach to this or any
other regiment or to any individual of the brave men she has sent out to fight
the battles of the country.
It appears, both from the order itself and your letter, that
but a very few members of the regiment could have been guilty of the
acts on which the order was based, and it does not appear but that persons
entirely outside the regiment may have committed these acts. There are
very many members of that regiment whose standing socially, morally and
intellectually is equal to yours or mine, who feel an imputation upon their
honor as keenly as either of us can do, and I must be permitted to say that, in
my judgment, it is harsh and cruel to subject them to the pain of humiliation
and disgrace in consequence of acts not committed by themselves and the
commission of which by others they could not prevent. The feeling produced by
undeserved punishment is never a healthy one and cannot produce desirable
results. * * *
I trust that measures may be taken to relieve the regiment
from the imputation cast upon it.
Very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and
Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 210-1
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