Executive Office, March 20, 1862.
H. W. Halleck, Maj.-Gen. Comg, St. Louis, Mo.:
Sir: — Your
assuming responsibility of and defending Gen. Hamilton's order disgracing the
2d Iowa Regt. Vol. Infy. at St. Louis was read by me in the newspapers at
Cairo, and was found on my table on my return.
I regret your position in this matter, but my opinion of it
is not changed. Certain unknown members of that regiment destroyed and carried
away, as is alleged, specimens from a museum in McDowell's college, then
occupied by rebel prisoners and guarded by that regiment. Admitting the truth
of the allegation, and not inquiring whether the property destroyed was the
property of a loyal man or a rebel, it must also be true that but few members
of the regiment could have participated in the act, or could have
known the guilty parties. There must have been many members of the regiment as
guiltless of the wrong done and as ignorant of the names of the guilty parties
as either of us. Many of them too are just as proud and as sensitive of their
good names as either of us, and their feelings deserve just as much
consideration as ours. Now, I cannot admit that these men had done any wrong or
deserved any punishment. And when I was required to admit this by placing the
evidence of their punishment on the records of my office, I could not and did
not do it, and I am yet satisfied with my action, and I yet ask earnestly, but
respectfully, that the censure cast upon them be removed.
Accept my congratulations upon the brilliant success of the
forces under your command.
Very respectfully,
your Obdt. Sevt.
Samuel J. Kirkwood
SOURCE: State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa
Historical Record, Volumes 1-3, Volume 2, No. 3, July 1886, p. 326-7
No comments:
Post a Comment