Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Charles A. Dana to Brigadier-General Marsena R. Patrick, October 30, 1864

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 30, 1864.
Brig. Gen. M. R. PATRICK,
Provost-Marshal-General, City Point:

Various reports have reached this Department that you are co-operating with the election agents sent to the army by Governor Seymour, to the extent of showing them favors and furnishing them with facilities not warranted by the passes granted them by this Department and not accorded by you to the agents of the Union party. In view of these reports I am instructed by the Secretary of War to notify you that he expects from you careful and exact impartiality toward the representatives of the two parties; and also that, as the agents of Governor Seymour here and in Baltimore have been detected in the perpetration of gross frauds and forgeries for the purpose of causing the votes of soldiers to be counted in favor of Democratic candidates, when these soldiers intended to vote against such candidates, he expects you to exercise vigilance for the detection of all such crimes within your jurisdiction; and should it finally appear that such wrongs have been consummated, when due watchfulness on your part might have prevented them, you will be held responsible for the same.

C. A. DANA,
Assistant Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 42, Part 3 (Serial No. 89), p. 435-6

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