The Secretary of War returns my letter concerning the disclosures made of the Wilmington expedition with an indorsement of Assistant-Secretary Dana stating the Secretary desires to know what action I wish to have taken.
I have noticed that our energetic and prompt Secretary of War always desires a strong backer. He does rash and violent things, but he always wants some one to bear the brunt, or one on whom he can, if trouble ensues, throw the responsibility. The Judge-Advocate-General is attached to the War Department, there is a Solicitor of the War Department, the provost marshals are appointments of that Department. I sent the Secretary the facts in Osborn's case, giving names, and he now wishes me to specify his course of action, while I have none of the machinery or officers which Congress has assigned to him in abundance.
I indorsed on the letter that as the expedition was joint, — Army and Navy, — I had supposed it sufficient to advise him of the facts in order to have the offenders punished, that I thought the offense ought not to pass unnoticed, and that I recommended the person who had given the subject for publication should be arrested and tried by military court martial. This I know will not be satisfactory, but it is as much as I, clothed with no power, ought to do.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 205-6
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