Major-General John A. McClernand to Edwin M. Stanton, September 5, 1863

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., September 5, 1863.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,
        Secretary of War:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 29th ultimo.* By it I am advised that the President has declined to order a court of inquiry. If the reason for this determination was because my application contemplated an investigation extending beyond my own official conduct, I beg to obviate the objection by requesting a court of inquiry simply to investigate my own conduct. If the court be granted, I would prefer that its jurisdiction be extended to my entire conduct as an United States officer in the present war; or, if that may not be, to my conduct in connection with the Mississippi River expedition; or, if that may not be, to my conduct in connection with the late campaign from Milliken's Bend around to Vicksburg, and resulting in the fall of that place.

Pardon this further intrusion upon your attention, which is made in no improper spirit, but to ascertain the intended effect of the President's determination, and to ask of you to further oblige me by early advising me in the premises.

Your obedient servant,

JOHN A. McCLERNAND,        

Major General.

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* Not found.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 168