ST. LOUIS, MO.,
September 27th, 1850.
MY DEAR COUSIN: On
my arrival at this place yesterday I heard a rumor to the effect that there was
a strong probability that Congress before its adjournment would raise one or
two additional regiments of Dragoons for Western service.
I now write to
request your kind offices for procuring for me the appointment of Major in one
of these Corps. You are fully aware of the importance of this promotion to me,
and I need not therefore say anything to you on that head. I make this
application upon my own character and services as any other officer would do,
yet it may be a matter of some weight with the administration to understand the
relations that existed between the late President and myself; and although I
consider that my standing and services in the army, fully warrant me in seeking
this advancement, I feel safe in saying that in view of my position on
Gen[era]l Taylor's personal staff, Gen[era]l Fillmore would be fully sustained
by his party at least in giving me the position now asked. I presume you are
well acquainted with Mr. Crittenden and Mr. Steanst, and I beg that you will
make these facts known to them. To the former gentleman, I shall write
directly, but with Mr. Steanst I have no acquaintance whatever.
I shall address
Col[onel] Davis and Gen[era]l Jones on this subject, as well as Mr. Conrad, but
your assistance will be highly important to my interests, and if convenient, I
beg to invoke it. Had Gen[era]l Taylor lived I feel satisfied that this
promotion would have been given me unsought, and it was in consequence of
expecting some such occasion as the present that I had refrained while he was
alive, from annoying him on this or kindred subjects.
To Col. Davis I am
personally and fully known and I beg that you will confer with him, should you
be able to give this letter any attention. I am perfectly willing to undergo
any amount of hard service for any length of time, if I get this promotion.
* As a brigadier
general he took command of the Confederate Army in western Virginia in June.
1861 killed at Carrick's Ford, July 13, 1861, while leading his troops.
SOURCE: Charles
Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of
Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 118-9
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