Major Osman Latrobe to Lieutenant Colonel Walter H. Taylor, November 14, 1864

HEADQUARTERS FIRST ARMY CORPS,        

November 14, 1864.

Lieut. Col. W. H. TAYLOR,

        Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of Northern Virginia:

COLONEL: By direction of Lieutenant-General Longstreet I have the honor to state to you for the attention of the commanding general that Major-General Pickett reports about 100 men from his command in the guard-house charged with the crime of desertion. He accounts for this state of things by the fact that every man sentenced to be shot for desertion in his division for the past two months has been reprieved.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

 

OSMAN LATROBE,        

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[First indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS,        

November 18, 1864.

Respectfully submitted for the information of the Secretary of War. Desertion is increasing in the army notwithstanding all my efforts to stop it. I think a rigid execution of the law is [sic] in the end. The great want in our army is firm discipline.

R. E. LEE,        

General.

[Second indorsement.]

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,        

November 19, 1864.

Respectfully submitted to honorable Secretary of War for consideration.

By order, &c.:

W. S. BARTON,        

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Third indorsement. ]

NOVEMBER 23, 1864.

Respectfully submitted for the consideration of the President.

J. A. SEDDON,        

Secretary of War.

[Fourth indorsement. ]

NOVEMBER 29, 1864.

When deserters are arrested they should be tried, and if the sentences are reviewed and remitted that is not a proper subject for the criticism of a military commander.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

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. 1213