The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-05-16
GENERAL SCOTS LETTER TO SEC
RETARY MARCY.
Mexico. Feb. q. 1913.


SIR-On the 18th inst received your two
letters ofthe 3th alt. * Immediately issued the
general order No. 50, devolying the command
of the army in Mexico upon Major General
Butler.
As the officers detailed for the Court of In
quiry-before whom / am ordered to appear
as a criminal-are not known to have arrived
in this country, avail myself of a moments
leisure to recall some of the neglects, disap-
pointments, injuries and rebukcs which have
been inflicted upon me by the War Depart
ment since my departure from Washington,
November %, 1916.
To me the business of recrimination, how
ever provoked, has ever been painful I'm this
summary shall, therefore, indulge in no want
onness of language, but confne myself to ma
ked historical facts, leaving conclusions 10 men
Of sense and candor.
In the hurry of preparation for MEXICO, Ton
ly four days were allowed me at Washington,
when twenty might have been most adyanta-
geously employed in the great bureaux-those
Of the chief Of engineers, chief of ordnance.
chief quartermaster and chief commissary Of
subSistence-) | handed to you written re-
quest that one of three Of our accomplished
captains therein named, might be appointed
assistant adjutant general, with the rank of
major, for duty with me in the field, and there
was vacancy at the time for one. My re-
quest has never been attended TO, and thus
have had no officer of adjutant generals de-
partment with me in the campaign. Can an
other instance he cited of denying to gene
ral-in-chief, in the field at the head of large
armv-or even small one-the selection Of
his chief of the staf1-that is, the chief in the
department of orders and correspondence ?
Early in the following January, asked that
General Court Martial might be appointed,
on the part ofthe President, for the trial Of two
officers (named by me) for conduct, each had
committed, that endangered, in a high degree,
the success of the impending campaign, and i
specially referred TO the anomalous and fatal
act of Congress, (Alay 20, lS30,) which pro-
hibited me, as the ''accuser or prosecutor"
from ordering the Court for the trial of the ca
ses. My application has never been noticed.
This neglect, alone, ought early to have adj
monished me that had no hope of support at
Washington, in any attempt | might make Ia
gainst certain oficers) to maintain necessary
discipline in the army was about to lead into
the field. left Washington highly fattered
with the confidence and kindness the Presi-
dent had just shown me in many long person.
al interviews on military matters. For more
than two months my expressions of gratitude
were daily and fervent, nor were they much
less emphatic toward the head of the War
Department.
Proceeding with yea. and confidence in my
most hazardous duties, learned, January
81, at the Brazos Santiago, that an attempt
was on foot to create lieutenant general to
take command in the field over me Shocked
and distressed, allowed no relaxation in my
efforts to serve my country, resolved, for the
short time was likely to remain in commits
sion, to be
"True as the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shined upon"