The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1862-12-14
Another Letter from Lieutenant
General Scott.

"a dc ESitOrs Of he National IatslIigencey
An official report Of mine made to
President Lincoln, March 80, 1861, on our
Southern forts, was published on The 21st
buchanan replied at great length in III q
same month, A short rejoinder from me
followed early in November, and here is
another paper from afr. Buchanan, dated
the 18th OF the same month, and on the
same subject A bgiefnotice Of this paper
shall terminate my part in this contro-
versy.
Mr.. Buchanan has intimated that
havs been aetuated by feeling Of per-
sonal ill., will toward him. This is un-
jrss ! had no private resentment 10
crafty. On the contrary, have well
remembered the many official courtesies
received from him, as we'll as from Mr..
Floyd, both as Governor Of Virginia and
Secretary of War; but to vindicate JUS
tice and the truth Of history is para
mount obligation.
| had said that, with view TO the
meditated rebellion, Secretary Floyd had
OF dered $4,000 extra stands of muskets
and rifles from Northern repositories 70
Southern arsenals. To this Mr.. b. now
replies in substance, That the trans-
fers were made under an order dated
nearly year before Mr.. Lincoln's cleo
ton to the Presidency True; but if
Mr.. b. has persuaded himself that the
revolt had not long before been planned
dependent on the election of any North
ern man), il is not likely that he will
ever make second convert to that opin-
ion. 2. He only gives 10000 as the
number Of arms transferred, emitting the
10000 rifles. 3. He says that the mus
kets 105,000) were condemned, and that
purchasers could not be found for many
of them at So 80 each. Now, here is an
official statement, made 10 me eighteen
months ago Gust received from my pa
pers at Washington, showing that 5000
of those arms were percussion mus
kets," probably entirely new, and 10000
others, termed muskets altered TO per-
cussion, y with 10000 "percussion rifles"
not one of the $4,000 was ever soon
demned," but all precisely like most
of the small arms issued to our
troops Irregular and volunteer) in 1861
4. Mr.. Buchanan further intimates that.
those arms were transferred to equalize.
in some degree, the deposits among the
different State, as ii these had any State
pride in allowing storage to the property
of the United States within their par
ticular limits. If so, why not establish
storage places in tho great States of
Ohio, Indiana and Him OILS, within which
the United States has had no deposit Of
arms and no arsenal B. Mr.. B. suppos-
es me to brand the transferred arms
with the epithet "stolen." In my re-
joinder to him nowhere use chat term
because knew the transaction, though |
very quietly conducted, was officially |
recorded, and the freight paid for by the
United States, whose property the arms
continued to be in their new deposito-
yies. eNl
Mr.. Buchanan mixes up--perhaps |
ought rather to say seems 10 coyolmd-
quite different class of arms with the
viz, the quotas of arms distri-
buted among the several States under
the annual appropriations towards arm
ing the whole body of the militia of the
Union. Thus he says: "The Southern
States received in 1860 less instead of
more than the quotas of arms to which
they were entitled by law" This is
most strange, contrasted with informa-
lion given to me last year, and a telegram
Just received from Washington and a
nigh ofilcer--not of the Ordnance Bureau
lin these words and figures
Rhode Island, Delaware, and Texas
lad not drawn at the end of eighteen
lixty their annual quota of arms for that
ear, and Massachusetts,, Tennessee and
Kentucky only in part Virginia, South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kansas were,
BY the order OF the Secretary of War,
supplied with their quotas for eighteen
'ixty-one (186D in advance, and Penn
'ylvania and Maryland in part" /
This advance of arms TO eight Southern
States is a sufficient commentary by-it-
'elf on the transfer, about the same lime,
If the $4,000 muskets and rifles.
In respect 10 the heavy canon ordered
rom Pittsburg to the Gulf Of Mexico,
Mr.. Buchanan has shown me that was
IA error in saying that their shipment
was countermAnded in March, instead Of
January, 1861 This was the only i'm.
material part Of my statement for
was correct in the declarations that /
rave information TO Mr.. Secretary Holt
hat the shipment had commenced, and
hat he ordered the guns to be relanded
md stopped the robbery.
WIEFIELD ScoTT.
New York, Dec. 2, 1862. $500
"ever and above the previous and usual deposits
a the southern arEonals.
r.. -, ~. rt. No.. ~. r.