The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-12-13
Another Letter from Lieutenant-Gen-
eral Scott.

AnOtHcr LttteF IrOm EIeutCndHl"UeH.
eral Scott.
To the Editors Of the National IatelH-
gencer:
An official report of mine made to
President Lincoln, March 30, 1861, on
our Southern forts, was published on the
2lst of October last To this ex-Presi-
dent Buchanan replied at great length,
in the same month. A short rejoinder
from me followed early in November,
and here is another paper from Mr. Bu-
chanan, dated the 18th of the same
month, and on the same subject. A brief
notice of this paper shall terminate my
part in this controversy
Mr. Buchanan has intimated that
have been actuated by feeling of per-
sonal ill-will toward HIM This is unjust
/ had no private resentment to CRAFTY.
On the contrary l have well remembered
the many official courtesies received
from him as veil as from Mr. Floyd, both
as Governor of Virginia and Secretary
of War; but to vindicate justice and the
truth of history is paramount obliga-
ton e.
had said that, with view to. the med
itated rebellion, Secretary Floyd had or
dered 49, 900 extra* stands of muSkets
and rifles from Northern repositories to
Southern arsenals To this Mr.. Buch-
anan now replies in substance Il That
the transfers were made under an order
dated nearE year before Mr.. Lincoln s
election to the Presidency. True; but if
Mr.. Buchanan has persuaded himself
that the revolt had not long before been
planned, dependent on the election of
any Northern man, it is not likely that
he will ever make a second convert to
that opinion. 2. He only gives l05, 900
as the number of arms transferred, omit
ting the 10000 rifles. g. He says that
the muskets (l05, ,000) were condemned,
and that purchasers could not be found
for many of them at 81 so each Now,
here is an official statement, made to me
months ago, Gust received
from my papers at Washington } show
ing. that sixty-fve thousand of those arms
were percussion muskets,' probably
entirely new, and 10000 others, termed
"muskets altered to percussion" with
10000 percussion rifles not one OF
the lis, 900 was ever condemned, but
all precisely like the small arms issued to
our troops, Irregular and volunteer, in
1861. f. Mr. Buchanan further intimates
that those arms were transferred to equal
ize, in some degree, the deposits among the
different States, as if these had any State
pride in allowing storage to the property
of the United States within their particu.
lar limits If so, why not establish sto-
rage places in the great States of Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois, within which the
United States has had no deposit of arms
and no arsenal2 8. Mr. Buchanan sup
poses me to brand the transferred arms
with the epithet stolen" In my re-
joinder to hin. | nowhere use that term,
= because knew the transaction, though
very quietly conducted, was officially re-
corded, and the freight paid for by the
United States, whose property the arms
continued to be in their new deposito
ries
Mr.. Buchanan mixes up-perhaps
ought rather to say, seems to confound-
quite different class of arms from the
foregoing, viz, the quotas of arms dis
tributed among the several States under
the annual appropriations toward arm
ing the whole body of the militia of the
Union. Thus he says: "The Southern
States received in 1860 less instead o
more than the quotas of arms to which
they were entitled by law" This il
most strange, contrasted with informa
tion given to me last year, and with a
telegram just received from Washington
and high officer-not of the Ordnance
Bureau-in these words and figures:
Rhode Island, Delaware, and Texas
had not drawn at the end of eighteen
sixty (lS60) their annual quota of arms
for that year, snd Massachusetts, Ten
nessee, and Kentucky only in part; Vir
ginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida
Alabama, Mississippi, and Kansas were
by the order of the Secretary of War
supplied with their quota for eighteen
sixty-one (lS6l) in advance, and Penn
sylvania and Maryland in part
This ddUdRce of arms to eight South
ern States is sufficient commentary by
itself on the transfer, about the same
time, of the u.s. 900 muskets and rifles
In respect to the heavy cannon order
ed from Pittsburg to the Gulf of Mexico
Mr. Buchanan has shown me that was
in error in saying that their shipment
was countermanded in March, instead o.
January, 1861. This was the only i'm
material part of my statement, for I was
correct in the declaration that | gave in
formation to Mr.. Secretary Holt that the
shipment had commenced, and that he
ordered the guns to be reianded, ant
stopped the robbery.
WINFIELD ScoTr.
New York, Dec 2, 1862