St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-02
COL. BENDS REPLY.
A Spicy Letter to the Adjutan
General.

Spicy Letter 10 INC
General.
AS was expected, Adj. Gen. Mccarthy
letter to Col. Bend, published in yesterdays
GLOBE, has called forth a reply from the
latter officer, which is as follows:
HEADoU'TRs 1sT RECT, N. G. S. NJ.
ST. PAUL, June 1, 1885.
Adjutant General, State of Minnesota,
General: 1 have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 30th ult,,
and differing with you as to the necessity OF
further correspondence on the subject, l
reply:
First-In your letter of the 29th ult. you
stated that you had been informed that l
had accepted an invitation to parade, and
had afterwards declined to do so because l
was dissatisfied with the position assigned
to the infantry. In reply, l told you that
you were mistaken, as the invitation was
accepted conditionally, and that when the
Grand Army of the Republic saw fit not to
comply with the conditions the acceptance
was withdrawn. This can easily be proved,
but nevertheless, in your letter of the 3Oth
ult., you choose to maintain your former
position. Comment on this is unnecessary.
Second-In the absence of an Interpreta-
ton by the commandments OF the
meaning of regulations, certainly am the
proper person to interpret them so lar as
they affect me or my command.
Third-Your quotation of paragraph 1913
of Upton's Tactics is wholly irrelevant, as
there was no funeral on Saturday last Of a
general officer, nor in fact of any officer,
noncomMissioned officer private or any one
else. The military were not invited to act
as escortato any corpse, but to the surviving
members of the~G. A. R., and not to them
while decorating the graves OF our deceased
heroes, for that sad but appropriate duty
was performed in the morning and the
parade was in the afternoon.
Fourth-In reply to your remarks aboutmy
right to command all the military present,
/ refer you to the 122d article OF war, which
by order of the commander-in-chief is
binding upon the National guard of this
state, and which is as follows: eff upon
marches, guards or in quarters, different
CORPS of the army happen to join or do duty
together, the officer highest in rank of the
line of the army, marine corps or militia by
commission. then on duty or in quarters,
shall command the whole and give orders
for what is needful to the service unless
otherwise specially directed by the presi-
dent, according to the nature of the case"
You entirely overlook the fact that Gen.
Leasure and the other members of the G..
A. r. were long since mustered out
of service, and consequently are not
now officers or soldiers, and hence that they
have no right to command anyone who does
not voluntarily place himself under their
orders, it not being competent for civilian
to command troops save when, by virtue OF
an Office held by him, he is constituted
commander-in-chief, as in the case of the
president or of the governors of states.
Fifth-A little inquiry among the MEM
bers of the First regiment will convince you
that so far as they are concerned do speak
the sentiments of the National guard of this
state and that your ''oficial opinion" is in
correct.
Sixth-You appear to forget that Ethe
military code of this state forbids any staff
officer to assume or be placed in command
of any troops, and, consequently, although
to certain extent you represent the COM
mander-in-chief during his absence, you
cannot issue an order to the National guard
without his express authority, and he can
not delegate any such power to
you during his absence, for that
of troops. Had you issued an
illegal order to me I would have
promptly preferred charges against you,
cllu bllClC ID AO QuCStlVu do W tnC 1COu1G, LII
the law is clear on the subject.
notwithstanding to the recent de-
cision of Lieut.. Gen. Sheridan, which has
been published in the general orders of
this state, you cannot issue instructions, :"
save as explanatory of some order already
given by the commander-in-chiefa and which
is still in force, and if I thought that it
could be established that your letter Of the
29th ult. contained any instructions" I
would test your right to issue them.
Eighth-As to my counting another
lesson" you forget that in our last contro-
versy the commander-in-chief decided
against you, and you were obliged to receive
from me election returns which you had at
tempted to reject.
Finally, in regard to the paragraphs on
courtesy and respect and the subsection of
he military to the civil authorities, which
you quote, L have only to say that so long
as you confne yourself to your duties and
privileges as defined by law andregulations,
you will receive from me all the courtesy
and respect to which you are entitled.
Not being able to see what the paragraph
about subsection to the civil authorities has
to do with the case, pass that. Whether
in this case your position is or is not correct,
is not to be decided by you, but by the com
handkerchief, possibly through the me-
dunn of court martial, for l have rights
under the law and / propose to maintain
them. l have the honor to be, general,
very respectfully, your obedient servant,
W. B. BEND, Colonel.