Year: 1861




Major General JOHN E. Wool. Troy, n. Y:
DEAR SRI have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 9th ult., and
beg you to believe that nothing but desire to
give it that careful consideration which found
myself unable TO do at an earlier moment has
delayed my acknowledge ofits receipt.
| You state that it is reported in New York
that YOU were engaged in maxi lg contracts for
supplies Of various kinds. to further the objects
Of the Union Defense Committee, and that these
reports have reached Washington; and you ex-
plain the extent Of your participation in the
procee lings OF that committee in regard to the
contracts. This, I beg to assure you, was un-
necessary on your part. No such rumors or
reports have rea he'd this department, and il
they hod they wonld have received no consid-
Grafton un avorabe to your character. Your
own high personal character, as we'll as your
patriotic devotion to the country, and long
tried services in its defense, afford a sufficient
shield to protect you against all reports and
vague rumors.


Alter giving condensed history OF the part
you performed in the forwarding Of troops and
supplies foi the protection and and defense Of
Washington, and which, as you state, were per-
formed without orders from any quarter you
say you reported what you had done, and were
|
reply and that you remained ignorant Of the
wishes Of the authorities until you received a
communication from the genera.in chief direct.
ing YOU to repair to headquarters at Troy
You express an anxiety to learn whether the
part YOU per formed met the appreciation OF the
general in chief or the War Department; and
though you do not expressly say that the letter
OF the general in.chiri leaves you in doubt on
the subject, your letter justifies this inference,
and there lore deem it but due to you 10 say
that this department has no disposition to find
fault with or make complaint Of your conduct
lin the emergency to which your letter refers
On the contrary, it believes that you were promp.
ted BY patriotic motives, and that you did moth :
ing bnt what you. at the time, were fully per
tsuaded was necessary, AMI, under the circum-
stances, proper. The order Of the general in
i ebei could there ore not have been intended 10
4 reflect upon your conduct while acting in con
Iiuc,ion with the Union Defense Committee in
the city Of New York, though self cons titut-
4 ed but patriotic body.


In answering you thus frankly, in order to
put your mind at rest as the views of this de
partment, it is due to it. as we'll as TO YOU that
| shou add in the same spirit, that you were
ordered TO return TO your headquarters at Troy
because the issuing o orders by you, on the ap-
plication oil the various Governors, for arms,
ammunition, etc., without consultation, de-
tailed account ol which you gave in your letter,
seriously embarrassed the prompt and proper
administration of this department, and could
not be permitted to be continued without dis
regard OF law, as well as the disairangement,
of it's operations. This alone was sufficient to
order your return to headquarters, although the
War Department had no disposition to find
fault with your motives, unauthorized as were
your acts, feeling assured that it was the result
Of patriotic motive. II was i'sel5 in its or
dinary course Of official business, attending to
F., the same matters through Its properly author
lied officers and you. General so experienced
an officer as you are must admit. on reflection,
that 1t could not permit a continuance oiopera-
tions SO conflicting with Its own however pure
and patriotic might be the motives which in
duced them. am. sir, very respectfully,


/ SIMON CAMERON, Secretary Of War.
The concluding Paragraph OF this letter, !
must confess, surprises me. Indeed, | find my