[Indorsements.]

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, August 25, 1862.

Respectfully forwarded to the Secretary of War for information of Congress.

JASPER S. WHITING,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

Read. Unsatisfactory.

J. D.

CULLUM'S SPRINGS, Bladen, Ala., August 22, 1862.

Brigadier General W. W. MACKALL, Macon, Ga.:

MY DEAR GENERAL: I have just received your kind favor of the 8th instant.* I am happy to hear of your safe return to the Confederacy, and hope you will soon receive a command commensurate with your merit. I hope you are aware that immediately after the battle of Shiloh I made an effort to have you and the whole force under your orders at Madrid Bend exchanged for a like number of prisoners taken from the enemy, but "Proclamation Pope" refused to do so. I always intended, as soon as practicable, to renew again my application, but I found Halleck not more disposed to make an exchange of prisoners than his worthy lieutenant. I am delighted that at last you are out of their hands.

I can see no necessity for a court of inquiry relative to the loss of Madrid Bend, for, if you recollect, when I sent you there General Bragg and myself told you that we considered matters there in a most desperate condition, and that you were going, as it were, on a forlorn hope, so that we were not at all surprised to hear of its fall. I only regretted that I had been unable to send you there several weeks earlier, to enable you to make your own preparations for its prolonged defense. Should you, however, at any time desire a court of inquiry to relieve you from any blame for the surrender of that position, which was considered by me only as an outpost to Fort Pillow (not then entirely completed), I will gladly give you any assistance in my power to obtain one.

I hope to report for duty on or about the 1st proximo, when I would be most happy to have you under my orders, should you desire to serve under me again.

Sincerely, your friend,

G. T. BEAUREGARD.

RICHMOND, VA., September 13, 1862.

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note, informing me that my report had been laid before the President, and that he had returned it to you indorsed, "Read. Unsatisfactory."

May I ask the favor that you likewise lay before the President this my respectful application, to be informed wherein my report is unsatis-

---------------

*Not found.

---------------