care of his transportation, but his mean and unsoldierly defense of error shows him wrong both in head and heart.*

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

Brig. General LORENZO THOMAS,

Adjutant-General, U. S. Army.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Washington, D. C., January 25, 1864.

This communication is forwarded to the Secretary of War, with the following remarks:

According to the within statement, General Wood's letter is dated after General Rosecrans had been relieved from the command, and he then had no claim whatever that any report of other communication from officers not under his orders should pass through him. On the contrary, General Wood would have violated the Army Regulations and the usage of the service had he sent his report through General Rosecrans after the latter had been removed from command.

If the charge be true that General Wood surreptitiously obtained a copy of General Rosecrans' official report, it must have been so obtained at General Rosecrans' headquarters, of from some one of his staff, as his original report, sent through his chief of staff, was not received at the office of the Adjutant-General of the Army till October 28. Moreover, no publication of that or of General Wood's report has been authorized or permitted by the War Department, while it is known that portions of the former were published in the newspapers even before it reached the Adjutant-General's Office.

As General Rosecrans charges General Wood in this communication with obtaining an official document "surreptitiously," and with a "mean and unsoldierlike defense of error," I respectfully recommend that it be withheld from publication till the charges be investigated. I think a copy of General Rosecrans' letter should be sent to General Wood, in order that he may apply for such investigation, for if guilty as charged he is unfit for command.

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,

Saint Louis, Mo., March 3, 1864.

COLONEL: About the 12th of January I addressed a letter to the President, calling his attention to the breach of military regulations and etiquette in publishing Brig. General Thomas J. Wood's letter commenting on my official report of the battle of Chickamauga. I respectfully ask what indorsements have been made and what action taken thereon.

I also addressed a letter to Brig. General L. Thomas, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, desiring it to be appended to my official report of the battle of Chickamauga, in reference to that letter of General Wood's, which was publicly alluded to by the General-in-Chief in his official report.

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*See Wood to L. Thomas, p.647, and Wood to Hardie,p.648.

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