of my command had passed through Parkersburg and was detained there for some time after the appearance of the article, hurrying forward the balance. In the second place, Mr. Wharton went on to say in the same article:

We were sorry to see so much suffering among them. Men are completely worn out, and many in the division had died of starvation. * * * The suffering of the soldiers in their movement from Lynchburg to Charleston was terrible, and they half require rest and surgical care.

That there was some "suffering" amongst the troops is true. The business of the soldier is one in which "suffering" forms an inevitable part. But on careful inquiring, personally and through many officers employed for the purpose, I have failed to discover even a report of any one case of death from hunger, while on the other hand, my medical director, Surg. Thomas B. Reed, an officer of large military experience and excellent judgment, assures me that despite the certain limited privations and great fatigue of the march the health of soldiers quietly resting in their camps. The worst enemy to health of soldiers quietly resting in their camps. the worst enemy to health are not privations and fatigue; the licentiousness of an idle camp or the vicinity to soldiers of an ill-regulated town will swell the hospital returns far quicker and more seriously than all our men suffered in their march from near Lynchburg to near Gauley Bridge, where abundant supplies me thus, supplies which I expected to find much earlier at Meadow bluff, but which had been removed from there without authority under the influence of a stampede created by a few score of guerrillas operating against tenfold their own force of State militia. Apart from the falsity of these allegations, therefore, could any statements be more calculated to give "aid and comfort to the enemy" than the announcement that my whole command was "worn out," and that they "half require rest and surgical care. "

It is my pleasure to believe that no troops in the service of the Union enjoy to-day a better average of health, morale, and spirits than the forces composing he late expedition toward Lynchburg. While many of the cavalry horses broke down from fatigue and shortness of dry forage, the men appeared only to harden and become more thorough soldiers. There are in every army grumblers, malcontents, and alarmists, not only in the ranks, but, I regret to say, amongst the officers, and some of a rank that should make them more prudent. That Mr. Wharton heard what he reported, I had no doubt at the time of ordering his arrest, but even this was no justification for the publication of his statements at a time when he knew that my command was again being pushed forward with every energy to meet the enemy.

Having seen statements very similar to those of the Parkersburg Gazette in certain of the Wheeling and other papers, I would suggest, if in consonance with your judgment, that a copy of this letter should be furnished to whatever paper you are in the habit of using for making communications to the public. As the greater portion of my command are West Virginia troops, it would seem an act both of justice and charity to disabuse their friends and families of the harrowing pictures of distress and starvation which have been put forth. Fully satisfied last evening of Mr. Wharton's thorough loyalty and good service to the cause of the Union in the past I ordered