HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,
Fort Yuma, Cal., May 12, 1862.

Major R. C. DRUM,

Assistant Adjutant-General, San Francisco, Cal.:

MAJOR: Inclosed herewith please find a copy of a letter* written to Lieutenant-Colonel West, dated the 7th instant, which I omitted to send yesterday. I am desirous of keeping the general informed, even to details, of all I do, partly because I conceive this to be my duty, and partly because it places in his hands the means of defending me in case I am assailed while my back is turned. The people of California have ever been very kind to me, but among them are men who forget that I am not a politician; that I have no need to court their favor unless simply doing my duty obtains it. They seem likewise to forget that a man can do his duty and be true to his colors, and not proclaim if from house tops or from the corners of the streets. I allude to this because to-day I have been informed that a petition forty pages in length to the Secretary of War has been drawn up by some people in Los Angeles County asking that I be removed from this command for reasons which, from the reported length of the petition, I conclude to be fully set forth. Now, I beg respectfully that the general will take immediate steps to ascertain of this be true. I have heard that it is urged that I am not considered as being a good patriot; that I have shown undue favors to secessionists; that I have been guilty of corruption in my administration of the affairs of this district. If this be true that I am thus assailed I demand it as my right not to be kept in command of troops a single hour with any doubt attacking to my name as to my loyalty or my integrity. Not only is this due to the United States and to California, but it is eminently due to the brave men who stand here by my side. I trust and pray that whatever action is taken it will be prompt, effectual, and final. I ask for no favors, and pray that none may be shown to me. I have worked pretty hard for the past year, and have felt great anxiety that California should be spared the spectacle of civil war and the shedding of fratricidal blood. I had really felt happy when I left the southern portion of the State that my himble efforts to this end had been crowned with success, and as I started out with the gallant men of California to cross the desert and put up our colors where they had been pulled down and trampled in the dust, I was greatly cheered by own self-approval in what I had accomplished. What is the return for all this? Certainly not honor. If the manner in which I have discharged my duties does not speak loud enough in my behalf I shall not trouble myself about othe vindication. This, however, I say: The cause in which I am engaged deserves the brain and arm of our best men, and I stand ready to give place to any one who may be deemed more worthy than myself to fill the position I now occupy, and all this without a single murmur.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES H. CARLETON,

Colonel First California Volunteers, Commanding.

ORDERS,
HDQRS. ADVANCE GUARD, CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEERS, Numbers 5.
Pima Villages, May 12, 1862.

I. Company B, First Cavalry California Volunteers, now in advance of this post, and Companies C, I, and K, of the First Infantry, and

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* See p. 1057.

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