NATIONAL HOTEL, Washington City, May 16, 1865.

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT, Washington City:

GENERAL: Inclosed please find the conclusion of my report concerning the Point Isabel interview. Since writing it General E. Kirby Smith, according to report, has refused to surrender and urged his soldiers to hold out, as they have means to maintain themselves until assisted from abroad. Please revert to the confidential letter I sent you from Brazos, giving the substance of what Colonel Ford told me about General Smith's suspected negotiations with Maximilian. * That, in my opinion, is the key to Smith's strange conduct. Reasoning from Ford's statement I cannot do otherwise than believe that there is a secret arrangement existing between the Mexican Imperialists and the Texan Confederates, contemplating ultimate annexation of Texas and mutual support, or the support without he annexation. Probably you have sufficient date upon which to form a determinate opinion [on] the subject. You will pardon me, I am sure, for calling your attention to the points made.

Very respectfully, your friend and obedient servant,

LEW. WALLACE,

Major-General.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS MIDDLE DEPARTMENT,
Baltimore, April 18, 1865.

Lieutenant General U. S. GRANT,

Washington City, D. C.:

GENERAL: In continuation of my report dated Brazos Santiago, March 14, I have the honor to submit the following: It occurred to me that it would be a point gained if I could prevail on Colonel Ford to accompany me to Galveston. Accordingly I sent General Slaughter the letter dated Brazos Santiago, March 17, 1865, and received a reply from Colonel Ford himself, dated March 19; copies are inclosed. The absence of General Slaughter devolving the command at Brownsville upon the colonel made it impossible for the latter to comply with my request. That he wished to go I have no doubt; his letter fairly commits him. When General Davis joined me, in the hope that Slaughter had returned to Brownsville, or had at least been heard from, I again addressed Colonel Ford. This last communication was of the 24th March. (See the accompanying copy, together with that of his reply, dated of the 26th.) Unfortunately General S. had neither returned nor been heard from. I arrived off Glaveston on the evening of the 29th March and on the 30th communicated with Brigadier General J. M. Hawes, commanding defenses of the city, through whom I sent a letter to Major General J. G. Walker, then in command of the District of Texas. Copies are inclosed. At the same time mine of the 30th to Walker was delivered for transmission, his of the 25th was received by me, and of that also I furnish a copy. As you will see General Walker belongs to the Radicals, from whom nothing is to be hoped. Unlike Slaughter and Ford he is not a citizen of Texas, and hence has not the same interest in her welfare. He admits he is tired of the war, yet relies on 300,000 veterans whom he yet claims. A Galveston paper of the 30th announced that General Magruder was daily expected at Huston to relieve him of his command, a fact rather demonstrative of what I had elsewhere heard, lker) was not in full accord with General E. Kirby

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*See Wallace to Grant, March 14, Part I, p. 1166.

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