by the accompanying papers, I earnestly appeal to you against this cruel treatment, never before inflicted upon any general in our history. And when every other general, whether accused of inactivity, disobedience, fraud, cowardice, treachery, or murder, each holds his rank or command, or has a trial, I, against whom no cause is alleged, who can appeal to my repeated services in battles and in victories, from Buena Vista, to Carnifix Ferry and Carrick's Ford, the rout of Garnett, and Fort Pulaski, in the last two of which I was the sole commander of the troops engaged, I respectfully ask that these services and my long record of good and faithful conduct should avail me for a hearing; that the note of revocation of Colonel Townsend should be canceled, and that an investigation of my case shall be ordered before impartial officers, as is allowed to all others. For I have the full assurance not only that I can most completely refute every allegation against me, but that I can show that upon every occasion in the field my course and conduct have been worthy of the same commendation that is given me by the inclosed letters, the originals of nearly all of which are on file in the War Department.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. BENHAM,

U. S. Army.

[Inclosure Numbers 11.]

His Excellency the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

SIR: Well known to Your Excellency as we are in our united efforts for the prosecution of this war, in which we think that the services of every individual of loyalty of heart and of any amount of military knowledge should be made available for the country, we deem it a duty to call upon you for your interference to prevent the continuance of what we conceive to be a great injury to our cause, by the seclusion from active service in this war of an officer of undoubted loyalty, energy, and ability. We allude to the case of General Benham, an officer well known to us personally or by reputation as one of the most enterprising and zealous officers of the army. We learn that he has been, without any previous examination, suspended from his duties or deprived of his rank as a general, now, at the time of all others, when active and efficient officers are most needed, and we cannot doubt that this has occurred through some mistake or misrepresentation, that would immediately be corrected upon a full examination of the case.

We have reason to know that his record of services for near a quarter of a century before this war is most clear and commendable; that he has the highest written praise from his principal commanders during this time; and the confidence of New England in this officer has been such that the President was called upon by the letters from every State, signed by every Representative and every Senator, to give him a high rank upon the increase of the Army, some six or eighth years since, while you had the unanimous application of the representation of his own State to give him the appointment of a general in this war, a rank which we think he has honored by repeated victories. And yet we find that he alone, under this extraordinary law, of all your hundreds of generals, he alone of all the graduates of West Point, has been deprived of his rank and command, without a trial, notwithstanding his repeated applications and his constant assertions that he can disprove every allegation against him. And this trial is still denied him, as we learn, while it appears that in all other cases, whether if be disobedience of orders, gross peculation, cowardice on the battle-field, treachery, or even murder that is charged, in all the case the generals accused have