give their own personal service to the defense of the State, and whose malign influence did much to extinguish the enthusiasm of hundreds of eager volunteers, by insulting their patriotism at a crisis like this (in their own abject fear of being forced to go themselves), by bargaining about the subject of bounties. If my denunciations and unconcealed contempt of the conduct of such men, daring to profane the term loyalty by assuming it exclusively for themselves, have been the secret causes of their enmity, then welcome retirement, injustice, anything to sever the relations which would make me subordinate to such influences. I was informed that efforts were then made for my removal, and that the usual machinery of petitions, secretly circulated among a class of envious spirits to be found in every community, [was] put in motion for that object. But the pretext was too weak to bear examination, and the subject was reluctantly postponed, with the confident hope that their watchfulness, zeal, and malignity would ere long be rewarded by the discovery of another. The State elections were approaching; certain offices must be filled with new men; and among the candidates for nomination to that of representative to Congress (now so ably filled by Mr. N. B. Smithers) was the provost-marshal for the State, Captain Edwin Wilmer. I knew that I was no favorite with him, or with the lesser luminaries revolving around him, and that for some not clearly defined reason I was regarded as an obstacle, like Mordecai, the Jaw, sitting at the king's gate, to be removed out of the way.

It is not necessary to say to you, general, that I am not, nor ever have been, a political; that like most of the officers of the old Army, I have abstained from all participation in political matters, partly from long habits of association, partly from distaste, but chiefly because I have regarded it as inconsistent with the permanence of my official position, which made it my duty to serve each successive administration of the Government with equal fidelity. To this life-long principle I have made a single exception. When in the fall of 1862 the people of Delaware were called upon to elect a Governor, and the contest was so close that a single vote might decide whether one chief magistrate for the next four years was to be for or against the Union, I violated my cherished resolution and deposited my vote for William Cannon, who has requited it by demanding my removal. A pretext craftily and unscrupulously sought for can generally be found, if the agents are politically interested. The accompanying paper,* my official report to Brigadier-General Lockwood, will present you with the pretext and its history; but you can never know, nor be likely to imagine, the mean, degrading, petty acts of vindictiveness made use of against me, the secret spies set to dog me, the misrepresentations circulated against me, and the assaults upon my loyalty for declining to persecute and subject tot he most ignominious treatment twenty-eight of our fellow-citizens, prisoners committed to my custody before even a preliminary examination. It was reported to me that this violent and bitter feeling found encouragement and expression in and around the office of the provost-marshal, unrebuked by him, to a degree which converted disrespect into insubordination, and insubordination into sedition. Communications by telegraph were passing direct from that office to the department commander, in opposition to my authority and in defiance of my orders; and when their object had been accomplished of nullifying my instructions, thrice disobeyed by the provost-marshal, the exultation

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*Not found.

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