that some of their juniors have received advanced rank in the Provisional Army, I find that the complaint with relation to the case of Lieutenant Wheeler is wholly without foundation, and will state the facts, that you may be able to dissipate the impression of any injustice done by this Department to his fellow-officerse: First. On the 14th of August a communication was addressed to this Department by the colonel and a large number of the company officers of the Seventh Alabama Regiment, urgently requesting the appointment of Lieutenant Wheeler to the position of field officer of same regiment. This letter was written from Camp Walker, headquarters of Seventh Regiment of Alabama Volunteers. Second. On the same day, 14th of August, 1861, a letter was addressed by Lieutenant Wheeler to the Adjutant-General, soliciting a commission with increased rank in one of the regiments of the Provisional Army, or a commission with authority to raise a battalion or regiment for the war. This letter was indorsed with a very earnest recommendation that the appointment should be made, signed by Colonel Wood, of Seventh Alabama Regiment, commanding Second Brigade, and was forwarded by yourself with a "full and cordial indorsement of Lieutenant Wheeler's application," and it was in consequence of these indorsements and recommendations that my predecessor yielded to the solicitation of the officers of the Nineteenth Alabama Regiment, and appointed Lieutenant Wheeler their colonel. I inclose you copies* of the papers, as a duty to my predecessor, whose action on the subject is somewhat impugned by your letter of 25th ultimo. And now, my dear sir, having disposed of this matter, let me say that the noble and self-sacrificing spirit displayed by yourself and the gallant spirits that are now chafing in hateful inaction on the sands of Pensacola Harbor are fully appreciated, and elicit the most heart-felt approval and admiration, not only of the President, but of every member of the Administration. We are as anxious as you can possibly be to relieve you from a position to which the fortune of war has condemned you, and look forward as impatiently as you can to some opportunity of testifying our sense of what is due to you all. But all our deliberation results in this, that to remove you (which we know is your earnest desire) to some field of more active operation would have the most disastrous effect on the morale of the army under your command, whilst for your officers we can do nothing for the moment, under the legislation as it now exists; but we shall none the less hold them in remembrance for marks of approval, as soon as it shall be possible to transfer them to other fields of duty; and I will further say that whenever you feel that you can spare any of your officers, and desire him rewarded, I will find means to place him in some desirable post and with increased rank in the Provisional Army. In the meantime the President, in conversing with me on the subject of your own position, has suggested that it would be a partial relief to the tedium of your constant vigil to extend your command and make it embrace the coast of Alabama, thus giving you an additional chance for actual fight in the event of a descent by the enemy, and you will accordingly find that a general order has been issued making of your command a department and placing the coast defenses of Alabama under your control. I think you will thus have an increased chance for actual combat.#

I am, yours, very truly,

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Acting Secretary of War.

[6.]

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*Not found.

#For reply of Bragg, October 30, 1861, see VOL. VI, p. 758.

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