against him, but most respectfully submit that I cannot maintain discipline and efficiency in the departments here if they are independent of my authority. These departments have been issuing stores upon the requisitions of commanding generals, in accordance with General Orders, No. 14, from this department headquarters.

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General, Commanding.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, April 6, 1863.

Major General AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE,

Cincinnati, Ohio:

Your telegram, announcing Lieutenant Smyser's release, received. There can be no difficulty in giving you all needful authority in respect to ordnance stores, but that authority cannot be delegated to subordinate generals. Proof was sent to this Department of General Boyle's bullying Lieutenant Smyser's predecessor in charge of the ordnance depot, and, on the recommendation of the General-in-Chief, the Secretary of War admonished him of the necessity for high officers observing the twenty-fourth section of the Rules and Articles of War. The vicious example of the general was, of course, imitated by his subordinates. In this case General Boyle seems to have had no cause to complain of the bad manners of Lieutenant Smyser until, in the line of his duty, he reported an improper purchase of pistols by General Boyle, at exorbitant prices, from a firm of which a member of his staff (Captain Semple) is a partner. This Department will not sanction any improper conduct on the part of Lieutenant Smyser, but the ordnance depot at Louisville, and the arsenals at Pittsburgh and Saint Louis, and the depots at Dearborn and Cleveland must remain under the control of the Ordnance Department. Lieutenant Smyser report that he turned over the sabers for Colonel McCook's regiment to the quartermaster, for transportation to his camp, without delay, and took the proper receipt, and that it was not until he was subsequently bullied by General Boyle's inspector-general and threatened with arrest, that he reported, with some asperity, to the insulting language of that officer. The deportment of General Boyle toward other officers, as shown by the records of this Department, renders the truth of Lieutenant Smyser's statements highly probable.

P. H. WATSON,

Assistant Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS,
Cincinnati, April 6, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

General Wright assigned General Carrington to the District of Indiana some time before I came out. I will investigate as to his fitness, and relieve him if he is found deficient, or I will relieve him at once, if you wish. I sincerely hope you will leave General Boyle with me in this department. Have you decided as to my application for the son of General Sumner to come with me? He is now in Syracause.

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General.