There could be no doubt that the three or two years' regiments now at Elmira are meant by the dispatch. I learned from the Governor on Saturday that they only required mustering into the service to make them ready, and I telegraphed him this morning to have them mustered and sent. They have not been mustered before because the mustering officer had been suddenly ordered away. I spoke to General Scott on the day I left Washington about an order to make the organizations of the regiments from the different States conformable to General Orders, Numbers 15. He seemed to think that it was a matter that ought to be handled very delicately, and that at present it might be an impolitic move. I think, therefore, that it will be well for you to have some conversation with him on the subject before the order is issued. I inclose you a draft of a letter to Mr. Astor, who received the sharp reply from the Department on the subject of the rifled cannon. If you like it, it can be copied, signed and sent to him.

I also inclose an unsigned order to me for my first journey here and back. I respectfully ask that it may be signed and sent back to me, in order that I may draw my transportation from the quartermaster. It is not my business to be criticizing the staff departments, but I find that one of the troubles here arises from the fact that Colonel Tompkins will not issue anything to the volunteers unless the requisition be made out in strict conformity to the Army Regulations. This, at first sight, appears proper enough, but as the raw regiments know nothing of the regulations and cannot learn them fast, the insistence upon regulations is a great source of delay. Perhaps the allowance of more clerks in the office here might remedy that defect-the clerks to make out the requisitions in form, to instruct the volunteers. I telegraphed you this morning to ask you whether your order to send all of the three-years' men south of Albany to Washington via Harrisburg included those now here with other orders or not. As the three regiments at Elmira will require the road for two or three days, there will be no delay in the execution of the order.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. B. FRANKLIN,

Colonel Twelfth Infantry, U. S. Army.

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 4, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War:

I deem it important to place before you as matter of public record the resolution of the Board of State Officers of the State of New York* under which I was deputed to wait upon you and have the interview which yesterday took place between us. At the same time I leave with you a copy of the act of the Legislature of New York, under which the Board of State Officers has acted in the organization of a force of State militia, to be placed at the disposal of the Government of the United States to aid in suppressing the present formidable insurrection. A copy of a memorial addressed to the Governor of the State of New York, which embodies in argumentative form what is deemed to be the right of the State of New York to appoint its general officers, is also herewith transmitted. The contents of these papers were substantially repeated in the conversation with you yesterday. You announced to me in that

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*See inclosure, Morgan to Campbell, May 25, 1861, p. 235.

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