ORDNANCE OFFICE,

Washington, January 25, 1862.

Messrs. COOPER & HEWITT,

17 Burling Slip, New York:

Employ every establishment and person you can on making the 13- inch mortar beds. They must be turned out and sent to Pittsburg as soon as possible. Spare no exertion, labor, or expense to hasten the completion of this work. Report immediately by telegraph what you can do and what you do daily.

J. W. RIPLEY,

Brigadier-General.

NATIONAL HOTEL,

Monday, [January] 27, [1862].

Honorable Mr. STANTON:

DEAR SIR: I beg leave to say I inclose a letter Governor A[ndrew] inclosed to me; also copy, printed, of his public correspondence, and a copy of a letter to me from Governor Andrew.

Your obedient servant,

I. D. ANDREWS.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.] COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Boston, January 25, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, &c.:

SIR: Desiring to extricate the subject of the inclosed correspondence from all its difficulties by some early, explicit, and authoritative judgment of competent authority, I have the honor herewith to send to your address the pamphlet printed by the order of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts General Court, containing letters and documents illustrating the recruitment of troops in Massachusetts under Major General B. F. Butler, of the U. S. Volunteers and of late commanding the Department of New England. If you will do me the favor at some early and convenient time to peruse these documents you will perceive their importance and, I know, will estimate them according to their value and reach some just conclusion.

Without seeking to preoccupy the ground therein opened, I beg leave to suggest that the matter will be more easily understood by first reading my letter to the Honorable Senators from Massachusetts, printed on pages 84 and 85 of the House document alluded to,* and then reading in the order therein indicated. I may be permitted to add that some letters received by me from persons purporting to be soldiers under the command of Major- General Butler at Camp Chase, Camp Seward, and on board the Constitution, in Boston Harbor, wer received be me, seeking information from me, as Governor of Massachusetts, touching their rights, especially with reference to the State relief for their families. These were, or some of them were, answered in the spirit of my reply to Mayor Sergeant, of Lowell. Those, for obious reasons, I did not send to the Legislature. I will, however, send all the originals or copies to you should you intimate the wish. And any material in my power to enable you to reach a result satisfactory to your own mind

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*See p. 864.

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