Hd Qrs Cavalry Brigade A. of P.
Camp Qui Vive Nov 6th 1861
Mr President
I hope you
will pardon me for addressing you frankly on a subject which being entirely of
personal interest to myself need not necessarily go through the various
channels, and then probably never meet your eye.
About the 1st
of May I tendered my resignation in the U.S. Service and came immediately to
the border of Va (then the most threatened point of the South) and have been
next to the enemy without a days intermission ever since. From Memphis, on my way in, I reported by
letter to the adjt General at Montgomery taking it for granted that I would
receive a grade in the C.S.A. at least equal to the one I had resigned in the
Federal Army (Captain of Cavalry); but for some reason inexplicable to me no
attention was paid to my letter.
In answer to
repeated inquiries on the subject I received not till August a
commission as 1st Lieutenant in Cavalry. I believed, with reason, that it was forwarded under the
misapprehension that I resigned a Lieutenancy, I say with
reason because Philip Stockton
[some missing] I came to the
conclusion that it was due to my relationship to A. H. H. Stuart, whose
politics I have been taught to abhor
from my childhood. [some missing]
[reply written
at top]
Ack – The officers
for the Regt. of Cavalry have been arranged on a list conforming strictly to
the rule absorbed in Regts. that of their former commissions and the
nominations are before Congress your high rank in the provisional was won by
service and if it proves that I had no reluctance to recognize your merit, it is
equally true that it was not the result of favoritism. J.D.