George W. Randolph to George W. Randolph, October 21, 1862

Richmond, Va., “October 21, 1862.

GENERAL: I have received and carefully considered your letter of the 10th instant, and am constrained to say that I find in it nothing in reference to the operations at Fort Donelson which you had not already communicated in conversation, except the statement, now for the first time made, that “the necessity for the surrender was caused by General Buckner’s unsuccessful attack on the Wynn’s Ferry road battery and his failure to hold his rifle pits.”

Declining to enter into this new point of controversy between General Buckner and yourself, I find nothing in the letter to change my opinion of your conduct at Fort Donelson or to render it proper that the order of which you complain should be rescinded. Neither do I find in the report of Colonel Gilmer any confirmation of your opinions. His supplemental report, if made, has not been laid before me. Should it sat- .

‘ isfy me that I have done you injustice, I need not assure you, general, that it will give me great pleasure to repair it.

I have not received your application * to raise a new command of war volunteers or to take ten regiments of skeleton returned volunteers and fill them up”; but the conscript act would hinder you from raising a new

HCM FI”. M er rs = 5-101 . E Char. XVIL] CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON, TENN.

command, and the disposition already made of the returned prisoners renders it impossible to place ten regiments of them at your disposal. I regret to hear of your losses, and have expressed my sense of your -. courage and patriotism; but, as you rightly remark, the question of indemnifying you for the sacrifices of property cannot find a place in this correspondence. It only remains for me to say that, entertaining the opinion expressed in the order of which you complain, I cannot reseind it; and since you make your retirement from service the only alternative, your resignation is aecepted. ;

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,