Langdon Chevks to D. B. Harris, July 4, 1863

Lieut. Col. D. B. Harris, Engineer-in-Chief, Department South Carolina, &e. :

CoLONEL: Referring to Brigadier-General Ripley’s communication of June 25, I deem it impertinent to do more than correct inaccuracies and implications bearing directly on myself personally or officially. I regret.the inevitable length of my Say which I have studied to condense.

On the ”one occasion” cited, when it was reported to me by General Ripley that a fatigue party at the south end of Morris Island were without instructions and did not know what to do, the general forgets that, while I did probably reply that ‘I knew nothing of the work, it not being under my charge,” excepting very lately and temporarily during illness of the proper officer, I did also emPilically add (so emphatically that I afterward reproached myself with rude vehemence) ”their not knowing what to do is a mere pretense to cover their laziness. They do know pacers well what to do.” I immediately rode to the ground, taxed the officer in charge with the misrepresentation, and then learned that a junior officer had been allowed to withdraw a portion of the detail to another work which he knew nothing about, and where he was in fact doing worse than nothing.

The general denies that I was removed from the charge of any works. I have never, unless inadvertently, affirmed it, but only that all the available labor for their prosecution was abstracted from me, and that an artillery officer was charged by General Ripley with the execution of my duties. It is alleged that, “‘in conversation with Mr. Cheves, he declined to go on with it or furnish any assistance.” I certainly had no such conversation with General Ripley. With

180 S. C. AND G. A. COASTS, AND IN MID. AND E, FLA. _[Caap. X. L.

Captain Mitchel, I unreservedly declined all official co-operation in the execution of his orders to supersede myself, but freely advised

with him personally, and communicated the tenor of all my official instructions, which he made a point of following wherever his orders permitted. Colonel Graham was never officially informed by me of the work I was ordered to do, but all inquiries were freely answered. It is true that these were not frequent, and that I did not press the subject on his attention. It is true, also, that many days together elapsed without my seeing Colonel Graham, but I was daily at my work, and very rarely, elsewhere, absent from my quarters. If ‘nothing had been done to the batteries for several days, and little for several weeks,” it was simply because everything ordered was already done, except the magazine, for which I had no material, and the detail was then employed under my advice, at Colonel Graham’s request, on work necessary in the availability of a considerable line of rifle-pits previously executed by himself without consultation. I respectfully insist that, except this magazine, no work ordered more than twenty-four hours previous was ”unfinished and unprepared” on the 24th May, or has been finished or prepared since.

The magazine, which Captain Mitchel commenced about the Ist of June, was unfinished and in a precarious state when fire was opened on the 12th, and is not finished yet, though now quite serviceable. I had the honor of assuring General Ripley, before any symptoms of his dissatisfaction had been betrayed to me, that with proper material I could finish the same in a week. Ido not mean to impeach the diligence or efficiency of Captain Mitchel’s exertions. The delay was unavoidable from the quality of the materials. The general’s definite charge of a captious temper and sinister purpose compels me to notice his remarks on my conduct in discharging my men for want of shelter. Lieutenant-Colonel Yates never had one of my men employed on Morris Island, and sheltered in tents or otherwise. The tents with which Colonel Yates intended to shelter these men were sent to him on that day and for that purpose. My reply to Colonel Yates’ proffer of the house for a day or two was not a refusal, but a denial that he or I could alter or set aside Colonel Graham’s peremptory order. The offer of Captain Chichester, which I am alleged to have rejected, was a mere suggestion that ” perhaps he might rake up atent or two in the garrison,” and has proved so delusive that the garrison has since borrowed two of the tents assigned to me, on the plea of the extreme destitution of its men. Finally, before actingon Colonel Graham’s order, I called on him, suggested in the most conciliating manner what appeared to me his mistake, and earnestly solicited an order less peremptory, that the point of difference might be considered without inconvenience or mortification to either party.

Respectfully,