Unknown to Joseph E. Brown, May 23, 1864

Macon, May 23, 1864.

His Excellency JOSEPH E. BROwN, Governor, Milledgeville :

Str: Your letter of the 20th instant was received by yesterday’s mail.

I am not disposed to consume time upon the irrelevant topics which you have dragged into the discussion, especially as you have lost sight of the practical questions involved, and seem to write for the sole purpose of indulging in personalities which you supposed would be offensive. This correspondence commenced in an effort to get you to abandon a certificate which you had given, that it appears both from your admissions and conduct was untrue. You had certified that ‘“‘you considered all the civil and military officers of the State necessary for the proper administration of the government of the State.” Now, in view of all you have said on the subject in this correspondence, as well as your recent orders calling a large number of these officers into military service, do you not feel self-condemned in havin g certified to a statement which is untrue, and which you knew to be untrue at the time you gave the certificate? This is the whole point of controversy, and all else has been drawn in by your efforts to avoid

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the odium and responsibility which you have incurred by conforming your action to this false certificate.

That you have been driven to abandon this pretense to the extent of calling out the officers who are not necessary for the proper administration of the State government proves that my efforts have not been wholly fruitless. Had you done so at the time and in the mode I suggested, it would perhaps have been better for the country, and at the same time saved you from the exposure to which you have subjected yourself. You reiterate your claim upon the gratitude of our soldiers for what you have done in providing for their wants and the necessities of their families. Everyone has awarded to you and your officers full credit for what you have done with the public money. In these particulars you seem, however, to be nervously apprehensive that it may be forgotten, as you never lose an opportunity of calling attention to it. I would suggest that it might not be inappropriate, in some of your future references to the subject, to give some of the credit to your fellow-citizens, who by their cheerful payment of the taxes imposed upon them have placed in your hands the means with which you have contributed to the wants of our noble soldiers and their deserving families. It is a duty in which all have participated with a cheerfulness and earnestness worthy of the object, and for which all deserve and will receive the grateful thanks of our gallant soldiers. We have not and cannot do too much for these noble men and their suffering families. In your zeal to magnify your own conduct you should not forget what is due to others equally as deserving as yourself. The men whose gratitude you seek to obtain will not think the less of you for it.

You have so often repeated the statements of your great success in furnishing more than double the number of troops the President called for in September last that I am not surprised at your loss of temper at the exposition of the fact that you simply furnished that number on paper. You should remember that you are responsible for the introduction of the subject into this correspondence, and if the exposure is mortifying to your pride you brought it upon yourself.

The acts of Congress under which the call was made are plain and simple, and could have been responded to without the embarrassment of territorial divisions which you resorted to. Your effort to escape from the exposure by the use of offensive language is quite natural to a man who has lost his temper, and may be pardoned in one who has so many graver offenses to atone for.

In reference to the one Confederate officer who was transferred by the President from a position in front to one in the rear, you say you ‘“‘know of no reason for calling into question either the patriotism or the prudence of the President in making the transfer.” Whether your description of this position as a ‘‘safe and comfortable” one be correct remains yet to be seen; but it is evident you so considered it, and, so considering it, your application to become his volunteer aide, with the fact that you never so honored him as long as he was in the enemy’s presence, is a very significant illustration of the direction which your ambition takes in time of war. It seems that not until you perceived his fitness for a ‘‘safe retreat” did you perceive your own fitness to become his aide. Let me assure you that if that officer had then known the conviction under which yuu acted he would have been more impressed with your qualifications for the post to which you aspire, for whilst your opinion of that officer may not be

concurred in by others, no one will question the correctness of the estimate you have placed upon yourself.

It is due to myself to say that in my allusion to your “‘personal knowledge” of State officers engaged in speculation I did not refer to the charge made against you of dividing with some of your State contractors the large profits they were accumulating from these contracts. What I said was in direct response to your own remark about “‘ protected men” engaged ‘‘in attention to their own private business and speculations.” I had noreason to believe that you had been “ dishonorable or unjust” in your speculations, so fully explained in your letter, and I had too much respect for your sense to believe that you would engage in any improper transaction in which you were liable to be so easily detected. As to the manner in which you have accumulated your fortune, whether by inheritance or by trading and trafficking, I neither know nor care, as it does not throw the least light upon the question involved in this discussion, which is the truth of your certificate, in which you say you consider all the civil and military officers of this State necessary for the proper administration of the State government.

I shall leave you in your allusions to my own pecuniary embarrassments in the past to the full enjoyment of all the pleasure which a low and groveling mind derives from the repetition of stale and malicious slanders. When those who originated them blush in the remembrance of their turpitude, the subject becomes eminently suited tc one of your taste and instincts.

Respectfully, HOWELL COBB, Major-General, Commanding.

Box 1122, RicumMonp, Va., May 23, 1864. Colonel HOLLIDAY:

DEAR SiR: I think you told me that if { could give the Secretary proof that I could raise fifteen men he would authorize me to form them into a company for the special service I had suggested.

The following-named gentlemen have several times assured me that they would serve with me on such, and most of them have done so. They are from the Eastern Shore and about Norfolk, and Missouri, Kentucky, and Canada. Some are now in prison, captured with me; others are in the Confederacy, and some on Eastern Shore:

Annan, Baker, Brown, Brock, Cobb, Crouse, Chinn, Doughty, Doughty, Fitzgerald, Hudgins, Hamson, Morehead, Reed, Stedman, Thomas, Wheeler, McGrim, Kiedel (19). Several others have made similar promises whose names I cannot recall, and communication now is so uncertain that I cannot get their names. I entertain no doubt of my ability to get more men, provided we can get the privilege of remaining in this branch of service as long as such branch exists.

I hope you will [not] feel troubled by my sending you this and ues you to use it if you think it will [be] of any assistance ome,

*For papers relating to Beall’s subsequent arrest and execution, see Series II Vol. VILL. ;

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May 23, 1864. Hon. J. A. SEDDON:

DEAR SiR: I have known Mr. Beall, the writer of the within, from his earliest infancy, and have observed closely his bearing and conduct since the very beginning of the present war, and I beg leave to say to the Secretary, in the first place, that he may rely with the most implicit confidence, not only on assurance given within of his ability to raise the company of men referred to, but upon any and every other statement that Mr. B. makes on the subject or on any other subject.

I consider Mr. B. one of the most gallant and patriotic young gentlemen that Virginia has produced during the war, and that he is not less noted for intelligence and his loyalty to truth and honor.

I have the best reasons for speaking thus emphatically of Mr. B., and I do not hesitate to pledge my own reputation for the correctness of what I here avouch.

Respectfully, ANDREW HUNTER.