tion:

Sirs: In military as well as civil affairs great and violent wrongs
need speedy and certain remedies. The time had arrived, in my
judgment, in the history of this expedition when the greatest wrong
ever perpetrated upon any troops was about

[Footnote 366: Consider, for example, Blunt's orders of July 14
[_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 472].]

[Footnote 367: Blunt to Weer, July 3, 1862, Ibid., 461.]

[Footnote 368: Weer to Moonlight, July 2, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 369: As such the Indian agents regarded it. See their
communication on the subject, July 19, 1862, Ibid., 478.]

[Footnote 370: Ibid., 475-476.]

[Footnote 371: Ibid., 484-485.]

to fall with crushing weight upon the noble men composing the command.
Some one must act, and that at once, or starvation and capture were
the imminent hazards that looked us in the face.

As next in command to Colonel Weer, and upon his express refusal to
move at all for the salvation of his troops, I felt the responsibility
resting upon me.

I have arrested Colonel Weer and assumed command.

The causes leading to this arrest you all know. I need not reiterate
them here. Suffice to say that we are 160 miles from the base of
operations, almost entirely through an enemy's country, and without
communication being left open behind us. We have been pushed forward
thus far by forced and fatiguing marches under the violent southern
sun without any adequate object. By Colonel Weer's orders we were
forced to encamp where our famishing men were unable to obtain
anything but putrid, stinking water. Our reports for disability and
unfitness for duty were disregarded; our cries for help and complaints
of unnecessary hardships and suffering were received with closed ears.
Yesterday a council of war, convened by the order of Colonel Weer,
decided that our only safety lay in falling back to some point from
which we could reopen communication with our commissary depot. Colonel
Weer overrides and annuls the decision of that council, and announces
his determination not to move from this point. We have but three days'
rations on hand and an order issued by him putting the command on half
rations. For nearly two weeks we have no communication from our rear.
We have no knowledge when supply trains will reach us, neither has
Colonel Weer. Three sets of couriers, dispatched at different times
to find these trains and report, have so far made no report. Reliable
information has been rece