rt of
Brigadier-General Worth. The following extract from the latter contains
all that is said having relation to the conduct of Captain Holmes:

"My thanks are also especially due to Lieutenant-Colonel Stanford,
Eighth, commanding First Brigade; Major Munroe, chief of artillery,
general staff; Brevet Major Brown and Captain J.R. Vinton, artillery
battalion; Captain J.B. Scott, artillery battalion, light troops; Major
Scott (commanding) and Captain Merrill, Fifth; Captain Miles
(commanding), Holmes, and Ross, Seventh Infantry, and Captain Screven,
commanding Eighth Infantry; to Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, captain of
rifles; Major Chevalier and Captain McCulloch, of the Texan, and Captain
Blanchard, of the Louisiana, Volunteers; to Lieutenant Mackall,
commanding battery; Roland, Martin, Hays, Irons, Clark, and Curd, horse
artillery; Lieutenant Longstreet, commanding light company, Eighth;
Lieutenant Ayers, artillery battalion, who was among the first in the
assault upon the place and who secured the colors. Each of the officers
named either headed special detachments, columns of attack, storming
parties, or detached guns, and all were conspicuous for conduct and
courage."

It will be perceived that in this list there are twenty-one officers
(besides the medical staff and officers of volunteers) who are highly
commended by General Worth for gallant conduct. That they were justly
entitled to the praise bestowed on them is not doubted; but if I had
recommended all of them to be brevetted, together with all those in the
reports of other generals also in like manner highly commended, the
number of officers in my list submitted for your consideration would
have been probably trebled. Indeed, the whole Army behaved most
gallantly on that occasion. It was deemed proper to discriminate and
select from among the well deserving those who had peculiar claims to
distinction. In making this selection I exercised my best judgment,
regarding the official reports as the authentic source of information.
Six or seven only of the officers named in the foregoing extract from
General Worth's report were placed on the list. A close examination of
the reports will, I think, disclose the ground for the discrimination,
and I hope justify the distinction which I felt it my duty to make.
Without disparagement to Captain Holmes, whose conduct was highly
creditable, it appears to me that a rule of selection which would have
brought him upon the list