Third Division of your army during
the first day of the battle named. To place myself right in your
estimation and in that of the army generally, I asked a Court of
Inquiry, by letter to the Secretary of War (Mr. Stanton) July
17, 1863. After several months, during which the application
received no attention from the Secretary, I withdrew it, by
advice of friends, General Sherman amongst others. The course I
then resolved upon, that counselled by General Sherman, was to
carry my explanation directly to you; and such continued my
intention until the battle of Monocacy, after which your
treatment of me became so uniformly kind and considerate that I
was led to believe the disagreement, connected with Pittsburg
Landing, forgotten; a result, to which I tacitly assented,
notwithstanding the record of that battle as you had made it, in
the form of an endorsement on my official report, was grievously
against me.

A recent circumstance, however, has made it essential to my good
name, which I cannot bring myself to believe you wish to see
destroyed, to go back to my former purpose; in pursuance of
which, the object of this letter is simply to introduce certain
statements of gentlemen lately in the army, your friends as much
as mine, in hopes that the explanations to be found therein will
be sufficent to authorize you to give me a note of acquittal
from blame, plainly enough, to allay the suspicions and charges
to which I have been so painfully subjected. The statements are
in the form of extracts pertinent to the subject from letters
now in my possession, from General Fred Knefler, General George
McGinnis, Colonel James R. Ross, General Daniel MacCaulay,
Captain Ad Ware, General John A. Strickland, General John M.
Thayer, now United States Senator from Nebraska--all, of my
command, on the day in question, present with me, well known to
you, and of unimpeachable honor. I could have obtained many
others, of like import, but selected these because their authors
had peculiar opportunities for information upon points
considered of chief importance. It is possible that my
explanations of the matter would be sufficient for the purpose
in view. However that may be, it is my judgment now, that the
charges against me have gone so far, and been put in such grave
form, that public opinion