s to tender a Regiment
for three years, already armed and equipped for the field, to the
Government, at the hour of its greatest peril, and his promotion will
place Lieut.-Col. D. G. Wells, an officer of uncommon merit, in
command of his Regiment. Very respectfully,

Your obt. servant,
JOSEPH HOOKER,
_Brigadier-General, commanding Division_.

"Official Copy," WM. H. LAWRENCE, _Aid-de-Camp_.

I was told by General Hooker that General McClellan had informed him that
any one he should recommend for Brigadier-General should be appointed, and
that I might expect mine in the course of ten days. It so happened that
Gov. Andrew in a few days after made it convenient to be in Washington;
and there was a prevalent rumor in camp at that time that he was there to
oppose my nomination, but whether or not I am unable to say, but will
leave the public to decide as the appointment was not made at that time,
and I did not receive it for more than eleven months after. About this
time Senator Wilson, in command of the 22d Regiment at Halls Hill, Va.,
one Sunday afternoon, called on one of his Captains, and, in course of
conversation, my recommendation by General Hooker was discussed, when
Senator Wilson said: "Col. Cowdin will never be confirmed by the Senate."

On hearing of my recommendation by Gen. Hooker, the Mayor, Aldermen, and
Common Council, in both branches of which I had been a member, very kindly
forwarded a petition from their respective Boards to the President, urging
my appointment. A short time after this three more petitions were gotten
up, one by the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives, one from the
leading men of Boston, and one from the War Committee; these petitions
were all sent to a Massachusetts Senator to be presented to the President,
but in my heart I firmly believe that he (the President) never saw them.
It is presumed that they were either destroyed or kept in abeyance. On the
8th of January, Mayor Opdyke of New York wrote the following letter in my
behalf:--

_Mayor's Office, New York, January 8, 1862._

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, _President of the United States_:--

SIR: The friends of Colonel Robert Cowdin of the First Massachusetts
Regiment, now acting Brigadier-General of Hooker's Division, are very
desirous that he should receive the appointment of Brigadier-General
of Volunteers. He is so highly recommended by General H