f his brigade, the necessity and the propriety of making full, formal,
and prompt returns, he met with delays and accidents in transmitting
them to Richmond, which were frequent and extraordinary. The officers,
who acted as his Adjutant Generals at different periods previously to
his promotion, will remember and can affirm, that returns and rolls of
his regiments and battalions composing his brigade, were sent into them,
and forwarded by them to Richmond. Officers were especially detailed to
go to Richmond and look after these papers. And, yet, to every
application made for the appointment of bonded officers (or rather for
their commissions, for Morgan could manage appointments), by commanders
of the oldest regiments in his brigade, the Secretary of War would
politely inform the Colonel that his regiment was unknown "in the
records of this office." Judging from the frequency of this reply, and
the nature of some promotions that were made for that quarter, it would
appear that the War Department at Richmond, and the cavalry on the
western front, had no acquaintance in common. That all the evil might be
cured, papers of formidable size and appearance, nearly square (I should
say an acre by an arpent), were carefully made out, and forwarded to
Richmond, showing the date of the organization of each regiment, the
officers originally upon its rolls, all changes, and how they occurred,
up to the date of the making out of the compendious document, the names
of the officers serving in it at the time, and the manner in which they
obtained their rank, whether by appointment, election, or promotion, and
by whom appointed, when such was their status.

Notwithstanding the work expended upon the accursed things, and the
perspiration, and, I regret to say, blasphemy, which they elicited from
some of our officers, they did no good in the world; and after more
labor and tribulation, ten to one, than an advance of the whole Federal
army would have cost us, we found ourselves as much outsiders as ever.
It must be distinctly understood, that nothing here written is intended
as an insinuation against Mr. Davis; I will not do _that_ which I would
join in condemning in another man, whose antecedents are like my own.
The profound respect I feel for him, prevents any attempt, upon my part,
at even such criticism of his action as may seem legitimate; and unkind
and carping reflections upon him are more becoming in the mouths of
non-combatant rebel