Colonel Duncan replied that he "believed the facts therein
('Tampico letter') set forth to be substantially true, and still
believed so; had no desire to detract directly or indirectly from the
merits of any officer, and no one could regret more than himself if he
had done so. If the statements of General Scott were facts, he learned
them for the first time, and was ignorant of them when he wrote the
'Tampico letter.'" General Scott's reply was that "ample evidence,
both oral and written, was at hand to substantiate his averments in
respect to the route around Lakes Chalco and Xochimilco." He then
withdrew the second charge against Colonel Duncan.

Following is the opinion of the court of inquiry in General Pillow's
case:

"On reviewing the whole case, it will be seen that the points on which
the conduct of General Pillow has been disapproved by the court are
his claiming in certain passages of the paper No. 1" (the letter he
gave Mr. Freuner, correspondent of the New Orleans Delta, and which
had been pronounced a twin brother to the "Leonidas letter"), "and in
his official report of the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, a
larger degree of participation in the merit of the movements
appertaining to the battle of Contreras than is substantiated by the
evidence, or he is entitled to, and also the language above quoted, in
which that claim is referred to in the letter to General Scott.

"But as the movements actually ordered by General Pillow at Contreras
on the 19th were emphatically approved by General Scott at the time,
and as the conduct of General Pillow in the brilliant series of
military operations carried on to such triumphant issue by General
Scott in the Valley of Mexico appears by the several official reports
of the latter, and otherwise, to have been highly meritorious, from
these and other considerations the court is of the opinion that no
further proceedings against General Pillow in this case are called for
by the interests of the public."

On July 7, 1848, the President, through the Secretary of War, issued
an order approving the findings of the court of inquiry, and adds:

"The President, finding, on a careful review of the whole evidence,
that there is nothing established to sustain the charge of 'a
violation of the general regulation or standing order of the army,'
nothing in the conduct of General Pillow, nor in his correspondence
with the general in chief of the army, 'unbecoming an officer an