William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[438] the Governor. Captain Peirson was a resident of Lowell. His appointment had been asked for by politicians of high position. He asked that the State would send on sixty men to fill up his company. The request could not be complied with. The third was a letter from Lieutenant Motte, of the Thirteenth Battery, complaining that some of the officers commissioned by the Governor had been notified that they would be mustered out, because an informality of no importance had not been complied with. The fourth was a letter from Lieutenant Dame, of the Fifteenth Battery, to the same effect. The Adjutant-General says,—

It seems to me very wrong that gentlemen should go to the expense of recruiting a company, buying an outfit, be commissioned, mustered into the service, and reach their destination after toils and hardships, anxious to do something for the glory of their country, and to be met as some of these officers have been met in New Orleans.

The point in the case was this: By an order (No. 110), a battery of artillery was entitled to a captain and four lieutenan , if the President should so authorize. In the case of the batteries here spoken of, the President had given his authority, and four lieutenants had been commissioned in each of the companies. But, on the 14th of May, a letter was received by His Excellency from the Adjutant-General of the army, saying, that ‘the ruling of the Department has been not to give the permission (for the four lieutenants) until the battery has taken the field.’ To this letter the Adjutant-General of the State called the attention of the Governor, and asked,—

Does this mean, that, if we get authority from the President to muster a captain and four lieutenants to a battery, additional authority or permission is to be had from the War Department after the battery has left the State. The officers have been commissioned and mustered in, and they have been to the expense of buying uniforms and horses, have spent months and money in recruiting the company, and are two thousand miles from home; and they are to be mustered out. I have heard unofficially, that the order of General Banks to muster out two lieutenants in each battery has been rescinded by the War Department. I do not know that this information is reliable; but I think