No. 2.-letter from Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, U. S. Army.
Saratoga, August 5, 1863.
Sir: In the Official Gazette of the 21st ultimo I see a report of Judge-Advocate-General Holt, dated March 27, relative to “an expedition set on foot in April, 1862, under the authority and direction,” as the report says, “of General O. M. Mitchel, the object of which was to destroy the line of communications on the Georgia State Railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga.”
The expedition was “set on foot” under my authority.
The plan was arranged between Mr. Andrews, whom I had in employment from shortly after assuming command in Kentucky, and my chief of staff, Col. James B. Fry, and General Mitchel had nothing to do either with its conception or executio: except to furnish from his command the soldiers who took part in i He was directed to furnish 6.
Instead of that he sent 22.
Had he coi formed to the instructions given him it would have been better.
Th chances of success would have been greater, and in any event severe lives would have been saved.
The report speaks of the plan as a
[635]
emanation of genius and of the results which it promised as absolutely sublime.
It may be proper, therefore, to say that this statement is made for the sake of truth, and not to call attention to the extravagant colors in which it haA been presented.
Very repectfuily, your obedient servant,
D. O. Bueil, Major-Geeral. General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington City, D. 0.
