My friends, a great many of them, were very much disturbed by this position of things. They said that this action of General Scott was intended to slight me; that I was made second in command, and that I ought to resign at once and go home, and the people would set it all right; that Scott had never blamed me for the reverse of even a platoon under my command except at Bethel, and that there the movement was well planned and failed only because it had to be carried out by somebody else than myself, so that at any rate I was not to blame. I told all my friends that I did not feel aggrieved at all; that I would beat Scott at his own game, as indeed I was already prepared to do; that he had sent Wool down without any instructions; that Wool could not go anywhere or do anything; that Wool did not like Scott any better than Scott did me; that Wool wanted all the work done by some one else while he had a nice place in the camp, and I wanted to do all the work I could do and have somebody else take the responsibility. I had been watching the building of Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark. I had had some loyal North Carolinians for many weeks in the forts at work, and I proposed, as soon as I could, to take the forts, for they were very important. But it would be of no more use for me to ask Scott for any troops with which to do it than it would be to attempt to fly. No, he would not even let me take the troops I had or any part of them. Therefore, as soon as General Wool got fairly in his saddle, I explained to him these matters about the forts at Hatteras, and the
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