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

As this was a grave, personal matter, touching the character of a brave and patriotic officer of Massachusetts, then at the front with his regiment, and who fell at the head of it, a few months afterwards, bravely fighting, we have thought it proper to copy this correspondence entire. The dead officer lies in Mount Auburn Cemetery. His services and his memory deserve that the defence of Governor Andrew, like the charge of General Butler, should be given without abridgment. Under date of Jan. 6, 1862, Governor Andrew writes to General Butler,—

Sir,—At the first hour at my disposal for the purpose, I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of Jan. 1, in which you state that Colonel Powell T. Wyman, commanding the Sixteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, now stationed at Fortress Monroe, is the person to whom you had reference, when, addressing me under date of Dec. 28, you asserted that I “know ” that “ seducing a mother, and making a father wifeless and children motherless,” “is no objection to a high military commission in Massachusetts.”

In answer to your somewhat peremptory interrogatories, addressed to me in that letter of Jan. 1, I would state, for your information, that the first knowledge I ever had of Mr. Wyman was through a letter addressed by him to the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, dated “London, England, May 1, 1861,” stating that he was a citizen of Boston and a graduate of the West-Point Military Academy, and had served for ten years as an officer of artillery of the United States army, and tendering his services to the Executive of this Commonwealth in any military capacity. I am not aware that any acknowledgment was ever made of this communication.

During the month of June, I received another note from Mr. Wyman, dated at the Parker House, Boston, he having, in the mean while, returned to America. This letter was assigned to a member of my staff, to whom Mr. Wyman was referred for consultation. It was at that time that I first heard that there was said to be a cloud of some sort upon Mr. Wyman's character; and, having little leisure myself to enter into quasi-judicial investigations as to personal character, I passed over his name in the appointments which I was then making. The nature of the reports against him were not then stated to me; and, although I was soon after advised of them, yet there are things stated, in your letter of Jan. 1, as “notorious facts,” of which it is only through yourself that I have knowledge.