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I would say that no one can fail to perceive that the fort would only be a source of danger to this city, instead of a protection, if left to the care of companies of raw militia without a single hour's drill in the use of the guns, or (many of them) a day's acquaintance with the duties of a soldier.
It is not impossible that the public property exposed there, the forts and their raw garrisons, would be an easy prey to the prisoners now guarded there, and the city itself, for a time, at their disposal.
There are accomplished rebel officers confined in the fort; among them, an accomplished artillery officer from Longstreet's army, besides a large number of the most dangerous and desperate class of prisoners.
The Governor's letters on this subject were so frank, and his representations so proper, that
Mr. Stanton at once agreed that he was mistaken, and that the
Governor was right, and this set the matters between the
Secretary and the
Governor upon the same pleasant footing as before, and so they continued until the end of the war. The letter of the
Governor to
Mr. Hooper was written on the same day that
General Grant commenced his memorable march across the
Rapidan towards
Richmond.
On the 7th of May, the
Governor telegraphed to
Mr. Hooper, House of Representatives,
Washington,—
General Schouler reports that he and Major Clarke, U. S. A., assistant Provost-Marshal for Massachusetts, have agreed on figures, showing our total deficiency, on May 1, was only 4,076 men, with some credits not yet ascertained.
Up to this time, no credits whatever had been allowed by the
General Government for men furnished by
Massachusetts in the navy, which amounted, in round numbers, to upwards of 23,000 men, which, if credited, as they were a few weeks afterwards by an act of Congress, would have shown that
Massachusetts had not only filled her contingent upon every call of the
President, but would have a surplus of about 19,000 men.
On the 6th of May, the
Governor wrote to the
Secretary of War, urging the appointment of
Colonel William F. Bartlett, of the Fifty-seventh Regiment, as brigadier-general.
Colonel Bartlett, while a captain in the Twentieth Regiment, had lost a
