Page:FourteenMonthsInAmericanBastiles-2.djvu/40

40 ", October 23d, 1861.

". SIMON CAMERON, Sec'y of War, ", D. C.

"Sir:

"The Orderly-Sergeant has this morning, by order of the Commanding Officer of this Post, read to me in presence of a number of persons, a letter from Colonel Martin Burke to Lieutenant CO. Wood, written in reply to a communication from the Lieutenant to him. Copies of both of these letters, Colonel Burke states he has forwarded to Washington. I have asked for a copy of the Colonel's letter, but have not learned whether it will be given. In that letter, which is evidently intended as a rebuke to some of those confined here, Colonel Burke has undertaken to allude to the character and standing which my family have borne, for the purpose of introducing an offensive imputation, that one member of it has acted in a manner unbecoming a gentleman. This charge, I claim the right distinctly and directly to repudiate, and I have also to demand that an inquiry be made under your authority into the conduct of Colonel Burke and Lieutenant Wood, in relation to their treatment of those confined at this place. I now formally charge Colonel Burke with conduct unbecoming an officer, and also with neglect of duty. He has not, so far as any prisoner here is aware, been within this Fort since on or about the 5th day of August last, and in undertaking to judge of Lieutenant Wood's manner of discharging his duty towards the prisoners under his charge, he must have acted upon the statements of that officer himself. The Surgeon of the post and one other officer from Fort Hamilton, have occasionally exchanged a few words with some of the prisoners, but whenever any of the latter have attempted to make any representations to them of our condition and treatment, both of those officers have declared that those matters are not in any manner, within the sphere of their duties. There has therefore, been no inspection of this prison, in which upwards of one hundred prisoners are confined, which would enable Colonel Burke to judge of the accuracy of the reports which he may have received. In the absence of all such means of knowledge or information, Colonel Burke has stated in an official letter, that Lieutenant Wood, an officer under his command, has ’devoted his whole time to promoting the comfort of prisoners’ here, or words to that effect. This statement, I charge to be not warranted by the facts, and to be entirely incorrect. I charge and