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
