The documents for the current year follow chronologically:

Washington, D. C., March 26, 1899.

To the Hon. Secretary of War,

(Through the Adjutant-General, U. S. A.):

Sir-Judging from the report of Maj. E. A. Garlington, Assistant Inspector-General, who was ordered to investigate the Duvall case, I should think fair-minded men could readily see the prejudice cropping out of this report against me, and that Major Garlington has taken advantage of his position to conspire with said Duvall to make it appear that I was guilty of some military offense justifying a court-martial.

I, therefore, request that the proceedings in the matter may be referred to the Judge Advocate General for a careful and thorough investigation, together with authority and instructions to prefer charges against Major Garlington and Lieutenant Duvall for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and for violation of Army Regulations and specified Articles of War, and on such other charges as, in the judgment of the Judge Advocate General, the good of the service may demand.

It will be noticed that Major Garlington was in a position where he was free to do-and was supposed to-his duty without favoritism, reporting the true facts and actual condition of the case. But instead of that, this narrow-minded, narrow-gauged officer has allowed his prejudices and his feelings to warp his judgment and to lead him into a cowardly attack upon my military record. If such feeble men are to be entrusted with an officer's character and war record, then it is high time that the office of InspectorGeneral of the Army were abolished. The reputation and character of no man in the Army is safe if secret reports and misrepresentations can be made by these understrappers to superior officers, who have not the time to look into the details of many of the cases, and must take for granted, usually, that the reports are correct and true. To affirm or sanction a report such as Major Garlington has made in this case is to establish a dangerous precedent and give full faith and credit to a report that should be thrown into the wastebasket. As a heavy taxpayer, I do not believe that money should be appropriated to retain such officers in positions.

I shall never believe that the War Department can be used by such petty subordinates of the Army as Major Garlington and Lieutenant Duvall, neither of whom ever saw a day's service in the field during the late war, to assist them in a mean and cowardly attempt to crush an officer whose gallant and meritorious services on the field of battle have, on many occasions, won the admiration and applause of such distinguished commanders as Meade and Hancock.

As far as Colonel Young, Major Lebo and Major Conrad are concerned, I have only to observe that they are three very weak men, and can be easily used by such schemers as Garlington and Duvall, who have been educated at the Government's expense, and would naturally have considerable interest in controlling such men as the Board was lately composed of in the investigation of my case. Because a man is educated and is bright and intelligent it does not necessarily follow that he is honest. No doubt many are in prisons today who are highly accomplished, educated and gentlemanly men in appearance.

Since the honorable record of a true soldier is more prized by him than his life, all true men of honor will expect me to stop at no risk, no peril, in defending, in time of peace, what I gained on the battlefield, when my sniveling accusers were wearing marble-buttoned roundabouts in the awkward squad.

I believe that the propriety of my request, that the Judge Advocate General be authorized and directed to carefully investigate the proceedings in this case, will be readily recognized by the Depart

ment.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Col. George A. Armes:

(Signed) GEO. A. ARMES, Capt., U. S. A. (Ret'd).

Lynchburg, Va., July 24, 1899.

Dear Colonel-I enclose the letter which I addressed to the President respecting the application of Messrs. Greenwood, Mannion & Co. for railroad franchise in Cuba, as requested by you. I was glad to show you and your friend any courtesy or accommodation in my power.

Please give me the full address of General Greenwood.

Yours, very truly,

JNO. W. DANIEL.

George W. Armes,

Omaha, Neb., September 23. 1899.

United States Army,

Washington, D. C.:

My Dear Sir--In the case of Mark M. Coad, arising out of the Indian depredation committed on the 19th of January, 1867, a claim for the same which was made out and affidavits made immediately after the time of the raid, the Court of Claims have seen fit to reject all of this class of testimony, and has compelled us to look up the witnesses and take depositions. I find this to be a very difficult matter from the fact that witnesses are scattered all over the country, and a great many are dead. However, I have succeeded in tracing a few of these men and taken their deposi

tions. In our depositions your name is mentioned very frequently. I do not suppose that you now remember very many of the details which took place at that time. One reason why it is necessary to have your deposition in this case is to verify the accounts given in the other depositions, namely, ***

I would like to hear from you and to know how you are getting along. I may go down to Washington during the winter or next spring, and if so I will call and see you.

The letters herewith are from two of the men in my old command, the Second Cavalry, and show in what esteem I was held by the men in the ranks who participated with me in some of the severest campaigning ever known to the Army:

Maj. Geo. A. Armes:

Malden, Mass., October 1, 1899.

Dear Sir-Your letter of the 7th of September received, and I should have replied before had I not been so busy since my vacation. In regard to the Pumpkin Creek fight, I don't think I can give you much more information than you have, but I can give you the name of the comrade who was shot in the shoulder. His name was Moore, a private. The boys called him "Reddy" More, if I remember aright. The arrow was bedded in to the shoulder-blade; had notches in it so that it could not be removed, and he was sent on to the States to have it taken out, and never came back to the company again. There was one Indian captured and brought to Fort Sedgwick, and escaped from the old stable, when he ran for the river, and somehow got away. I think Corporal or Sergeant Close relieved the guard to go to dinner. If you write to Comrade Joe Buckholtz, Smithfield, Ohio, I think that he can give you valuable information, as he wrote me once that he had some records of our service taken at the time.

Sergeant Oscar Close, Corporal Chas. H. Haynes, Privates Michael Connell, Wm. Floyd, Wm. Humphries and Michael Haley were with Lieutenant Lyman S. Kidder's party who were killed by the Indians on Beaver Creek about the 1st of July, 1867, while carrying dispatches to General Custer, who was at that time along the Republican. Kidder had with him ten men and an Indian guide. I have a list of the names sent me from Washington of the entire party. The five that I have given you are the only ones that were with us at that time. The official report of the time so many were frostbitten is that we left Fort Sedgwick January 22, 1867, and returned January 26; two officers, thirty-seven enlisted men, five citizens; country passed through, Lodgepole Valley; tribe operated against, Cheyenne; captured sixty-seven head of

cattle and one pony; twenty-seven men frostbitten; one man who after had feet taken off resides in New Hampshire; his address is Frank B. Flanders, Goffstown, N. H.

The report also says that Lieutenant Jenness, Twenty-seventh Infantry, since killed at Phil Kearney, was along with us.

The party was in command of Second Lieut. G. A. Armes. Lieutenant Hamilton was along. I think Hamilton was killed in the Spanish war, a Lieutenant-Colonel.

In the report they have the distance we traveled on this trip 249 miles, and I think you deserved great credit for working as you did in keeping the boys from freezing to death, in making us walk when that drowsy feeling would come over us.

If this information will be of any service to you I am glad to give it. If I can do anything more I will cheerfully do it. Yours truly,

ALBION H. DROUN,

18 Garland avenue, Malden, Mass.

Smithfield, Ohio, November 19, 1899.

Washington, D. C.:

Dear Sir-Through the kindness of my friend, John Burnside, I am enabled to communicate with you. I had heard through Comrade Droun that you were living in Washington, or had lived there some years ago, and when Burnside was here last week I asked him to look you up if you were still in Washington. I thought that, situated as you were, and having personal knowledge of me, you might aid me in getting my pension increased.

I have been drawing $12 per month for general disability since the dependent bill was passed, but about two years ago I placed my application for increase as an original applicant, and based by disability on a severe freezing that I got on that memorable trip in January of 1867, of which you were in command. I was examined a year ago last September. About three months ago I furnished a history of my whereabouts, and the work that I have been doing since I left the service. I am confined now to a wheel-chair, and have been off my feet since May, 1891.

Dear sir, I am glad that I got on your trail. I was not trailing, but just crossed it, so to speak, and hope that you may aid me in getting what I want. I don't ask you to go out of your way to do this, and I hope you will do it for the sake of Auld Lang Syne, and because it is in your heart to do the favor, and I'll place it on record beside that other favor you did me long ago, when you loaned me your overshoes--a thing that don't happen very often in the regular Army,

Hoping that you are well, and enjoying life and the good things of this life, I remain,

Yours truly,

Jos. A. BUCKHOLTZ.

P. S.-While a member of M Company of the Second I kept a diary for nearly the whole three years, and if it will interest you to read it, or that part which pertains to that January trip, I will send you a copy of it.

J. A. B.

Among my supporters and defenders was Col. Thomas P. Ochiltree, a gentleman who has been dined and wined abroad more than any other American that has ever visited Europe, and deservedly so, which is substantiated by the following extracts from official records from the War Department and an account of his life written by Gen. Marcus J. Wright:

"When a mere boy Colonel Ochiltree volunteered in Walker's company of Texas Rangers, and was engaged in the campaign on the Mexican frontier against the Apache and Commanche Indians. *** Afterwards enlisted in a Texas battalion under Colonel Wigfall, subsequently the First Texas Infantry. *** When