To James Madison from George Graham, 9 September 1815
From George Graham
Sepr. 9th. 1815
Dear Sir
Agreeably to the request of Mr. Crawford, I have examined the recommendations & relative pretensions of the officers applying to fill vacancies in the Army; and have arranged them in the order in which I think they should stand; keeping in view the necessities of the service & the convenience of reorganization. A list is forwarded for your selection & a Copy sent to Mr. Crawford.1
Capt. Donaho is not mentioned in any of the confidential reports, as he was not under the immediate command of these officers of the Artillery who made reports. His appointment I think is due to the urgent & repeated applications of Genl. Pinckney. He stands high as a meritorious officer.
I am not positively certain, how far Mr. Dallas may have committed himself to Major O Conner, but I believe not farther than will appear from the enclosed Letters.2 One strong objection to the appointment of Major O Conner arises from a due respect to the feelings of Genl. Izard, who would consider it as giving countenance in some measure to the charges made by O Conner against him.
Major Muhlenburg is not mentioned in the confidential reports; he is proposed to be appointed, in consequence of the enclosed Letter from Mr. Roberts & the respect due to the memory of his father.3
Major Whistler’s is a hard case, but, he could not be appointed, except in violation of the intimation contained in Mr. Dallas’s Letter to the Board of Officers, & adhered to by them as there is a deficiency of officers at present in the 5th Military Department; I have addressed, a Letter, of which the enclosed is a Copy, to Genl. Miller which will probably retain him in service untill some other provision can be made.4
Capt. Stribling of the Lt. Artillery had sent in a conditional resignation, he however wishes to continue; both himself & Capt. Leonard are excellent officers.5
The Rifle Regiment having been orderd to Prairie des Chien, the vacancies require to be immediately filled; I believe Lt. Coll. Hamilton still retains in service Capt. Martin, & Lt’s. Fine & Harrison. Indeed the vacancies are so numerous as to retard the proper organization of the army, & should be all filled as soon as convenient.
There are twelve vacancies of 2d Lts in the Corps of Artillery, I have proposed to fill only four of them. As nearly all the 3d Lts in this Corps have been educated at West Point, I would recommend that the other eight vacancies be hereafter filled by promotion, which will make room also for some of the Cadets that will finish their course at the military academy next Winter. I have the Honor to be yours very sincere[l]y
Geo. Graham
The list of Lts cannot be copied in time for the mail of today.
RC (PHi: Gratz Collection). For surviving enclosure, see n. 3.
1. Enclosure not found.
2. The enclosed letters have not been found, but for Maj. John Michael O’Connor’s case, see Alexander J. Dallas to JM, 13 Apr. 1815 (first letter), and n. 3; JM to Dallas, 11 July 1815, and n. 1; JM to Dallas, 13 July 1815; and Dallas to JM, 15 July 1815.
3. For Maj. Peter Muhlenberg’s case, see Jonathan Roberts to JM, 17 Aug. 1815, and n. 1. Graham probably enclosed Roberts’s letter of the same date to William Harris Crawford (DNA: RG 94, Letters Received, filed under “Muhlenberg”; 1 p.).
4. The enclosed copy has not been found, but Graham’s 9 Sept. 1815 letter to Col. James Miller, a brigadier general by brevet, read: “If major Whistler is still in command at fort Wayne, it is not deemed necessary that he should be immediately relieved, as he was charged by the late acting Secretary of War, with the repairing of the works at that place” (DNA: RG 107, LSMA). Dallas’s “intimation” to the board of officers may have had to do with allegations of questionable management practices against Capt. John Whistler (a major by brevet) while he was commander of Fort Dearborn from 1803 to 1810. Whistler received an appointment as a military storekeeper on 5 Mar. 1817 (Ann Durkin Keating, Rising Up from Indian Country: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago [Chicago, 2012], 55–60, 63, 88; , 1:710, 1026).
5. Capt. Francis Stribling wrote Daniel Parker on 16 June 1815, reporting that he was “excessively weak” and wished to resign, but only if Capt. Luther Leonard were appointed in his stead. On 15 July, however, he informed Parker that he preferred to remain in the army because his health seemed likely to improve. Parker’s 22 July note is on the verso of that letter: “I wrote to Capt. Stribling that his letter of June 16th. was considered a resignation, & I would wait his further answer, before I sent his papers to the Secy of War. I believe the officers of the Reg. expect Leonard will be put in the place of Stribling.” On 27 July, Stribling reiterated that he wished to continue in service (DNA: RG 94, Letters Received, filed under “Stribling”); he did so but resigned on 1 May 1816. Leonard was honorably discharged, effective 15 June 1815, but reinstated on 17 May 1816 (, 1:628, 931).