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merely call your attention to the accompanying General Court Martial Order showing that Johnson was tried and acquitted by a Military Commission prior to my assuming command of the 4th Military District and I may add after he had been acquitted by the Civil Authorities on the plea of Justifiable Homicide. Although I have no objection to the strictest scrutiny of my conduct private or official moral or social, I do most earnestly protest against myself and the officers under me being subjected to the surveillance of irresponsible and unprincipled agents And whilst I insist that every officer and agent should perform his duty, thoroughly and efficiently, I at the same time believe that they have certain rights in which it is my duty to protect them — An officer of the Army in general possesses but few of the goods of this world, his only capital is his character and when deprived of that either justly or unjustly, he is ruined. Believing that the charges against Lieut. Williams, the only officer mentioned in