| April 1{, 1863}
***** |
| Now a little gossip. ***** A pretty
savage case of a 'tut to the whale' occurred today in the official
execution of Major D. H. Wood, transportation quartermaster. The
Quartermaster General wrote Major Wood a note saying he had heard
that he was bringing sugar from the south on private account and
asked a report. Wood replied that he had bought fifty barrels in
Augusta and delivered them to the Southern Express Co. to transport.
Myers referred the matter expressing the opinion that an officer in
the transportation service had no right to press on the narrow and
inadequate resources of the railroads with private speculation. The
Secretary referred to the President, and he dismissed him. Now Wood
has no control whatever over the railroads, still less over the
Express Company. His business was issuing coupon transportation
tickets for carrying persons and keeping the account between the
railroads and the Government for transportation done. There was no
moral wrong in his act, however, against other quartermasters, and
as soon as a man is found who owns his transaction, believing it
harmless, his head goes off -- a sacrifice to public wrath and
official purity. Wood is spoken against in other connections and may
be an offender. In this matter he seems to me to have had very harsh
justice. |
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