r of this Department, at
Fort Warren, has been received.

Will you please furnish the Department with the particulars of the
destruction of the gunboat of which you had command in the
engagement below New Orleans, with _wounded_ men on board.

I am respectfully your obedient servant,
(Signed) GIDEON WELLES.
BEVERLY KENNON, Fort Warren, Boston.

(_Copy_) FORT WARREN, BOSTON, June 28, 1862.

HON. GIDEON WELLES, _Secretary U. S. Navy_.

Sir,--Colonel Dimmick, the commander of this post, delivered to me
yesterday a letter signed by you under date of June 25th directed
to me as "Beverly Kennon" and referring to a communication
addressed to you on the 20th inst. by my superior officer,
Commander J. K. Mitchell, of the Confederate States Navy, whom you
are pleased to designate as "John K. Mitchell."

The purport of your letter is a request that I will furnish your
Department of the United States Government with the "particulars of
the destruction of the gunboat of which I had command in the
engagement below New Orleans with _wounded_ men on board."

When I destroyed and left the vessel which I had commanded on the
occasion referred to, all the wounded men had been removed, the
most of them lowered into boats by my own hands. I was, myself, the
last person to leave the vessel. _Any_ statements which you may
have received to the contrary are wholly without foundation. It
would not be proper, under any circumstances, that I should report
to you the "particulars" of her destruction; that being a matter
which concerns my own Government exclusively, and with which yours
can have nothing to do. Should any charges be made against me,
however, of which you have a right to take cognizance under the
laws of war, I will with pleasure, respond to any respectful
communication which you may address me on the subject. Indeed I
shall be glad of the opportunity to vindicate my character as an
officer from the unjust and unfounded imputations which have been
cast upon it in the connection to which you allude, and upon the
faith of which I have already been disparaged by unusual
restrictions and confinements, here and elsewhere, since I have
been a prisoner of war, without having been furnished an
o