the third interrogatory, it is my painful duty to reply
that I have never received any specific authority for issue
of clothing, uniforms, arms, equipments and so forth, to the
troops in question,--my general instructions from Mr.
Cameron, to employ them in any manner I might find
necessary, and the military exigencies of the department and
the country, being my only, but I trust, sufficient
justification. Neither have I had any specific authority for
supplying these persons with shovels, spades, and pickaxes,
when employing them as laborers; nor with boats and oars,
when using them as lighter-men; but these are not points
included in Mr. Wickliffe's resolution. To me it seemed that
liberty to employ men in any particular capacity implied and
carried with it liberty, also, to supply them with the
necessary tools; and, acting upon this faith, I have
clothed, equiped, and armed the only loyal regiment yet
raised in South Carolina, Georgia or Florida.

"I must say, in vindication of my own conduct, that, had it
not been for the many other diversified and imperative
claims on my time and attention, a much more satisfactory
result might to have been achieved; and that, in place of
only one regiment, as at present, at least five or six
well-drilled, and thoroughly acclimated regiments should, by
this time, have been added to the loyal forces of the Union.

"The experiment of arming the blacks, so far as I have made
it, has been a complete and even marvellous success. They
are sober, docile, attentive, and enthusiastic; displaying
great natural capacities in acquiring the duties of the
soldier. They are now eager beyond all things to take the
field and be led into action; and it is the unanimous
opinion of the officers who have had charge of them that, in
the peculiarities of this climate and country, they will
prove invaluable auxiliaries, fully equal to the similar
regiments so long and successfully used by the British
authorities in the West India Islands.

"In conclusion, I would say, it is my hope--there appearing
no possibility of other reinforcements, owing to the
exigencies of the campaign in the Peninsula--to have
organized by the end of next fall, and be able to present to
the government, from forty-eight to fifty thousa