- dria, where my regiment then lay. I asked
the officers to meet me and explained the cause of my being forced to resign. I was surprised to find that my resolution, which all admitted to be reasonable, met with the most flattering opposition. Indeed, I received soon after a letter from these gentlemen in which, with much more, they said:
We, your obedient and affectionate officers,
beg leave to express our great concern at the
marked disagreeable news we have received of
your determination to resign the command of
the corps. Your steady adherence to impartial
justice, your quick discernment and invariable
regard to merit, enlivened our natural emulation
to excel.
As this letter lies before me and I think
of the emotion it caused me, I still like to
remember that at the close they spoke of
me as "one who taught them to despise
danger and to think lightly of toil and hardships
while led by a man they knew and
loved."
I have been spoken of as wanting in sensibility. If it had been said I lacked means to show what I feel, that were to put the
