To Pres Lincoln From RH Milroy Date Unk

              To the President of the United States 


 
Sir, 

    I have the honor to inform you that some  
time subsequent to the evacuation of Winchester 
I was deprived of my command and placed 
under arrest.. I learned form a letter addressed 
me at Balt. by you that this orginated in 
my refusal to obey the order of my superior 
officer. I asked for a Court of Inquiry and on 
Aug 4th 1863 Special Order No. 346 calling 
such a Court was issued from the War  
D’pt by your command. 


			The detail of this Court 
as originally constituted consisted of Maj. Genl. 
Hitchcock, Brig., Genl. Barry, Brig Genl. Abercrom 
bie and Captain R. N. Scott  Judge Advocate . 
Subsequently Maj. Genl. Hitchcock was relieved 
and Brig. Genl. Devussey detailed in his 
place.  


	To the Court as thus organized I entered my 
protest. It will be observed that Special 
Order No. 346 calls upon this court not only  
to investigate the facts but to pronounce an 
opinion on them to say “what officer or officers  
were in fault” and makes the result of its labors 
a judgment directly effecting me, who of counse= 
quence appears before it in the light of a defendant 


       I claim then all the rights of a defendant 
and call attention to the law governing Courts 
of this character which provides that an officer 
shall not be tried by officers inferior in rank unless 
 the exigencies of the service are such that the 
proper officers cannot be obtained. As this is 
not the case we having now some fourteen  
Major Generals without Command,