To RH Milroy From Schuyler Colfax May 5 1864

              House of Representatives 

     Washington, D.C. 

May 5, 1964 


My dear Milroy, 

		I have tried twice to see Mr. Stanton 
since receipt of your two last letters, but in vain, 
he being engaged with military officers or the President 
each time, & I am so crowded, the house being in 
session night & day that I have scarce time to eat 
or sleep, &could not wait a couple of hours for an 
interview. This morning I tried again & saw him. 
I return you his reply to your request. But I had a 
long talk with him- I think about the Twentieth- an 
the general subject of you not being in the field. 
He said  the reason he could not assign you to Sigel 
was because Grant had desired Brg. General Crooks in 
that Dept. of special service, on which he had conferred 
with C. & to send a Maj Genl . there would have ranked 
Crooks & broke it up. I told him I felt deeply in the 
subject of your compulsory inaction, & urged him to  
find some place where you could do something. He 
insisted he was not inimical to you&, but I have 
not time to go over the whole conversation, which 
was a long one. But he has promised me to