To Gen Milroy From Schuyler Colfax March 18 1862

              (in left margin) 
The President tells nearly everybody that 
he regards my speech as conclusive & as 
a sufficient justification of his course. 
 
                       MeM Wash,  March 18, 1862 
 
Dear General, 
             I received yours of the 10th yesterday 
& am delighted to find you are still at H.  I went 
up to Fremont’s last night & read most of the letter to 
him & told him & Jepie  all about you.  He says you are 
the very man he wants with him – took your name in his 
note book - & told me to tell you that he would  in a 
few days put himself in communication with you – that 
you need have no fear of being put under a Senior Brigadier. 
He will arrange it, will give you every opportunity for fighting 
& distinction & will counsel with you about the campaign. 
He has always been a warm friend of mine; but since I have 
stood up for him during his dark days & especially replying to 
Frank Blains attack on him impromptu, with his reinstatement 
4 days afterwards, he has overwhelmed me with thanks for more than 
I deserve.  I have told him my deep interest in you & he will do 
everything for you in his power.  I told him I should ask no 
appointments of him – and that he should let you loose & let you 
earn a Major Generalship by fighting.   As soon as his plans are 
arranged with the Sec of Army, he will go to Wheeling. 
         Now, will this suit or do you still want to go to Ky? 
Much as your heart is with the 9th, I think with the above arrangements, 
your best fighting sphere will be with Fremont.  In Ky & Tenn, there 
are so many Generals you might be overstaffed again. 
With regards to Capt. George Hers.  Yours ever  Schuyler Colfax