articles should have been construed into an act of injustice to General Beauregard; such, certainly, was not my intention.
My sketch was not written in any spirit of controversy, but at the instance of friends, simply to supply an absent link in the military history of General Lee, which circumstances enabled me to furnish.
Very respectfully, &c.,
Operations of Confederate States Navy in Defence of New Orleans.
The publication of the paper of Captain C. W. Read in our May number has elicited a good deal of adverse criticism. We have received, besides the letter from Commander Mitchell, which we give below, two other papers from distinguished naval officers denying and several commenting on various statements in Captain Read's narrative. The Committee have examined these letters very carefully, and are unanimous in the opinion, that while it is very unfortunate that certain personalities in Captain Read's communication were (by inadvertence) allowed to creep into our Papers, it would not be proper for us to allow our Monthly to become the medium of bitter personal controversy, and we must, therefore, decline to publish these communications in their present form. We would, of course, file them for future reference.
The letter of Commander Mitchell, and the finding of the court, we take pleasure in publishing.
Captain Read's narrative and these several communications relate to events of which no member of our Committee had any personal knowledge; and we do not by any means endorse the entire accuracy of everything which we publish. We always give a responsible name attached to every paper; but we cannot, of course, undertake to decide controverted points, or even to take sides in our official capacity. We hope that we may be able to close this discussion (in our columns at least) by the following
LETTER FROM COMMANDER MITCHELL.
309 West Grace Street,
To The Executive Committee of the
Southern Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia:
Gentlemen—My attention has been recently called to an article in the May number of the "Southern Historical Papers" entitled "Reminiscences of the Confederate States Navy, by Captain C. W. Read," and particularly to that portion of the article (page 346) relating to the surrender of Forts Jackson and Saint Phillip,
