To RH Milroy From Schuyler Colfax Aug 8 1864

              South Bend, Ind, Aug 8, 1864 
 
      Private 
 
 
My dear Sir, 
 
 
   I have just received your letter of 
Jul 31st, in reply to mine of May 16th, which had 
only just reached me.  You complain of it as unkind 
and cutting, hurting your feelings, scolding, etc.  I can 
assure you it was not so intended. 
 
 
 
   After working in season and out of season, in your behalf, 
impertuning the authorities in every way I could imagine, 
I received a letter from you at Rensselaer in which you 
said inaction at home was killing you, that you must be 
afsigned to duty somewheres.  Pressed severely for time, I went 
at it again, urging and begging, and finally succeeded in obtaining 
you an assignment, which I supposed you would prefer 
to remaining at home and that too after all your other 
 friends had given up in despair, just as Lieutenant  
McClellan’s did long ago.  I wrote to you, gratified that I 
had been able to serve you; and though your first letter in 
reply exhibited some putrification, your second was 
a bitter complaint about the character of your duty, and its usefulness, and closed