PBA Galleries

3 pp. With original mailing envelope. To Captain W.[illiam] W.[oods] Averell, [War Department], 307 I Street, Washington, D.C. 

 “Have just arrived. Mrs. P. is better, has been seriously ill. I left on my table…a newspaper slip of my report and ‘other documents’…I will return as soon as I feel it safe to leave Mrs. P. or sooner if pub. service requires. Please Telegraph me at once if anything of importance turns up or I am needed with the command. Keep the s pol. ser. with us. Much reputation is to be gained by carrying it on or aiding it successfully. The ‘pass’ bureau can easily I think be arranged, so as not to interfere or give us the trouble it has for the past few days. The Military organization is now [honed?] and will be an excellent nucleus for a still stronger one of ‘regulars’. I hope to be back in a day or two. Troops are beginning again to crowd the “City of Brotherly love” en route to Washington…Telegraph from time to time from War Dept how you are getting on as I am anxious. Of course in general terms. In haste….”  Porter, a career Army officer (and cousin of Mary Lincoln’s) had commanded a Brigade at Bull Run, where his aide was Averell, a wounded veteran of the Indian wars who had undertaken a risky solo mission through Confederate territory to New Mexico. General McClellan, commanding the new Army of the Potomac, hand-picked Porter to be the first Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia, with crucial military security duties in a capital city honeycombed with Confederate sympathizers. With Averell again as deputy, Porter conscientiously organized such mundane functions as issuing military passes, as well as the sensitive task of housing a new Army espionage and counter-intelligence network created by  Chicago detective Allen Pinkerton. Porter’s discreet and cryptic reference to the “s pol.ser.” was probably his shorthand for Pinkerton’s “secret police service” which was already zealously hunting down rebel spies in Washington. While overseeing this odious business of catching American citizens who were spying for the rebels, both men yearned for battlefield service. Just after receiving this letter, Averell was given command of a Cavalry Brigade, with eventual promotion to Brigadier General, while Porter proved so adept at his unconventional duties that he became Provost Marshal General of the entire Army of the Potomac.