Annotation
[1] ALS, DLC-Cameron Papers. Although the circumstances of mobilization were so complex, not to say chaotic, that any succinct statement of the conflict between the War Department and other branches of the government is open to criticism, the basic difficulty seems to have been that the Army wished to keep, logically enough, some semblance of an orderly promotion of regular officers and integration of troops, while Montgomery Blair, as well as the governors of the loyal states and numerous individual politicians were demanding wholesale acceptance of volunteer regiments and elected officers. Cameron repeatedly refused to accept volunteer regiments, and there was much opposition to the appointment of ``political'' generals. Also, in the border states, the conflict between the War Department's view of military rule and the political insistence upon subordination of the military to loyal local political exigencies brought about near chaos in such trouble spots as St. Louis. For further comment on Blair's opposition to the War Department policy see Lincoln to Cameron, May 16, infra, and note.