“’HEADQUARTERS NORTHWESTERN ARMY,

“’CHICAGO, July 15, 1832.

“’SIR:  To prevent or to correct the exaggerations of rumor in respect to the existence of cholera at this place, I address myself to your Excellency.  Four steamers were engaged at Buffalo to transport United States troops and supplies to Chicago.

“’In the headmost of these boats, the Sheldon Thompson, I, with my staff and four companies, a part of Colonel Eustis’s command, arrived here on the 8th.  All on board were in high health and spirits, but the next morning six cases of undoubted cholera presented themselves.  The disease rapidly spread itself for the next three days.  About one hundred and twenty persons have been affected.

“’Under a late act of Congress six companies of rangers are to be raised and marched to this place.  General Dodge, of Michigan, is appointed major of the battalion, and I have seen the names of the captains, but I do not know where to address them.  I am afraid that the report from this place in respect to cholera may seriously retard the raising of this force.

“’I wish, therefore, that your Excellency would give publicity to the measures I have adopted to prevent the spread of the disease, and of my determination not to allow any junction or communication between uninfected and infected troops.

“’The war is not at an end, and may not be brought to a close for some time.  The rangers may reach the theatre of operations in time to give the final blow.  As they approach this place I shall take care of their health and general wants.

  “’I write in great haste, and may not have time to cause my letter
  to be copied.  It will be put in some post office to be forthwith
  forwarded.  I have the honor to be

    “’Your Excellency’s most obedient servant,

“’WINFIELD SCOTT.

    “‘His Excellency, GOVERNOR REYNOLDS.’”

From the Richmond Enquirer, October 12, 1832.

“In laying the following article before our readers, our own personal feelings, as well as a just sense of gratitude to a meritorious officer, prompts us to add that we have known Winfield Scott long and have known him intimately, and that the conduct here attributed to him is precisely such as we should have expected, from his ardent patriotism, his humane disposition, and his distinguished intelligence.”

From the Illinois Galenian, September 12, 1832.

“GENERAL SCOTT.—­Perhaps on no former occasion has a more arduous and responsible duty been confided to any officer of our Government than that with which this gentleman has been clothed, in prosecuting to final issue the savage war upon our borders.  And we hesitate not to say that in our estimation a better selection could not have been made.

“It might suffice, in justification of this assertion, to instance the promptitude of his movements to the scene of action, the ease with which he overcame space, and the facility with which he surmounted all obstacles opposed to the accomplishment of his object.