Record Data
Source citation
Reprinted in Association and Graduates of the United States Military Academy, Forty-Third Annual Reunion of the Association and Graduates of the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, June 11, 1912 (Saginaw, MI: Sherman and Peters, 1912), 61.
Type
Newspaper
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
John Osborne, Dickinson College
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
Dear Bayard:
I cannot stand it any longer and feel it my duty to resign. My state is out of the Union and when she calls for my services I feel that I must go. I regret it very much and realize that the whole thing is suicidal. As long as I could believe it a war on the Union and the Flag I was willing to stay. But it is a war between sections, the North and the South, and I must go with my people. I hope my friends in the army will act conscientiously, and I beg of you not to let my action alter the relationship between us. Tell Mac and all my friends I love them more than ever.
I hand in my resignation about the first of May, and I want to hear from you before that time. I feel too badly to give you rumors, but it is said Baltimore will be the field of battle. Authorities say they will bring troops through Baltimore if it takes all of the North to do it. I hope to God there are some conservatives yet in the North.
I find the southern officers are all going.
God bless you. Bayard.
L. L. Lomax.
Washington, April 21st, 1861
