WAR DEPARTMENT, _May 15, 1846_.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
SIR: On the 12th of December last a list of promotions and appointments
of officers of the Army was submitted to the Senate for confirmation, in
which list Brevet Second Lieutenant L.B. Wood, of the Eighth Infantry,
was nominated to the grade of second lieutenant in the Fifth Regiment of
Infantry, _vice_ Second Lieutenant Deas, promoted. He was entitled to
this vacancy by _seniority_, but in a letter dated November 30, 1845,
and received at the Adjutant-General's Office December 30, 1845
(eighteen days _after_ the list referred to above had been sent to the
Senate), he says: "I respectfully beg leave to be permitted to decline
promotion in any other regiment, and to fill the first vacancy which may
happen in the Eighth." This request was acceded to, and accordingly, on
the first subsequent list submitted to the Senate, dated January 8,
1846, Brevet Second Lieutenant Charles S. Hamilton, of the Second
Infantry (the next below Lieutenant Wood), was nominated to fill the
vacancy in the _Fifth_ Regiment and Lieutenant Wood to a vacancy which
has occurred meanwhile (December 31) in the _Eighth_.
The foregoing circumstances were explained in a note to the nomination
list of January 8, but it is probable the explanation escaped
observation in the Senate, as on the 5th of February Lieutenant Wood was
confirmed in the Fifth Infantry, agreeably to the first nomination,
while no action appears to have been taken on his nomination or that of
Lieutenant Hamilton on the subsequent list of January 8, 1846.
As no commissions have yet been issued to these officers, and as
Lieutenant Wood has renewed his application to be continued in the
Eighth Infantry, I respectfully suggest that the Senate be requested to
cancel their confirmation, on the 5th of February, of his promotion as a
second lieutenant in the Fifth Regiment of Infantry; and I have the
honor to propose the renomination of the lieutenants whose names are
annexed for regular promotion, to wit:
_Fifth Regiment of Infantry._
Brevet Second Lieutenant Charles S. Hamilton, of the Second Regiment
of Infantry, to be second lieutenant, November 17, 1846, _vice_ Deas,
promoted.
_Eighth Regiment of Infantry._
Brevet Second Lieutenant Lafayette B. Wood to be second lieutenant,
December 31, 1846, _vice_ Maclay, promoted.