Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress

Mr. Seward to the Marquis de Montholon

Department of State, Washington, February 26, 1866.

Sir: Referring to your communication of the 30th of September last, in regard to the alleged improper pillage of the wreck of the French merchant ship Le Verrier by United States troops stationed near Bagdad, on the Rio Grande, I have the honor now to enclose for your information a copy of a letter of the 1st instant, and its accompaniments, from the War Department, from which it appears that the schooner in question was protected by United States soldiers, and that the vessel must have been plundered by parties of insurgents who at that time were encamped in the vicinity of the wreck.

Accept, sir, a renewed assurance of my high consideration.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

The Marquis de Montholon, &c., &c. &c.