Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward
Sir: Your despatch No. 526, which gives the answer to the renewed request from the French government that it may be allowed to send French officers to our country for the purpose of observing the military arrangements and preparations on both sides of the civil war, was by me brought to the notice of Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys.
I assured him of our entire willingness to receive such officers in the armies of the United States, and to afford them every possible facility for the examination of our works, improvements, and everything connected with the progress of military art, as developed in our country; but that we could not, for reasons stated in your despatch, extend that concession so far as to permit [Page 83] commissioners to pass our lines to make observations among the insurgents. That we had, under analogous circumstances, been under the necessity of refusing a like privilege to the British government, upon its application. The grounds upon which you put your refusal seemed, in the eyes of Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys, to relieve it from anything like want of courtesy, and he said that they would at once abandon all idea of sending officers to visit the southern army; but they would send officers to visit the northern army, when, they doubted not, they would be courteously received, as had already been the case with a number of French officers. He informed me, however, that their purpose had not been to send the same men to make observations inside both lines, or to pass from the lines of one army to those of the other, but their purpose had been to send separate officers, one to the armies of the north, and the others to the armies of the south; that in the armies of the north they had expected to witness improvements in the matter of gunnery, and in other matters connected with the science of war, while in the south they expected little more than to witness some new method of facilitating the movement of troops, and the forming and moving of encampments, and such general matters.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward &c., &c., &c.