[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxiii. pt. ii. p. 95.]
The appeal to ambition was treated as if it had been an insult. It
was called an "auctioneering of honor," and a base way to come by a
promotion. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 111.] Halleck retorted conclusively
that Rosecrans himself had warmly advocated giving promotion in the
lower grades only for distinguished services in the field, and said:
"When last summer, at your request, I urged the government to
promote you for success in the field, and, again at your request,
urged that your commission be dated back to your services in West
Virginia, I thought I was doing right in advocating your claim to
honors for services rendered." [Footnote: _Id_., p. 138.] In view of
this unique correspondence it is certainly curious to find Rosecrans
a few days later enumerating his personal grievances to Mr. Lincoln,
and putting among them this, that after the battle of Stone's River
he had asked "as a personal favor" that his commission as
major-general of volunteers should be dated back to December, 1861,
and that it was not granted. [Footnote: _Id_., p. 146.] It was
considerably antedated, so as to make him outrank General Thomas,
much to the disgust of the latter when he learned it; but the date
was not made as early as Rosecrans desired, which would have made
him outrank Grant, Buell, and Burnside as well as Thomas.
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