The troops in this department are stationed at different camps or posts in small garrisons, and speed over a very large extent of country. To concentrate a sufficient number to make a successful resistance, after the Texans had taken the field, was not practicable. Besides, we had no large depot of provisions to move upon, and the means of transportation at the posts were so limited that the troops could have taken with them a supply for only a few days. An attempt to bring them together under these circumstances would have, no doubt, resulted in their being cut up in detail before they could get cut of the country. Under these circumstances, I felt it my duty to comply with the agreement entered into by General Twigs [sic], and remove the troops from the, country as early as possible.
Was Col. Waite a traitor to his country like some allege General Twiggs to have been, or simply a realist?
There were lots of realists in that war. All those guys skulking under the bank at Shiloh were realists. I expect I might have joined them but I wouldn't have expected to be honored for it.