Head Quarters 51st Ill
Nashville, Nov 29th 1862

Hon. Allen C. Fuller
Adjt. Gen. – Springfield

I beg leave to call the attention of the Governor and the Adjt General of Illinois to the working of “Gen. Order 154” War Dpt. as applied to Ill Regts in the field. This order, lately promulgated here by Gen. Rosecrans, allows an officer of any Regt of the regular army to enter our camps and enlist our men simply on their own consent to the number of ten from each Co. To the old Regts, already great reduced by sickness and the accidents of service, this will be something more than decimation. Taken with other details already made, it will be almost annihilation.

For instance, the Regts in Palmer’s Division have each a detail of 8 or 10 men in a body of irregular cavalry, 15 to man siege guns. – 25 in the “pioneer corps” and numberless details for duty of all kinds around Head Quarters and Hospitals, reducing their effective strength nearly 100 men each. If “Gen Order 154” takes out 100 more, you can see where it will leave us.

If Illinois has 150 Regts in the field, this order allows the regular army officers to take from us a maximum of 15,000 men. And although the state may be able to furnish this number, the old Regts cannot afford to furnish their quota. If, by any effort of the executive, this drain can be avoided, it will save Ill officers much vexation and disappointment and Ill Regts a loss they can ill afford.

Respectfully,
L. P. Bradley, Lt. Col.
Comdg 51st Ill