Mr. Campbell to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to advise you that I left my home in Ohio on the 7th instant for New York, in company with Lieutenant General Sherman, and arrived there late in the night of the 8th. The next morning I received through the post office your printed instructions of the 25th ultimo; also a duplicate copy of the same by the hands of Mr. Plumb, the secretary of legation. In the afternoon of the same day I received your telegram informing me that the United States steamer Susquehanna had been ordered to take Lieutenant General Sherman and myself, with our suites and the secretary of legation, to Mexico.
It is proper to add that shortly before the receipt of your telegram Commodore Alden called on me and communicated the same information.
We embarked on the Susquehanna on the 10th, and arrived here on the 18th, Not having touched at any point since we left New York, we have been subjected to no delay, except for an hour or two off Cape Hatteras on the 13th instant, where, during a gale, Commodore Alden, finding the steamship King Fisher from Baltimore, bound for Charleston, in a sinking condition and abandoned, saved the lives of twenty-three persons of her crew who were in imminent peril, under circumstances of great difficulty—a humane achievement most gratifying to us, and highly creditable to the commodore and officers of this ship.
Should I succeed in obtaining information of any interest here in regard to Mexican affairs, I will make it the subject of another communication before leaving this port.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State Washington, D. C.