It will be perceived that in this list there are twenty-one officers
(besides the medical staff and officers of volunteers) who are highly
commended by General Worth for gallant conduct. That they were justly
entitled to the praise bestowed on them is not doubted; but if I had
recommended all of them to be brevetted, together with all those in the
reports of other generals also in like manner highly commended, the
number of officers in my list submitted for your consideration would
have been probably trebled. Indeed, the whole Army behaved most
gallantly on that occasion. It was deemed proper to discriminate and
select from among the well deserving those who had peculiar claims to
distinction. In making this selection I exercised my best judgment,
regarding the official reports as the authentic source of information.
Six or seven only of the officers named in the foregoing extract from
General Worth's report were placed on the list. A close examination of
the reports will, I think, disclose the ground for the discrimination,
and I hope justify the distinction which I felt it my duty to make.
Without disparagement to Captain Holmes, whose conduct was highly
creditable, it appears to me that a rule of selection which would have
brought him upon the list for promotion by brevet would also have placed
on the same list nearly everyone named with him in General Worth's
report, and many of the reports of other generals not presented in my
report to you of the 19th ultimo. There is not time before the
adjournment of the Senate to make the thorough examination which a due
regard to the relative claims of the gallant officers engaged in the
actions of Monterey would require if the list of brevet promotions is to
be enlarged to this extent. Such enlargement would not accord with my
own views on the subject of bestowing brevet rewards.

There are on file other papers relative to Captain Holmes. They were not
written with reference to his brevet promotion, but for an appointment