The result was a powerful movement against the prestige and authority properly belonging to Scott. Pillow's reports on the battles of Contreras and Chapultepec tended to represent the General as a nonentity; and Worth not only did somewhat the same, but referred to the Commander in terms of ridicule and contempt. A letter, doubtless written directly or indirectly by Pillow over the signature of "Leonidas," extolling Pillow shamelessly and belittling Scott, was trickily worked into the New Orleans _Delta_ of September 10, 1847; and another letter, containing a passage intended to show that Worth and Duncan had saved Scott from choosing the wrong approach to the capital, appeared in the United States, then in a Tampico newspaper and finally at Mexico City. Both letters were grossly improper, especially since the army lay in the enemy's country; and Scott found it necessary to act. As he well said, "The general-in-chief who once submits to an outrage from a junior, must lay his account to suffer the like from all the vicious under him," and "even the great mass of the spirited, intelligent, and well affected, among his brothers in arms, would soon reduce such commander to utter imbecility, by holding him in just scorn and contempt" for his recreancy to himself and the country.[29.30] On November 12, therefore, he issued his General Orders 349, which aimed to stigmatize these offences in such a way as to prevent a recurrence of them. Duncan then assumed in a plainly defiant manner the paternity of the Tampico letter, although in fact the offensive passage had not been written by him. His primary object in doing this was evidently to give Worth a handle, and the handle was promptly seized. One thing led to another; and in the end formal charges were brought by the commander-in-chief against Pillow, Worth and Duncan, and by the two generals against him; appeals--insulting to Scott--were made by Pillow and Worth to the government; and the technical "arrest" of the three officers followed.[29.31]