The Confederate States Congress established a special committee to investigate the military losses, and Benjamin testified before it. The Secretary of State, Virginia's Robert M. T. Hunter, had quarreled with Davis and resigned, and in March 1862, Benjamin was appointed as his replacement. Varina Davis noted that some in Congress had sought Benjamin's ouster "because of reverses which no one could have averted, the President promoted him to the State Department with a personal and aggrieved sense of injustice done to the man who had now become his friend and right hand." Richmond diarist Sallie Ann Brock Putnam wrote, "Mr. Benjamin was not forgiven... this act on the part of the President [in promoting Benjamin, in defiance of public opinion, was considered as unwise, arbitrary, and a reckless risking of his reputation and popularity... was ever afterwards unpopular in the Confederacy, and particularly in Virginia." Despite the promotion, the committee reported that any blame for the defeat at Roanoke Island should attach to Wise's superior, Major General Benjamin Huger, "and the late secretary of war, J.P. Benjamin."