Today in History:

179 Series I Volume XXXI-I Serial 54 - Knoxville and Lookout Mountain Part I

Page 179 Chapter XLIII. REOPENING OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.

James Wood, jr., One hundred and thirty-sixth New York Volunteers, commanding Second Brigade, Second Division, Eleventh Army Corps; Colonel P. H. Jones, One hundred and fifty-fourth New York Volunteers, commanding First Brigade, Second Division, Eleventh Army Corps; Captain W. H. Lambert, Thirty-third New Jersey Volunteers, recorder.

It was agreed to present the statement of facts and the opinion (appended and marked D), as the statement of facts which the Court deemed established by the evidence brought before it, and as the opinion of the Court rendered in accordance with the instructions of the order by which the Court was instituted.

The recorder was instructed to present the testimony and proceedings of the Court, with the accompanying papers, to Brigadier-General Whipple, assistant adjutant-general, Department of the Cumberland.

The Court then adjourned sine die.

A. BUSCHBECK,

Colonel Twenty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, Comdg.

Second Div., Eleventh Army Corps, Pres. of the Court.

WILLIAM H. LAMBERT,

Captain, Thirty-third New Jersey Volunteers, Recorder of the Court.

[Appendix A.]


HEADQUARTERS ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CORPS,
Lookout Valley, Tennessee, January 12, 1864.

Brigadier General WILLIAM D. WHIPPLE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Cumberland.

GENERAL: I have the honor to forward herewith an application of Colonel F. Hecker for examination, or a court of inquiry, as it is called by Major General Carl Schurz.*

The cause of complaint is based on exceptions to a part of my official report of the battle of Wauhatchie.

It is not known for what reason Colonel Hecker makes this application; or why he should connect his brigade with it.

The order I gave the division commander, was for him to double-quick his division to the relief of Geary, and afterward one brigade of it was ordered to assault the hill on the left. The latter was duly executed; the first order was not. Whether or not Major-General Schurz communicated this order to his brigade commanders, I am not advised. Probably a court of inquiry would be able to determine. It rests between the division commander and the commanders of the Second and Third Brigades, and in no way can other parties be concerned in the issue, unless it be supposed that the troops disobeyed orders, which I have not alleged, and do not believe.

With the application of Colonel Hecker, I also forward a communication from Major-General Schurz, on the same subject, in which he seems to lose sight of the fact that it was to him the order was communicated by me, to double-quick his division to the relief of Geary, and to place the issues between the commander of the Third Brigade, with the brigade itself, and myself. I remember very well the interview I had with Colonel Hecker, and of his informing me

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*The inclosures following do not appear in the record of the Court, but were found with the original of General Hooker's letter in the files of the Department of the Cumberland.

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Page 179 Chapter XLIII. REOPENING OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.