Today in History:

307 Series I Volume XVI-I Serial 22 - Morgan's First Kentucky Raid, Perryville Campaign Part I

Page 307 Chapter XXVIII. GENERAL REPORTS.

Question. Was a copy of that report furnished to General Rosecrans?

That I cannot answer. I furnished them to General Boyle, and I know only of the disposition made of three of them. There were perhaps six or seven made out, but what disposition he made of the others I cannot tell.

Question. Can you get that information; and, if so, be enabled to inform the Commission with what view that report was furnished to General Rosecrans?

I presume General Boyle can give the information, and also the object he had in view in forwarding them to the different parties.

Recross-examination by the JUDGE-ADVOCATE:

Question. Captain, in a march of two months after an army short of provisions and distressed by fatiguing marches was it not likely that our army would pick up as stragglers or sick or take as prisoners representatives of nearly every regiment in the army?

In reply to that I would state that, from information received both from Confederate officers and privates and from citizens of the country through which General Bragg's army passed, such a thing as a straggler was not known. That is the concurrent testimony as far as I have received it from those three sources; that men were mercilessly shot that did not keep within the ranks, and sometimes, as their surgeons have reported to me, it was cruelly and mercilessly done when they were not able to keep up with the column. This was with respect to Bragg's army. In regard to General Smith's, I can only say I know nothing in regard to it beyond the statement of all the citizens of the country through which they passed that the discipline of the army was exceedingly exact, and that the men were kept in all that pertained to discipline very rigidly together. These things were made matters of complaint among officers and soldiers, and particularly among the surgeons of Bragg's army.

Question. Did you gather from that that General Bragg had no sick or wounded; of if he had that he shot them?

My answer had no reference to sick, but to stragglers on the march. Of the sick, I know not what disposition was made of them, whether they were transported or left in hospitals. As to the army itself, there was no straggling. As regards what would be picked up in the march of the two armies, of those who were sick and unable to keep up, I could not form a definite opinion unless I had some definite information as to the lines of march of the two armies; whether one followed immediately after or preceded or passed parallel at some distance from the other. The army following in the same line of march would of course pick up all the stragglers, if there were any and all the sick that were left behind; if they marched parallel and at some distance apart, few, if any, would fall into the possession of the other army. The first prisoners that we received came afterward to this place that were captured below or south of New Haven; and in regard to those that were left in the hospitals or picked up in the march through Central Kentucky, I suppose there would be a large number; but whether they would represent all the regiments I could not perhaps form so good an idea as the court itself.

By General SCHOEPF:

Question. Captain, what was you position during the invasion of General Bragg?

At the time of Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky, which preceded somewhat that of Bragg, I was in the vicinity of Lexington upon sick furlough. Immediately upon hearing of the approaching invasion I reported to General Wallace, and was by him ordered upon the staff of Major General C.[M.] Clay. I went with him to Richmond. When General Nelson relieved General Wallace and came to Richmond he relieved me of duty upon the staff of General Clay and ordered me to report to himself. I was upon his staff until the time of his death; after the battle of Richmond, and after his being wounded, acting under General Gilbert up to the time of General Nelson's return from Cincinnati, where he went after being wounded, when I reported to him and was upon his staff to the time of his death.


Page 307 Chapter XXVIII. GENERAL REPORTS.