[CHAP. XXVIII.

telling me that he had reported information to you which I also reported; but of course I cannot say that he did, though I think he told me so and showed me the dispatches.

Question. Do you remember what divisions of the army were embraced in the movement toward North Alabama from Corinth in the first place?

General McCook's division, General Nelson's. General Wood's,and my own; that is, in the first movement toward North Alabama. General Thomas' division, I understood, was to remain at that time; it did not start with us, but came up afterward.

Question. Do you know positively the time of the arrival of General Thomas' division at Athens or Huntsville?

I do not. General Thomas never reached me at any point on the march. I never saw him or any portion of his command until we reached Pelham, where I found General Schoepf in command.

Question. About what was the aggregate effective strength of the four divisions you have mentioned?

My own division was very much the smallest. Of course my knowledge is not accurate about the others. I talked frequently with the commanders, and supposed their divisions were about 6,500, from that to 7,000, strong; my own, as stated, was about 3,000.

Question. Making an aggregate force of how much?

Probably about 22,000.

Question. What did you learn with regard to the character of the country between Bridgeport and Chattanooga on the south side of the river and with regard to its resources of supplies; was there as much as would be required for the subsistence of an army?

For information of that kind we had to rely upon Union men who lived or had lived in that country. It was a barren country, and we supposed was very much exhausted by the troops who had been there; but of that of course we could only conjecture we could not go over there. It is a very hilly, broken country, narrow bottoms, and very barren.

Question. With your knowledge of the dependence of the army in that region of country upon its depots in consequence of the scarcity of supplies in the country, and of the difficulty of getting supplies forward in consequence of the destruction of the railroad and the great distance of the army from its base, and considering also the force that the enemy, from the best information, could concentrate at Chattanooga to make such an operation difficult, if not uncertain, what is your opinion in regard to the practicability of moving directly to Chattanooga when the army arrived in North Alabama?

I do not think, sir, at any time the movement was practicable; I mean from the time of my arrival and the first arrival of the troops up to the time we left.

Question. What time was this?

I arrived at Battle Creek on the 13th of July. At no time after the breaking of the roads was the movement practicable at all, in my opinion. With the roads broken by which they had to receive supplies, and the troops thus living on half rations, they could not have gone to Chattanooga even with a very small force to resist them. I should have considered it unsafe to go it there had been nobody there to resist us.

Question. Do you know at what date, from the best information, General Bragg crossed the Tennessee River in his advance through Middle Tennessee into Kentucky?

About the 22nd of August. Perhaps on the 22nd General McCook with his division and I with my division were in the Sequatchie Valley, having left me some 6 or 8 miles up the valley beyond the town of Jasper, and General McCook being himself about 6 miles farther up the valley, on his way to a road called the Anderson road, I think.