Today in History:

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

Page 615 Chapter XXVIII. GENERAL REPORTS.

Question. Up to how recent a period has this system of cultivation continued?

In the spring of 1861 they commenced planting corn. They were encouraged almost entirely to suspend the planting of cotton and substitute corn, because in the spring of 1861 shipments from Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Saint Louis and other points to Nashville were either suspended or under such restrictions that it was impossible to get any amount of supplies through, and at the urgent solicitation of the press throughout the rebel States the system of corn planting was generally adopted. Large quantities of corn and meat were therefore raised and put into the market in Tennessee in the fall of 1861. Such home products were that year immensely in excess of any previous year. The grain so raised and the meats so packed in the fall of 1861 in taking these supplies out of Tennessee. The Confederate authorities, in their eagerness to make use of the resources created in this year 1861 in Tennessee, packed the meats throughout Tennessee on their own account, either purchasing or taking by force the live stock from the supplies raised in Middle Tennessee in 1861 the main supplies for the rebel forces were drawn.

Cross-examination by the JUDGE-ADVOCATE:

Question. Colonel, what was the force leaving Corinth for North Alabama which you were called up to subsist?

I think it was about 30,000.

Question. What was this force about the 14th of July, the middle of August, and the 7th of September?

About 45,000. They were about the same in the middle of August and the 7th of September.

Question. What was force that you were called upon to subsist after the Army of the Ohio left Louisville to attack Bragg at Bardstown.

About 58,000.

Question. Have you any better means of making up the force of the Army than that of the consolidated, reports submitted to the Commission by the assistant adjutant-general?

I have not had any experience in making up the number of troops in our army or as to the mode employed in doing so. I generally ascertained or gathered my idea of the number of troops I had to feed for headquarters.

Question. If the morning consolidated reports for the 20th of July exhibits 55,269 men present for duty and your recollection is that you fed 45,000 how do you account for the difference?

General BUELL. I object to the question, Mr. President. The force which the judge-advocate states is represented in the morning report is one thing and the force which the witness has stated that he subsisted is a different thing altogether. The witness has stated that he subsisted is a different thing altogether. The witness will answer the question intelligibly I have no doubt, but it is a question that can have but one effect, and that is to mislead him.

The court was then cleared; when, after discussion, it was decided that the objection should not be sustained.

The WITNESS. The troops I mentioned as amounting to about 45,000 were those between Nashville and Huntsville. There were other forces under General Buell's command at other places, and whom I was not feeding and did not include in my estimate in Middle Tennessee. This may account for the difference in the morning report. There were troops at Cumberland Gap. Of course I did not include those; they were fed by way of Lexington, Ky.

Question. Were there any other forces besides those at Cumberland Gap which were not included?


Page 615 Chapter XXVIII. GENERAL REPORTS.