Today in History:

207 Series I Volume XII-I Serial 15 - Second Manassas Part I

Page 207 Chapter XXIV. GENERAL REPORTS.

Question by the COURT. Do you mean to be understood that on the morning of the 29th General McDowell was no longer responsible for the movements and command of General Sigel's corps and Reynolds' division; and, if so, produce the orders, if you can, investing him with such command before the 29th, and state any orders which may have been given relieving him.

(The witness produced a certified copy of General Orders, Numbers -, dated Headquarters Army of Virginia, Warrenton Junction, August 27, 1862; which is appended to the proceedings of this day and marked A.)

Answer. I did not consider General McDowell as having any command over the corps of General Sigel, or as being responsible for the movements of that corps any time during the 29th August. I sent orders to General McDowell on the morning of 29th August, directed to him at Manassas Junction, instructing him to call in Ricketts' division and join it with King's, and in conjunction with Major-General Porter march upon Gainesville by the road from Manassas Junction. On the morning of the 29th August, until the close of the campaign of Virginia, General Sigel's corps, as every other corps of that army, was under my immediate command and received my direct orders. In relation to the division of General Reynolds, I had supposed, until otherwise informed, that it had also fallen back with King's division to Manassas Junction. I sent no orders to General McDowell or to General Sigel changing the relations they had with each other when they marched from Warrenton, for the simple reason that no such orders were needed, the connection between them being dissolved of necessity, either by the separation of the corps or by my own personal presence with them. It is not necessary to state to the court that I had no authority to merge into one two army corps established by the orders of the President; that any temporary connection between them, wherein one corps commander should command, both corps, would only last so long as they served at a distance from the general-in-chief of the army to which they belonged.

On the 29th August I received various reports from General Sigel before I reached the field of battle; saw him many times during the day of 29th, and gave him several orders personally and by aides-de-camp. I did not understand, nor did I presume General Sigel to understand, that he was responsible to anybody except myself for any movement of his troops or for any orders he might receive during that day.

Question by the COURT. What did you suppose the force of the enemy immediately under Jackson to have been on the 28th August, 1862?

Answer. The information upon which we deduced an opinion upon that subject was in the nature of things uncertain and to some extent unreliable. I myself supposed Jackson to have, including his own, Ewell's, and Hill's division, at the least 25,000 men, or between that and 30,000 though officers having the same sources of information estimated his forces as high as 35,000 men.

Question by the COURT. Produce the orders to which reference was made in your direct examination of yesterday.

The witness produced an order from Major General John Pope to Major-General Sigel, dated Headquarters Army of Virginia, one mile below Warrenton, August 24, 1862-1 p.m., and order from Major-General Pope to Major-General McDowell, dated Headquarters Army of Virginia, Warrenton Junction, August 26, 1862; which are appended to the proceedings of this day and marked respectively B and C.

The foregoing orders were read by the recorder.

Question by General McDOWELL. Please state if, under the last order of the afternoon of the 28th, which reported the enemy on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and which required General McDowell to march his troops to Centreville, he would not be justified in sending his troops by way of Bethlehem Church and New Market, provided that order found one of his divisions nearer that road than any other and that it should be the most direct to Centreville from where the order found it?

Answer. Certainly. The order directed General McDowell to move by the most direct road from where he was to Centreville. Where his troops were I cannot exactly say.


Page 207 Chapter XXIV. GENERAL REPORTS.