my right the remainder of my brigade, which had been sent to the front after I left, and General Milroy was giving it some orders. I at once rode up to him and told him that those battalions belonged to my brigade of regulars, and that I could not consent to any interference with my command. He said that he "did not know they were my men; did not wish to interfere with me, and only wanted to place them in the best position." I told him I was responsible for the position of my command, and did not want any assistance either in posting or fighting it, when he left me. His own brigade was not near there, and he seemed to be rushing about the field without any especial aim or object, unless it was to assist in the performance of other officers' duties wherever he could find one to listen to him. I did not lose one inch of ground after I got my brigade together, which I did immediately, by moving this latter portion to the left, but held the enemy at bay for an hour; and instead of being "forced back," I maintained my position until ordered to fall back to the position from whence we started. Had the enemy "forced" me back in the sense of General Milroy's report, he would have obtained possession not only of the turnpike, but of the stone bridge, and what would have the been the result you are well aware-our defeat would have been disastrous.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBT. C. BUCHANAN,

Lieutenant Colonel Fourth Infty., Commanding First Brigadier Regular Infantry.

Numbers 12. HEADQUARTERS FIRST ARMY CORPS,

October 9, 1862.

Major-General McDOWELL,

Washington, D. C.,:

GENERAL: I observe in the report by General Schenck's acting assistant adjutant-general, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer of to-day, of the operations of that general's division when General Sigel advanced to attack the enemy on the morning of the 29th of August last (you will yourself observe the error in the dates), several misstatements, unintentional no doubt, when referring to the movements of my division. My division maneuvered on his left from early in the morning until he gained the position alluded to, on the pike near Gibbon's battle ground of the evening previous.

It was here that General Schenck asked me for a battery. Cooper's battery, with Meade's brigade as a support, was immediately placed in position on the ridge to the right of the pike, and on the left of the woods where Gibbon's brigade had been in action, by General Meade and myself. In returning from this position to bring up the other battery and Seymour's brigade I passed through Schenck's troops, drawn up on the right of the woods before alluded to, in which Gibbon had been engaged. But in bringing up Ransom's battery and Seymour's brigade along the pike I noticed that Schenck's troops had disappeared from this position and were nowhere in sight. I understood that Schenck had detached a brigade to the right, to the support of Milroy, and that I was therefore left alone, as far as, I knew. I immediately arrested Seymour's movement, and directed the division to occupy the position across the pike from which it had moved; in doing which McLean's brigade was discovered occupying a piece of woods just on the