left of the pike, and as soon as could be this movement was arrested and made to correspond with his position.

It was subsequently ascertained that he was disconnected from the rest of Sigel's troops, and the position was again changed to make them connect.

I sent no word to General Schenck of the kind indicated in this report of the movement of the enemy at the time this change of position was made nor at any time. There was a report came later in the evening that the enemy were moving down the pike, but I am not aware that I communicated it to General Schenck, as at that time I had lost all connection with him.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. F. REYNOLDS,

Brigadier-General Volunteers, Commanding.

I make this correction to you without any desire to enter into a controversy in the papers on official matters.

J. F. R.

Numbers 13. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 20, 1862.

Major-General McDOWELL, U. S. A.:

GENERAL: In reply to General Reynolds' letter of the 9th instant I have the honor to make the following remarks:

I can discover but little difference between the statements of General Reynolds and my report. He states, first, "that his division maneuvered on our left from early in the morning until the he had gained the position alluded to, on the pike near Gibbon's battle ground of the evening previous." This I do not attempt to deny. I merely give in my report the time when we first became acquainted with his (General Reynolds') position. He then says that "it was here that General Schenck asked me for a battery," which agrees entirely with my report, with the exception that I did not enter so much into the details.

He then remarks that "in returning from this position to bring up the other battery and Seymour's brigade I passed through Schenck's troops drawn up the right of the woods before alluded to, in which Gibbon had been engaged;" but in bringing up the battery and Seymour's brigade he noticed that Schenck's troops had disappeared from this position and were nowhere in sight.

In the first place, General Reynolds is incorrect in his impression of our position. Our troops were always on the left of the pike throughout the day, except when the brigade under General Stahel was sent to Milroy's assistance.

Our position before Stahel moved was in the woods, which had been occupied as a hospital by Gibbon's brigade, to the left of the pike, General Stahel's right resting on the road and Colonel McLean's brigade on his left; the wood in which Gibbon had had his principal fighting being across the pike and to our right. At the time that General Reynolds returned from placing the battery and Meade's brigade it is probable that he passed through General Stahel's brigade, which was in motion, and had gained the right of the pike on its way to join Milroy, and that afterward when General Reynolds was bringing up Ransom's battery and Seymour's bridge they were gone, which accounts for his impression that he"was left alone." He soon discovered his error,