execution of that movement, by both of us, continued under his own direction, as senior officer, until he himself modified the joint order, in the exercise of the direction which in allowed, by separating his own corps from mine, and pursuing with it a direction not indicated in the joint order.

I refer, in the next place, on this point, to the testimony of Colonel Locke, my chief of staff, who testifies that he delivered to me, between 1 and 2 o'clock p.m., about half an hour after my last interview with General McDowell, on the 29th, a message received by him from General McDowell, directing me to remain where I then was, and informing me that General McDowell would take General King's division along with his own corps. It is true that the giving of such a message to Colonel Locke, to be delivered to me, is not, as General McDowell states, recollected by him; nor is the hearing of it recollected by General King, in whose presence Colonel Locke testifies that it was given. But that it was delivered to me by Colonel Locke, as a message from General McDowell, is affirmed and reaffirmed by that officer in the most solemn manner, as a fact within his positive knowledge and perfect recollection. He corroborated the distinctness of his recollection of its delivery to me, by detailing to the court the unusual tone and manner in which he delivered it to me, and the circumstances and t he reflections of his own at the time, which fix indelibly in his memory the message itself, and induced the peculiar manner of its delivery to me, as being,in this judgment, at the time, a fact of a grave and momentous character; indication nothing less than the taking away from me of my reserve - which he considered King's division to be - at the moment when, as he then supposed, the enemy, posted in order of battle, in great and accumulating force in our immediate front, was about to commence its attack upon my corps. The delivery of this message to me at the time by Colonel Locke, who is entirely uncontradicted as to its delivery by him then and there, the court will unquestionably concur with me in considering as one of the facts most surely proved in the whole case.

Now, I submit to the court that the delivery to me at this time by Colonel Locke, my chief of staff, of this order as a message from General McDowell, puts an end to all question as to my disobedience of the joint order. Up to the time this order or message from General McDowell was received, I had been acting jointly with him, but subordinately to him as my senior officer, in the execution of the joint order. His last act, while he was engaged in the very process of separating his corps from mine, that is, as he testifies, in the very process of modifying the joint order - his last act while so engaged was an order, as reported to me by my chief of staff, directing me to remain where I was. That order so reported to me was either in pursuance of the join order or else it was in modification of the joint order by my senior officer, who, under the discretionary terms of the joint order, possessed, and stated that he possessed, the right so to modify it. It is not denied anywhere that this order, reported to me from General McDowell, directing me to continue to hold my then position, was fully obeyed by me. I did continue to hold my them position until I was ordered away from it, some hours afterward, by General Pope himself, in the order set forth in specification fourth of the first charge, and bearing date 8.50 p.m. of the 29th.

Thus, so far as the joint order was concerned (alleged disobedience of which is the whole of the second specification of first charge), I did to the last obey either the order itself or a legal and authoritative modification of it.