Question. Yes, sir; of course it is. It is a question somebody must solve, if we take the course you would seem to indicate.

Answer. I do not know how to answer it except as I have already done. I have no information more than the public at large have. All the information I get comes from the newspapers.

Question. Your troops are in a good state of efficiency, I suppose?
Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Suppose you should go into winter quarters, contemplating no particular movement, would your troops be stronger on weaker in the springwould they lose or gain in efficiency?

Answer. I should be very sorry to see them go into winter quarters. I think their health would be better generally in active service than otherwise. We should have to carry the means of transportation with us. We could not take

men, accustomed to live as our volunteers have, and expose them to a winter campaign without means to make them comfortable, such as tents and blankets. These are men who, a few months ago, were living at home with all the comforts of citizen life-and camp life is very different from that.

Question. Of course it would be more difficult now to advance against the enemy than it would have been early in the fall, I suppose; attended with more peril and difficulty?

Answer. I think so, on account of the uncertainty of the weather and the shortness of the days and the exposure of the troops. The changes here are very sudden and very great, and affect the troops very much.

Question. Have you more cavalry than you want to use in such a country as you are in now?

Answer. No, sir.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. You have none in your brigade, I suppose?
Answer. No, sir; we have a regiment in our division.

By the chairman :

Question. I want to know whether cavalry could be used in great numbers there; it is of very great cost and expense, and if we can dispense with any of it, without detriment to the service, we should like to do so?

Answer. In regard to our own division, one regiment of cavalry is little enough for that. We have not had cavalry enough during the summer and autumn. The infantry cannot penetrate far into the country to reconnoitre. We must depend upon our cavalry for that. And in the rough-and-tumble life those horses are very soon used up, for the men who are enlisted a great many of them know nothing about horses or riding. I do not know but what there may be more than one regiment of cavalry attached to our division. They do not come under my observation. The cavalry are at one end of the division and I am at the other. I am a mile and a half in front of our other two brigades, and the cavalry is on the extreme left, and I see nothing of them except such as are sent up to serve with my brigade.

Question. What do you do with contrabands?

Answer. Send them in to Washington. We sent in two yesterday.

Question. You do not send them back?

Answer. No, sir. That was the only chance I have had, I believe. Two came in yesterday morning, and I sent them in. We have positive orders to send them in.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1861.

General HENRY W. SLOCUM sworn and examined.

By the chairman :

Question. What is your position in the army, and where are you located? Answer. I am a brigadier general of volunteers, in General Franklin's division.

Question. What is the condition of the men in your brigade, with regard to health?

Answer. The health of my brigade is very good now.

Question. How is it with regard to its discipline?

Answer. It is in a good condition.

Question. What can you say of your officers; are they competent and efficient?

Answer. The officers are very generally competent and efficient, with some exceptions.

Question. Do you believe if you should remain in winter quarters until spring that your troops would then be in a higher state of efficiency than they are now?

Answer. One regiment of my brigade is a new one, that would improve, I think; the other three regiments are as well prepared to take the field now as they would be in the spring, except the advantage they would gain by being in the habit of associating together, and marching side by side, which I think is worth something to men. But, so far as evolutions are concerned, and the obeying orders, three regiments of my brigade are as ready for the field to-day as they will be three months from now.

Question. Is it the opinion of military men generally that a long detention in camp has a depressing and demoralizing effect upon troops?

Answer. I think the opinion of officers generally is that a man improves as a soldier the longer he is kept in the service; that although a man at the end of six months will know as much about the manual and the evolutions of the line, and all its movements, as he would know at the end of ten years, yet, at the end of the ten years he is a better soldier. A man gains confidence in his fellows by being marched side by side with them all the time.

Question. I suppose you hardly expect to make veterans in camp?
Answer. No, sir.

Question. In order to perfect them, you want them frequently under fire and engaged in enterprises?

Answer. Yes, sir; they need to be kept in motion; to be drilling, or in active service.

Question. What is the condition of the roads in your section of the country, as regards moving artillery, provision trains, &c.?

Answer. I cannot say, except so far as our pickets extend; I go out and visit them very often. Some of the roads in that section are very bad; there are others that are quite good now; the Little River turnpike is a very decent road; if they have such roads as that in Virginia, they are very passable; I do not know whether that is a sample of their roads or not.

Question. Could you move field artillery on them to advantage now? Answer. We could, so far out as I have been on that road. It is as good a road as we went on last summer.

Question. Is it your opinion, all circumstances considered-and I need not mention them now, for your mind has taken them in a great many more times than mine has-that we ought to make an aggressive movement upon

the enemy during this season, or should we wait until spring? opinion as a military man; that is all.

I ask your

Answer. Well, sir, I have not the requisite information; that is the trouble, and I have no more means of getting information than any other man out of the army has. I have not half the means that the reporters for the press have. I do not know how many men there are in front of us, and I do not know how many we could move here, and I have never met an officer who has had this information.

Question. I do not mean you to indicate the manner of moving, for I was going to put that in another question. I was going to inquire if you be lieved a movement could be made to advantage, if you had formed any plan in your own mind of how it should be made?

Answer. In order to answer the question, whether we ought to move or not, and give an answer that would be doing justice to myself, I ought to have a great deal more information than I have got, and which I suppose somebody is in possession of. I suppose that General McClellan must have all the information that a man should have in order to pronounce an opinion upon that matter.

Question. Have you any information in regard to the forces of the enemy, in what is called their army of the Potomac ?

Answer. I have not any.

Question. None at all?

Answer. None, except such as I have picked up from men who have come in our lines, these contrabands, &c. Some of them came into my camp the first, but I have never regarded them as very reliable.

Question. What do you do with them when they come in?

:

Answer. I have always let them stay in my camp as long as they chose. If a man had any information that amounted to anything I sent him forward to General McClellan. Those that had no information stayed in my camp. Question. You have formed no plan of the campaign in your own mind? Answer. No, sir; I have not. I have thought a great deal about it, of

course.

Question. We do not know a great deal about it. But I had supposed that your general officers would talk this matter over very much, and compare notes, and come to some conclusion in your own mind; subordinate I know to the commanding officer ?

Answer. I do not visit a great deal. I am up to the city here very seldom; I talk with my own staff. Now, to say whether this army should leave here or not to say whether we should go to Richmond by going down the river and going up by way of Norfolk; to say anything of that kind a man must know how many troops must be left here. It all comes back to the same thing. You must know what is in front of you, and possess information that none but the commander has.

Question. How can he have that knowledge better than yourself?

Answer I suppose General McClellan has more means of information; I suppose he has spies employed.

Question. Do you believe that you can obtain information that you can rely upon and act upon without approaching the enemy's lines a little nearer, and putting them a little closer than you have yet?

Answer. I think it is possible to get very accurate information about them through spies.

Question. But you have formed no opinion in your own mind as to how many they have?

Answer. I have an opinion about it, but it is not based upon anything to make my opinion worth anything at all; it is not based upon any informa tion that is valuable or reliable.

Question. Are you well supplied, or over supplied with cavalry in your division?

Answer. We have a sufficient supply of it; we have one regiment to our division.

Question. That is all you have?

Answer. Yes, sir.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Yours is the Lincoln cavalry?
Answer. Yes, sir.

By the chairman :

Question. You think that is enough?

Answer. Yes, sir; more than enough for this country. I do not think it is a very valuable acquisition. I do not think it is worth near as much as artillery to us in this country. It is not very often that it cau be made useful; artillery always can be.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. What number of officers have you on your staff? that is a matter regulated by law, of course.

Answer. I have a brigade surgeon, a brigade commissary and quartermaster, an assistant adjutant general, and two aides.

By the chairman:

Question. How is it about paymasters; have you observed how much a paymaster can properly perform? How many regiments to a paymaster should be allowed? How many regiments could a paymaster properly attend to, without delaying the men?

Answer. I could not answer that question. I do not know what the office duties of a paymaster amount to; as far as making up the pay accounts and paying the men are concerned, a paymaster ought to pay off a division, unless his office duties amount to a great deal.

By Mr. Chandler:

Question. He can pay a regiment in a day or two, I suppose?

Answer. He can pay a regiment in less than a day; I suppose, however there is considerable in the way of office duty-fixing up vouchers, &c.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Those officers of your staff are all essential to every brigadier? Answer. Yes, sir; I do not think one of them could be dispensed with.

By Mr. Chandler :

Question. Although a commissary, quartermaster, surgeon, and assistant adjutant general, are upon your staff properly, do they perform any active staff duties in action? You do not rely upon them to bear your orders in action?

Answer. No, sir; not all. I would not allow a commissary or quartermaster to go upon the field

Question. So that, in reality, your field duty would be performed by your assistant adjutant general and your two aides?

Answer. Yes, sir?

Question. And your assistant adjutant general is more your clerk, to do your writing?

Answer. He goes on the field and carries orders.

By Mr. Odell :

Question. You have a commissary attached to your staff?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Is there such an officer for a division?

Answer. No, sir.

Question. Is there a division quartermaster?

Answer. There is none authorized by the regulations, but there has been one appointed lately. But I think it is a kind of fifth wheel to a coach. Question. Your brigade quartermaster goes direct to the department? Answer. He goes direct to the depot at Alexandria or Washington. I think the division quartermaster has assisted in getting forage; I do not know but what that gave rise to such an appointment. I think General Franklin appointed the young man he has with a view to his having the general supervision over that matter, not allowing each brigade quartermaster to go out upon his own hook.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 30, 1861.

General WILLIAM F. SMITH sworn and examined.

By the chairman :

Question. We are deputed by Congress to ascertain, if we can, from the right officers of the army whether there is any way in which Congress can aid you in your proceedings. For that reason we have called upon several officers. In the first place I will ask you what is your position in the army? Answer. I am a captain of topographical engineers and a brigadier general of volunteers.

Question. Commanding a division?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. What is the strength of your division?

Answer. It is, present and absent, between 13,000 and 14,000 men, I think. That is my recollection of the morning report. I have not been with my division for a little over five weeks, and I do not know what the numbers may have changed since then.

Question. Whereabouts is your division located?

Answer. It is located on the left of General McCall's division, near Lewinsville, and to the left of the Georgetown and Alexandria turnpike, between General McCall's and General Porter's divisions.

Question. I was going to ask you though you have not been there lately what is the condition of your division for health and discipline; you probably know about that?

Answer. So far as discipline was concerned, it was, I believe, in a fair condition. I always thought so.

Question. How as to the health of the soldiers?

Answer. At the time I left, the division was by far the most sickly one in the army. I had some 2,000 on the sick report at the time I left. Most of the sick were from the Vermont regiments. Three-fourths or nine-tenths of them had probably never been out of their State before. And the medical gentlemen of the division, and those of the army who inspected the division, informed me that they were going through a kind of acclimation, and that at that season of the year it was always the most severe with them, which accounts for so much sickness.

Question. Was there any apparent local cause near where you were stationed?

Answer. No, sir. But during the summer, from the last of July, when I joined the army of the Potomac, up to the last of September, when we