Answer. If there is no guard there, if there happens to be an omission in that respect, they will straggle in and want to buy anything to eat, or tobacco, or anything of that kind. If they cannot buy anything, they go on perfectly peaceable. If there is a guard there, they are not allowed to go in. Question. Will they not go in and plunder, and take everything they can lay their hands on? Is not that done in many instances?

Answer. Not where there are any people living there. If the people are all gone away, then they will take everything they can lay their hands on. They will take kitchen furniture, books, anything they can take with them, if there is nobody there. But there is rarely any disposition to plunder when there are people in the houses, and their questions are answered decently, or where they receive any kind of fair treatment. The men will all, without any exception, steal poultry, or anything they can eat, whenever they can get a chance to do so.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. What effect does this stationing of our troops through that country to guard this property have on the army?

Answer. It creates dissatisfaction, without a single exception, that I ever saw. I never saw a man standing guard or protecting the property in that way but was dissatisfied, and thought it was not exactly the fair thing.

Question. Can you tell why it is that we can hardly get any information outside of the army in regard to these things?

Answer. It is an understood thing there that no officer has a right to make a complaint except in the regular military form, through a courtmartial. He has no right to write about anything of the kind. There is so much tyranny on the part of superior officers that those who are disposed to make complaints will not do it in a way that can be made public.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Has not every officer and private a right to reduce his griev ances to writing and submit them to the proper military authority?

Answer. Yes, sir; but as a general thing a private soldier might as well preach to the wind as expect to get redress for anything.

Question. He has his appeal to his captain, and his captain to his colonel, &c.?

Answer. Yes, sir; but that is too long and roundabout a way to get at anything.

Question. Is not that according to military rule?

Answer. Yes, sir; that is according to army regulations.

Question. Would it be safe to have an army of one hundred thousand men without governing them by military rules and regulations?

Answer. No sir; I do not think it would.

Question. Would it be safe to have such an army criticising its movements and operations?

Answer. That is the reason given for no criticisms going out. It is understood that all must take for granted that whatever is is right.

Question. Do not the army regulations commend themselves to your sense of propriety?

Answer. They do in nine cases out of ten, because persons knowing but a part of any movement, persons knowing but little, are not competent to pass a judgment as to the result of the whole thing. And it is not politic always to make a confidant of every officer.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. Were the rebels permitted to build a pontoon bridge or something of that kind where our guns could reach them?

Answer. Not that I know of. They erected earthworks in plain sight, and had an encampment within three-quarters of a mile of where we were trying to put up a pontoon bridge; and the orders were not to molest them, for fear of bringing on an engagement.

Question. Where was that?

Answer. That was at Gaines's Mills and at Mechanicsville, where they subsequently made a crossing. Deserters said that some of their guns opposite Mechanicsville were nine feet long, and had just been made at the Tredegar Iron-Works in Richmond. They mounted them there deliberately, and that is where they made their crossing. The excuse of the artillery officers for not firing was that they had orders from General McClellan not to fire, for fear it would bring on a general engagement. That is where they made their crossing on Thursday morning. They crossed first at Meadow Bridge, which has never been destroyed. They have held that bridge ever since we have been up there. Afterwards they crossed at Mechanicsville, at a ford there, where they had no trouble in crossing. After the battle of Fair Oaks, General Pettigrew, of the rebel army, who was taken prisoner there, was brought up, I should judge, ten or twelve miles. He was captured within a half a mile of the railroad. He was put in an ambulance and brought around to Dr. Gaines's house. There was a large guard stationed there. I should think there were two companies thereone to relieve the other to guard the mansion of old Dr. Gaines, who had been a surgeon in the rebel army, and had left his tent with his name on it, and everything, at Yorktown. This General Pettigrew was taken to the mansion of Dr. Gaines, where he remained a considerable time, feasting upon strawberries and cream, and everything that a man could desire. I do not know how long he remained there.

Question. Was this Dr. Gaines's property protected all the time by our troops?

Answer. Yes, sir; there was a strong guard there, and none of our men were allowed to go inside the enclosure.

Question. What number of troops were taken to guard that property? Answer. I should think that there were two companies. They brought some rebels there who had been wounded at Hanover Court-House, and then the guard was increased, perhaps to prevent the rebels from escaping, as much as to guard the property.

Question. What kind of accommodation did our wounded have?

Answer. They did not have any there, except out of doors or in the outhouses. This Dr. Gaines had several hundred barrels of corn there in a brick building. Some of our artillery, after the fight at Fair Oaks, were there on a hill for forty-eight hours, and had to send back to their camp for corn for their horses. There were some white boys there, said to be his sons. They would come out and talk about the rebel batteries as "our batteries," &c. He himself was always very insolent and very defiant. Question. Do you know of instances where our wounded have been put in stables and pig-pens, when the rebels had good, comfortable quarters ? Answer. In front of Gaines's house there were five or six buildings. The first one was a kind of pig-pen. The next was a house with brick walls, but had no floor in it. That was used as a hospital by the 22d Massachusetts. They had four men die there in one week. All around it was a filthy barn-yard, and the heat made it very oppressive. The surgeon complained to me that he wanted something there as a disinfectant, but that he could not get it. The very next building to that was a large, airy building, and had a nice wooden floor in it. That was used for the rebel privates. Question. By whose authority was that done?

Answer. General Andrew Porter always directed those things. The

orders were supposed to come from General McClellan through him. All the cows of this Gaines were driven into his yard there, and his grounds were protected by our men ; yet he charged from 50 cents to a dollar a pint for milk when our men could get it of him; sometimes he would not let them have it at all. The rebel soldiers were always supplied with it first. Question. Does all this kindness bestowed upon the rebels make friends of them, or do us any good at all?

Answer. I could not see that it did. I have often asked the rebels if they were not sorry they had gone into this rebellion? A great many of the privates would sometimes regret that they had gone into it; particularly those that were wounded pretty severely; they seemed to think that it did not pay, but the officers seldom or never expressed any regret. No kindness shown to them appears to have any effect upon them. There was one of General Johnston's staff, a Lieutenant Worthington, who was taken prisoner at Fair Oaks. He was at General McClellan's headquarters on parole; he stopped with some of General McClellan's staff, and was there for a week. He was more of a lion than a prisoner among them. He was always very defiant, expressing himself very certain about the rebels succeeding and our being whipped, and having in the end to recognize their independence

In fact I do not know that I ever saw where this lenient treatment of prisoners, or of the rebels along the route of our army gave satisfaction to men in the ranks. There were some officers and some men who indorsed that course, for there are a great many in our army who have as much respect and regard for rebels as they have for Union men. We found but few Union men on the peninsula; there were a few about Williamsburg, and they were loud and bitter in their denunciations of the treatment we bestowed upon the rebels.

Question. Were the Union men there dissatisfied with the kindness that we showed to the rebels?

Answer. Yes, sir. There was a Union man at Williamsburg, a lawyer, of the name of Boudon, an intimate friend of John Minor Botts. The rebels stripped him of everything he possessed, because he would not indorse their course. He is very bitter against the protection we give the rebels and the leniency with which we treat them. He told me of a number of instances where the rebels had arrested men all through the country there and taken them off, and they were then lying in prison in Richmond, because they were Union men. He said there were very few men, no matter how much respect they might have had for the United States government, in whom it had not all died out. The rebels know that they can arrest Union men with perfect impunity and hang them, or do whatever else they please with them; and when we come along we never think of arresting rebels, but allow them to say what they please from day to day, and protect their property all the time. General Porter, however, always says that he carries out General McClellan's orders.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Suppose that guards were not placed around these houses, what would be the result as our army marched through?

Answer. The men would take all the poultry, pigs, and everything to eat that they could get hold of.

Question. Is it not a military necessity, is it not a matter of humanity, when our army is marching through, to have this property put under the control of the provost guard?

Answer. To a certain extent it is. But where there is plenty and to spare, Rep. Com. 108—19

and our men are suffering, they do not see why they should not have a share of it. Where a house is deserted, nobody in it, our men will take everything they can carry, whether they have any immediate use for it or not; carry it as far as they can and then throw it away. But where there are persons in a house, they only take what they can eat.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Would it not destroy the discipline of an army to allow the soldiers to enter houses in that way?

Answer. I suppose it would to a great extent. But when the men are in camp, or going through a country, and come to a plantation where there are a hundred sheep and two or three hundred hogs, and nobody left there but an old man or an old woman, the sheep and hogs would be driven up and a provost guard placed around them to take care of them. The proper way would be for the quartermaster to take what there was there more than was necessary for the support of those there.

Question. Do you know that they have not been taken by the quartermaster?

Answer. We have passed on and left them, and I have seen them again as I passed to the rear from the front. There are instances where they have been taken, but those instances are rare.

Question. Where forage, or anything else that could be used for the subsistence of the enemy, has been found in quantities more than sufficient for the support of the families, or the persons there who must be subsisted from it, has that been taken?

Answer. It has not, except in a few instances. It has not been taken as a general thing, so far as I have seen.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. Would not the taking of that property by our troops weaken the rebels, at least so far as we prevented them from getting it?

Answer. Certainly it would. When we first went up, of the first troops that reached the Chickahominy there were several men shot, the rebels lying in ambush near Gaines's Mills, and some of the horses were shot among the artillery and cavalry; we had more men than horses. One of them went over and found some horses in Dr. Gaines's stable. The quartermaster tried to buy them, or spoke about it, and he would not sell them for less than $400 or $500 each. Those horses were kept there and guarded for him, and as soon as the rebels got there of course they took them and used them in their own army. There were some letters taken from a mail carrier about the time of Stewart's raid there, and they were published. Those letters contained information of where our pickets were located at Old Church and White House. One of the letters referred to some of the things they had which they were afraid the Yankees would take before their friends would come and get them. Of course discipline is always much more rigid in the advance than in the rear of the army. The teamsters and followers of the army in the rear, when they get outside of the main body of the army, generally do pretty much as they please. But I have never seen any instance, or heard of any, where there being no guard about a house, the soldiers have taken any improper liberties where the people were at home, even where they were avowed secessionists. I mean taking furniture out of the house, or things that were needed by the people there, except things to eat. They will take chickens, pigs, sheep, calves, and things of that kind, whenever they can get hold of them, almost run the risk of being shot to get fresh meat of any kind.

Question. In regard to getting information that was reliable in regard to

the enemy in front where you were, had you ever much difficulty in getting information in regard to their movements?

Answer. I have had at times a good bit of difficulty. General McClellan has issued several general orders cutting us off from all facilities for getting information that he possibly could. For instance, he would issue an order one day that no correspondent of a newspaper shall be allowed to talk to contrabands, or deserters, or prisoners, coming into camp; then he would issue an order that correspondents should be kept in rear of his headquarters all the time.

Question. How far would his headquarters be back from the front of our lines?

Answer. From three to five or six miles; sometimes more than that.
Question. Out of reach of shot and shell?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Were you not violating those orders when you went to the front? Answer. Yes, sir; but unless we came across some surly officer they would not bother themselves about it. I got taken up once out there at Gaines's Mills for being out beyond General McClellan's headquarters, though I was not a mile from him, and there were 4,000 troops lying between there and the Chickahominy river when I was arrested.

Question. Could not General McClellan have got reliable information, at any time, in regard to the enemy if he had taken the statements of contrabands and deserters?

Answer. That is a matter that would be very hard to determine. He trusts everything, so far as getting information is concerned, to a man he has there of the name of Pinkerton Allen who always questions the contrabands and deserters; and, generally, so far as I have conversed with him, throws discredit upon their statements and attaches no importance to them. Now, the day that we got up to the Chickahominy, a contraband came into camp who said he had been employed by one of General Johnston's staff. He said that the rebels would allow us to come up to the Chickahominy and cross it with a part of our force, they retreating and falling back to allow us to do so. There they would throw their whole army around our right wing, get between us and the White House, and destroy our whole army. I was so impressed with the sincerity of his manner, and the apparent plausibility of his story, that I gave credence to it, and everything since goes to prove that he was correct. I sent on the statement at the time, and it was published.

Question. Would not the information furnished by contrabands and deserters have saved us from this late terrible slaughter if we had availed ourselves of it?

Answer. That would be a hard matter to determine.

Question. Have they not warned us of what the enemy were going to do? Answer. We have always got warning and information of almost every movement they have made; at least I have; and I suppose, of course, that General McClellan has had facilities equal to mine if he chose to improve them.

Question. This information appears to have been discredited before it reached General McClellan by this man Allen.

Answer. Yes, sir; there were men who came over to our camp, according to the accounts, a day or two before this attack was made. I think Professor Lowe could give you a vast amount of valuable information as to what he saw of their movements, of their moving large bodies from their right to their left wing, and massing them previous to this attack.