Answer. Unsell's was away from my camp.

Question. I mean coming over from that direction.

Answer. Yes, sir; I saw them coming from that direction as well as down the other way.

Question. In great numbers?

Answer. I did not have time to count them. I should think there were quite a lot of them.

Question. Did you make any exertion to return those troops?

Answer. Yes, sir; I got all the men of mine acting as infantry, what few there was, to drive them back, and I drew my pistol on them and called them a set of cowards, and then I requested you, I think, but I am not certain, to send a company to drive them back, and if they did not go back to shoot them down. I think I told you and some other gentleman there, I do not know who he was.

Question. How long did that exertion to replace those troops continue?

Answer. I really could not positively say. I do not recollect. I had a great deal to do; I had seven guns there, and my time there was taken up in paying proper attention to them.

Question. You were well acquainted with that mountain and all its roads and passes?

Answer. Tolerably; for my time there I went over it pretty well.

Question. Taking into account the enemy's forces, what you could learn from troops of aides coming back and the running of our troops, was there, in your opinion, a military necessity for abandoning the heights?

Answer. I do not take what I heard from aides or anything like that. I was on the mountain, on the lookout, on Thursday morning, Thurday noon, and Thursday afternoon. Major Steiner and myself were there, and Major McIlvaine and myself were there, and I was up there again with somebody else, I have forgotten who it was. I was up there three times. I saw the enemy come over from the side of the other mountain, on the other side of Pleasant Valley, I think it was.

Question. Were you there on Saturday morning also?

Answer. I was not on the heights; I was at the battery.

Question. From all that you could see and learn, what was your opinion?

Answer. I think we could have held out there for a spell; we might have held out there a few hours, in my judgment. I did not want to leave it.

Question. You do not think we could have held out much longer?

Answer. It is my impression, from what I knew then and what I have learned since, that it was almost a matter of impossibility to keep it a great while. I did not know what would turn up. We could keep it a spell, and I did not know but what something might turn up to relieve us. That was my only hope in staying there; but if we had staid there, we should not have had any help in that time.

Question. What do you know, if anything, about an effort being made to get re-enforcements?

Answer. I know this: I met Colonel Miles and made a requisition for re-enforcements, and he sent a requisition to General Wool. I saw the document myself. Colonel Miles road it to me, to send a company of my old regiment up to me, so as to put a battery at Solomon's Gap. I think he told me there were plenty of guns here, lying around Washington, 32-pounders and such guns. He wanted four 32-pounders and two 24-pounders. He promised them to me every day. I calculate on having them every day, and expected them every day. He said that he had made a requisition, but he never got any. I made preparations and got everything in readiness so as to arrange them on Solomon's Gap; waited two weeks.

Question. Was it considered on all hands that it was necessary in order to hold that point to have artillery on the lookout and at Solomon's Gap?