Review by Judge-Advocate-General Joseph Holt, U. S. Army, of the proceeding of a court of inquiry, convened by Brigadier General Benjamin F. Kelley, commanding the Department of West Virginia, at the request of Colonel Benjamin L. Simpson, Ninth Maryland Infantry, to investigate the circumstances attending the surprise and capture of Charlestown, W. Va., October 18, 1863.

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OPINION OF THE COURT.

The undersigned have obtained all the evidence in this case which has been attainable. They have carefully considered and compared it, and in obedience to the order convening them respectfully express their opinion to be:

That the surprise and capture of the greater part of the forces under the command of Colonel Benjamin L. Simpson, Ninth Maryland Infantry, at Charlestown, Va., on the morning of the 18th day of October ultimo, were inevitable, because of the peculiar location of the place, which, surrounded by an open country for several miles on all sides, and approachable by a large number of roads from all directions, was easy to be flanked and surrounded, and because of the superior force by which it was attacked and of the inferior force for its defense. The rebel attacking force was 2,000 men, with six pieces of artillery. The defending force, under the command of Colonel Simpson, consisted of 375 infantry and 75 or 80 cavalry. Although the pickets of Colonel Simpson were posted not so far our as a first view might seem to have been desirable, yet when the smallness of his force and the circuit of his picket lines, extending as they were established 3 miles, are taken into account, it is not perceived how he can be justly held blamable for not extending them farther. The proof shows that General Lockwood when in command directed one of the posts to be drawn in from what he considered its too great exposure. That they were driven in simultaneously and rapidly was due to the location of Charlestown, and the fact that the enemy had availed of it to post his forces around it on all sides during the darkness of the night of the 17th, and so to be ready for attack on each picket post at the same moment, which it may well be inferred had been previously fixed on. Colonel Simpson's infantry force consisted of part of the Ninth Maryland Volunteers, which had been in the service but two months and had not been under fire before. The exposure to an artillery fire as described in the testimony, whilst the enemy approached their position by cross and by streets, keeping concealed from view and refusing fair combat, was well calculated to demoralize new troops. Still a very painful feature of the affair was the disorganized condition of the men from the time they left the yard of the court-house to the time of their capture. In such a case the undersigned are of opinion that the field and line officers should have enforced the orders given to form column and line respectively, and should have maintained military order and decorum and consequent efficiency, by such use of their side-arms upon their own men as might have been necessary to accomplish these results. In such case the worst enemies to the whole theory and spirit of the Army Regulations are those men who refuse from any cause compliance with the first paragraph of the first article of those regulations, and such enemies should be met and subdued by all the means at command of their officers. The undersigned are not aware