of General Spears, and found I was nearer Chattanooga than Rossville, and that General Rosecrans was still at the former place.

And I submit to the Court, that without any order from him at all, if there was to be a to-morrow to that day, it was my duty to see General Chattanooga, where I had no doubt the army must fall back.

That this, too, was the superior duty for me, if the troops I left behind were in competent hands. By the route I took no body of soldiers was found until I met those of General Spears within 2 miles of Chattanooga, marching to Rossville. I did not, after immediately reporting to General Rosecrans, return to Rossville, on which my troops had been directed to march, because the general ordered me to remain with him until he should receive further information, when he would determine his course and give me orders.

When I left the field it would have been easy to follow impulse, and, notwithstanding the reports I had received, endeavor to reach the left. It was the stronger with me, as one of my own divisions was there, but the path of duty under my conception of my orders, or in the absence of any orders, was the same, and I left compelled to follow it.

Respectfully submitted.

A. McD. McCOOK,

Major-General of Volunteer.

No. 233.

Record of the Crittenden Court of Inquiry.

RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF A COURT OF INQUIRY INSTITUTED BY THE FOLLOWING ORDER:

SPECIAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT., GENERAL'S OFFICE,

No. 13.
Washington, January 9, 1864.

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20. By direction of the President of the United States, a Court of Inquiry is hereby appointed to meet at Nashville, Tenn., on the 15th instant, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to investigate the conduct of Major Gens. A. McD. McCook, T. L. Crittenden, and James S. Negley, U. S. Volunteers, at the battle of Chickamauga, and in leaving the field, and also to give their opinion upon the facts which may be deemed necessary to procure the testimony of witnesses, without taking them away from their appropriate duties, and will sit without regard to hours.

Detail for the Court:Major General David Hunter, U. S. Volunteers; Major General George Cadwalader, U. S. Volunteers; Brig. General J. S. Wadsworth, U. S. Volunteers; Colonel Edmund Schriver, inspector-general, recorder.

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By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.