SIXTEENTH DAY.

FEBRUARY 17, 1864.

The Court met pursuant to adjournment.

Present, Major-Generals Hunter and Cadwalader, Brigadier-General Wadsworth, and Colonel Schriver, recorder, and Major-General Crittenden.

The proceeding of the fifteenth day were read and approved.

The Court was closed.

The Court was opened, and adjourned to meet at 10 o'clock on 18th February.

SEVENTEENTH DAY.

FEBRUARY 18, 1864.

The Court met pursuant to adjournment.

Present, Major-Generals Hunter, and Cadwalader, Brigadier-General Wadsworth, and Colonel Schriver, recorder, and Major-General Crittenden.

Brig. General H. P. VAN CLEVE, U. S. Volunteers, being duly sworn, says to questions

By General CRITTENDEN:

Question. Were you in the battle of Chickamauga, and what was your command?

Answer. I was, and commanded the Third Division, Twenty-first Army Corps, commanded by Major General T. L. Crittenden.

Question. Were you, on the morning of the 19th September, 1863, ordered up from Gordon's or Lee's Mills and sent into the fight to support General Palmer?

Answer. I was ordered on that morning by General Crittenden to move forward with two of my brigades to the support of General Palmer.

Question. Did you, or not, become engaged in a severe fight very soon after passing General Crittenden, and do you, or not, think your support was necessary to General Palmer?

Answer. I passed General Crittenden on my road to General Palmer; he was in advance with his staff. His chief of staff, Colonel Starling, told me the exact point at which he wished me to go in, and I became engaged in a severe fight with the enemy, I think in ten minutes after I left him. The support was necessary to General Palmer, as I saved his division, which would have been surrounded by the enemy had I not got there just at the time I did. The ground I passed over was soon after occupied by the enemy, and I was cut off from General Crittenden.

Question. What were your casualties on the 19th? and what in the battle? State also the strength of your command.

Answer. The strength of the two brigades was, I think, 2,000 men; the force I went in with not over that number. I lost in killed and wounded on 19th not less than 300 men, and in the battle 650 killed and wounded and 265 missing. Many of the missing were wounded and taken prisoner. In the numbers 650 and 265 are included the casualties of Barnes' brigade, which fought with General Wood.

Question. When you were ordered into the fight on the 20th, were you not ordered to move toward a smoke which was pointed out, and to attack the enemy?

Answer. I was.

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