[CHAP. XLIII.

HEADQUARTERS ELEVENTH CORPS,
February 3, 1864-9 a.m.

COURT OF INQUIRY.

Court met pursuant to adjournment.

Present: Colonel A. Buschbeck, Twenty-seventh Pennsylvania, commanding Second Division, Eleventh Army Corps; Colonel James Wood, jr., One hundred and thirty-sixth New York, commanding Second Brigade, Second Division, Eleventh Army Corps; Colonel P. H. Jones, One hundred and fifty-fourth New York, commanding First Brigade, Second Division, Eleventh Army Corps; Captain W. H. Lambert, Thirty-third New Jersey Volunteers, recorder.

At the request of the recorder the court was cleared, those present retiring.

The doors being opened, the Court announced that it had decided, at the request of the recorder, to allow him counsel, whom he might introduce into court; that the questions to witnesses be all put into writing, and that one of the accused should finish his questions before the other commenced.

Proceedings of previous sessions read.

First Lieutenant RUDOLPH MUELLER, acting aide-de-camp on Colonel Hecker's staff, a witness for the accused, was duly sworn.

By General SCHURZ:

Question. Did you accompany Colonel Hecker during the night of the engagement of Wauhatchie?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Do you remember what way Colonel Hecker marched after moving camp, and what happened on his march?

Answer. When we heard the first shots fired we were aroused and had the men fall in; then Colonel Hecker sent me down to the road to headquarters for orders. I could not find it, where it was, and I rode back to the camping place and found the brigade gone, and went ahead after it and found it on the road. After marching on the road the column in front of us, the Second Brigade, halted. Colonel Hecker sent Captain Greenhut to ascertain the cause of the halt. Captain Greenhut returned and said the Second Brigade was ordered to halt there. Colonel Hecker said, "We have no orders to halt, and we will push ahead." We did so, leaving the Second Brigade on our left. WE progressed farther, when Major Howard met our column and ordered us to march down to the cross-road and halt there. We did so, and having lost sight of the Second Brigade, Colonel Hecker sent me to find it. I found it on the road that forks off toward the hill. Going down I found the brigade in line of battle behind a fence in a corn-field, and fronted toward the hill taken by the Second Division (Smith's Hill). There we remained, and had a fence torn down by order of Colonel Hecker. We remained there until General Schurz came and ordered us to proceed on the road toward Wauhatchie. Then we advanced as far as the hill known as the Tyndale Hill, where we were ordered to halt again and form line. Then the Seventy-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent toward the railroad and toward the gap as skirmishers. Then we received orders to march to the relief of General Geary, which we did, after we were first re-enforced by a regiment from one of the other brigades. I think it was the One hundred and forty-first New York. Colonel Hecker pressed forward. We were detained there because a patrol had been sent out to see whether the enemy was ahead. The patrol was sent out toward Geary's position. We waited for the patrol to come back. Shortly after we marched on. I do not know whether the patrol had come back or not. The Sixty-eighth New York advanced as skirmishers and flankers. We then marched on until we came to Geary's position. We reached Geary's position in about twenty minutes, it may be twenty-five. We arrived at the opening of Geary's position about dawn. We did not know whether it was the enemy's position or not until we saw a soldier who told us it was the Twelfth Corps. We re-