[CHAP. XLIII.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION, ELEVENTH CORPS,
January 10, 1864.

Major-General HOOKER,

Commanding Eleventh and Twelfth Corps:

GENERAL: To-day I saw for the first time your official report on the engagement of Wauhatchie. It contains very strong reflections upon one of my brigades, which is stated to have been "dispatched to the relief of Geary, and never reached him until long after the fight had ended."

The wording of the paragraph referred to leaves it somewhat uncertain who was responsible for this delay, although it is stated that "the order was directed in person to its division commander."

Yet the expressions used are such as to throw the responsibility rather upon the brigade commander and the troops. Against this I would most respectfully remonstrate. The brigade commander in question, Colonel Hecker, is a man of more than ordinary spirit, activity, promptness, and gallantry, and his troops are as good as any in the service.

Believing that he and his command did on that occasion all they were ordered to do, and did it with conscientiousness and alacrity, I beg leave to assume the responsibility for their conduct, if any mistakes, or any violation of orders were committed.

Some of the statements contained in your report concerning this matter, permit me to say, seem to rest upon a grave misapprehension. In recounting a few facts, I mean to furnish a supplement to my official report.

When we heard the firing in the direction of Geary's camp, your ordered me to take the troops nearest at hand, which was Tyndale's brigade, and to move forward as rapidly as possible.

The men were soon under arms, and after having sent one of my aides to my other brigade commanders, whose camps were farther back, with the order to moved at once down to the road, I placed myself at the head of General Tyndale's brigade in order to direct its march. General Howard joined me there, and we remained together for a time, hurrying on the advance of the column under the fire of the enemy, until we arrived at a marshy place, covered with thick brush-wood (which your report states not to exist), where General Howard, after having ascertained the extreme difficulty of penetrating, left me in order to go to Geary by a detour. Tyndale's brigade had to march by the left flank up to the road, and then proceeded to accomplish the object for which, in the language of your report, it had been "detached." It attacked the enemy "in the hills on the left," and after a short engagement gained possession of the hill. I had been constantly at the head of the column until this brigade was properly placed in position.

Your report about this part of the transaction runs thus:

Directions were immediately given for one of the brigades en route (Tyndale's) to be detached and assault the enemy in the hills on the left, and the other brigade to push on as ordered.

By this it is acknowledged that the task assigned to Tyndale was the one he accomplished, but where was the other brigade which was to "push on as ordered?"

To clear up this point, I must introduce the statements of those concerned.