few moments, the column regained the road by a movement to the left.

While this was going on, I received notice that my Third Brigade had been halted near Smith's Hill, and was under instructions from General Hooker himself, and also that the Second Brigade had been halted, by order of General Hooker, and was to go to Chattanooga. I received this notice, as the evidence shows with regard to the Third Brigade, through Major Howard, of the corps staff, and with regard to the Second Brigade, through Captain Orlemann, a member of the Second Brigade staff. Until then I had been firmly believing that the Second and Third Brigades were following me, according to orders, and the testimony proves this belief to have been very well founded until the brigades arrived near Smith's Hill.

About the same time, I received through Lieutenant Oliver, of General Hooker's staff, the order to take and occupy the hill now known as Tyndale's, with one brigade. I replied to Lieutenant Oliver that I was ordered, by General Hooker himself, to push through to Geary. I informed him expressly of the notice I had received about my other brigades, and that, if I placed the only brigade I had in hand on that hill, I would have no troops to send to Geary. He observed that General Hooker wanted to have the hill occupied with a brigade, and repeated the order. While this order struck me as contradictory to orders originally received, it struck me, also, that circumstances might have changed. The firing at Geary's camp, as the testimony shows, had died out. For some time the action had been far more lively in my rear than in my front. The enemy had perhaps made a new movement. The order delivered by Lieutenant Oliver was, indeed, not in keeping with General Hooker's original order, but General Hooker, as I was informed by two reliable staff officers, had kept back my two brigades, and that was likewise against the original understanding, and could hardly be without a sufficient cause. The word General Howard had sent me through Captain Stinson could hardly come into consideration. General Howard had been with my column and left it not long before; he would hardly be informed of what was going on in the rear; but, above all, the order brought by General Hooker's aide was positive. General Hooker was highest in command on the field. This was his last order, and according to all military rules, it is the last order, and according to all military rules, it is the last order that counts. I had no choice.

The testimony given by Lieutenant Oliver, when first on the stand, is remarkable in one respect. While he expresses himself, with an air not uncommon among young staff officers, about other matters, how he ordered this and ordered that, he seems to leave it somewhat id doubt whether the order to take an occupy the hill was a suggestion of his own, or an order from General Hooker. If it had been a suggestion of his own, if he really had given an order without due authority from his chief, his conduct would be open to grave charges; for that he delivered it as a positive order is proved by another witness, who heard him deliver it. But to his justification it may be said, that his memory does not appear to be of the most faithful as to details. He saw and heard my whole advance brigade halt and fire, when the other witnesses heard only a few scattered shots. He heard of a line of battle in our front at Tyndale's Hill, a thing which would have been so important that every officer on the ground would have known or heard of it, but none of the other witnesses remember any such thing.