Question. Did you count the number of men in any regiment?

I did not.

Question. Did you by actual observation make an estimate of the strength of any regiment?

No, sir; I did not. I saw a body of troops in camp bivouacked, and as we passed them estimated, as I naturally would, what the number there might be. I suppose there would be, as I stated before, a division. I passed directly through and took no particular account of them.

Question. Either of the number of men or regiments?

Neither.

Question. Did you think it a large division or a small one?

Rather a small one.

Question. What number of men do you suppose there were in that body of troops?

I should estimate them at from 6,000 to 8,000.

Question. Why do you suppose it to be such a body of troops as we call a division?

From the number of men and the extent of ground they occupied.

Question. Might it not have been more or less?

I think it might have been less, but I don't think it could have been more.

Question. State definitely, if you please, colonel, the conversation you had with those rebel officers which gave you this opinion in regard to their strength.

I do not know that I can do so. The opinion I was asked to give was formed from conversation I had at different times; but without impressing any particular conversation upon my mind I can only give the conclusions I arrived at. The particular conversation held with any particular officer I could not state. But I rode with that lieutenant to whom I have referred five days. He was the only commissioned officer of the body guard, but he was a very pleasant gentleman and appeared to be sociable, and we talked a great deal in relation to the war; but it would be impossible to give definitely the conversation with him or any other officer. My opinion was based upon conversation generally and my own observation.

Question. In any of these conversations was it stated definitely or approximately that the army of General Bragg was about 30,000 strong?

I do not know that I could state positively at what figure any particular officer placed that army. I recollect a conversation in reference to the battle of Shiloh, in which this question was brought up, that we had overestimated the strength of their army in our battle; that we had overestimated their men at Shiloh, at which they said they had but 28,000 men, and that a great many overestimated the number of men in General Bragg's army, but what the exact number they stated I could not say. I arrived at that opinion as the general result of the conversations I had with the different officers, and perhaps without basing it upon any fixed number that any officer might have stated.

Question. I understand you to say that the officer from whom you derived your opinion in regard to the strength of Bragg's army represented the strength of the rebel army at Shiloh at 28,000?

One officer with whom I conversed such a statement.

Question. In making this estimate, then, you had no method of computation as to the number of regiments and divisions and the strength of regiments in arriving at your conclusion?

Not at all. I knew nothing of the exact number of regiments or division, but it was a general conclusion I arrived at from different sources of information.

9 R R-VOL XVI