Question. Did the rebel army in retreating from Kentucky have to delay its march and collect supplies along the road?

I think not. I think they had collected from the country a sufficient amount of supplies to subsist upon while they were retreating.

Question. Are you well enough acquainted with the particulars of the retreat of the rebel army from Kentucky and of the pursuit to be able to say whether that army suffered as much in its retreat as it ought to have done?

Of my own knowledge of course I know but very little about the manner in which the rebel army conducted its retreat. My opinion was at the time that the pursuit was not as rapid as I felt it ought to have been, though I am free to say very frequently officers not charged with the responsibility are more willing to take risk than those whole are. I think in the advance on the enemy in Kentucky, both before and after the battle of Perryville, our forces were frequently held in check when they ought no to have been.

Question. I want to know upon what knowledge you have based your disapprobation?

I was in command of a brigade in the advance on the road from Springfield to Perryville, and an attempt was made to check or attempt to check my command with a small force of cavalry and a couple of pieces of artillery, but I advanced upon them rapidly and drove them front their position three times. General Gilbert sent word by an orderly three times day directing me to halt until he could overtake the right of the column. General Schoepf, who was with the head of the column and directing its movements, informed me alto that General Gilbert had sent an orderly to him to halt the command about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of that day. General Gilbert overtook the head of the column the day we marched from Springfield, that is, the sixth, ordered a halt, and expressing a great deal of dissatisfaction with the rapidity of our movements, telling us all were in danger of being cut off. I think if the column on that road in which my brigade lay had been permitted to move as rapidly as its division and brigade commanders desired it to move that the enemy would have been punished more than he was. He would have been driven from all his positions, and I felt at the tie that the army he had on the road and the artillery would have been captured had the pursuit have been made as rapidly as it ought to have been.

Question. That was before the battle?

I am undertaking to show by my testimony that the corps commander placed by General Buell over three divisions of that army would not allow it to move ar rapidly as it desired to move upon the enemy, and was very much afraid it would get cut off it attempted to cut off a small body of cavalry and a couple of pieces of artillery that were impeding it on the road. After the battle the pursuit on one of the roads was something of the same character; that several times during the pursuit our advance was checked and held back by small bodies of cavalry with artillery. This information with regard to matters after the battle I got from officers who were engaged.

Question. On what road was the pursuit you refer to and what officer command the advance?

It was on the road to Crab Orchard, by way of Lancaster. There was quite a skirmish quite close to the town of Lancaster; on both of the town there were skirmishes, in which small bodies of cavalry were engaged with part of the enemy with a couple of pieces of artillery.

Question. Do you know the officer who commanded the advance and who was responsible for this slow pursuit?

I do not recollect which division commander it was. I heard a great deal of discussion about it, and the impression was made upon mind from the amount of discussion I heard and the opinions expressed that the pursuit was a very slow one, and that we allowed the enemy to hold us in check by this system of occupying the roads in their rear with small bodies of cavalry and with a section of artillery.

Question. Has General Mitchell the reputation of being a pretty energetic officer?