I should think, sir, for a long time. I do not think a soldier would become wholly ineffective for the want of provisions so long as he was supplied with half rations.

Question. At the time the rebel army was marching up the Sequatchie Valley were these supplied such as you have stated above procurable beyond Altamont or in that vicinity, supposing General Buell had taken up the defensive position alluded to?

I have already described that region of country as a very poor one. I do not think that region of country would have afforded the supplies we drew from the more fertile and cultivated plains of Middle Tennessee.

Question. Was there between Altamont and the Sequatchie Valley any position where an army could post itself and at the same time be supplied with water?

I do not know, sir; I never was farther in the direction than Altamont; but I can answer generally, from my own observation and the information I received from others, that whole district was at that time very badly watered.

Question. How many years have you devoted to the study of the military profession and what campaigns and tour of active service have you been engaged in?

It is now more than twenty-one years since I first went to West Point, and my studies and reading since that time have been chiefly directed to the military profession. I joined the Army of Occupation, as it was called, commanded by General Taylor, at Corpus Christi, in the month of September, 1845. I continued to serve with that army, and participated in all its chief operations, movements, and battles, up to the time that General Taylor relinquished the command of it, in the month of November, 1847. I was then ordered to Texas, and remained on duty in that department till the summer of 1854.

During the time I was in Texas I performed a good deal of staff duty and was engaged in various Indian campaigns and enterprises. In the spring of 1855 I was appointed a captain of cavalry in one of the regiments and from early in the autumn of 1855, after my regiment was organized and when it took the field, I was almost constantly on duty with it, engaged in various expeditions on the Western plains, till the month of September, 1859. I then left my regiment and took advantage of a leave of absence to travel in Europe. I returned from Europe in April, 1861, and was ordered to Indiana to muster volunteers into service; remained there till October, when I was appointed brigadier-general, and ordered to join the troops in Kentucky. I have since that time been almost continuously on duty with what was lately termed the Army of the Ohio, and is now called the Fourteenth Army Corps and sometimes the Army of the Cumberland.

When I first took the field in Kentucky I commanded a brigade for a short time. After performing some other duties, such as commanding a camp of instruction and organization at Bardstown and performing some other work in the way of road-making in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, the division which I now command was organized in the month of February, 1862, and I have remained in command of it ever since. This division has participated in all the material operations, movements, and campaigns of the late Army of the Ohio.

Question. Supposing yourself in the position of General Buell while commanding the Army of the Ohio at the time he received information of the crossing of the Tennessee River by the rebel forces and being possessed of such information as he was then probably possessed of, what would probably have been your plans and dispositions in order to have performed your duties so as in the best possible manner to have subserved the interests of your Government and to have inflicted the most damage on the enemy, while at the same time guarding to the best of your ability the interests of the States of Tennessee and Kentucky; that is, supposing those States loyal?

Had I been in command of the Army of the Ohio at the time I received satisfactory information that the rebel forces were crossing the Tennessee River at and in the vicinity of Chattanooga, being satisfied from my knowledge of the mountainous