Question. Would the army which is in advance of the other on parallel roads-a day's march in advance of the other-always have it at its option to make a flank attack on the one which is in the rear?

I think not, sir, the distance separating not allowing such an attack.

Question. With two armies, with the conditions supposed, operating over a large extent of country and within a day's march of each other, may it not be very frequently necessary for both armies to expose their flanks to each other and use extra precautions to protect those flanks?

Undoubtedly. In such cases accidents will occur which will lose a march to one army and so gain one for another. This in such a case would expose the flank of the one and render extraordinary precautions necessary.

Question. On the day of the battle of Perryville whose fault was it that you did not know that McCook's corps was being beaten by the enemy?

I do not know, sir, that I ever ascribed it to the fault of any one. I have not a sufficient knowledge of the conduct of that battle, of its inception and progress, to know who should be blamed. I have sometimes found that I was blamed myself because I could not hear the guns and did not know that a fight was going on. It was an extraordinary affair. I had 20,000 men there, and no officer or man every knew, or, if they did know, ever reported to General Thomas or myself, that a battle was going on. I should be altogether unwilling and I should consider myself unjust, with my knowledge of the facts, to undertake to lay the blame to any one.

Question. Is it your opinion that there was a criminal blame to be attached to somebody among the number of men who did know that the fight was going on because you were not called on for support with that large number of troops under your command?

I cannot say that there was blame to be attached to any one even on that account. I do not know at what hour the battle began. I do not know for what space of time it was fought. I do not know that I could have rendered more assistance than was actually rendered. I had one, perhaps two, brigades that participated in that fight late in the evening, but I believe, without any knowledge of the extent of the fight on the extreme left, they had but little to do with the fight. I remember that General Wood thought it necessary to make some report in reference to the conduct of a portion of his command which was on the extreme left of my line. I must say, however, that somebody was to blame, if there was time to notify General Thomas or myself of the very serious nature of the fight which was going on, that it was not done.

Question. Do you know that the commanding general of the army was equally unaware of the serious nature of the fight that was going on?

I remember that the commanding general of the army told me that he was never more astonished in his life than when he was informed of the character of the fight that had already taken place when he got his information. I cannot be positive about the time he stated to me that he had received this information. My best impression is that he told me it was after 4 o'clock. That conversation occurred between the commanding general and myself shortly after the battle, perhaps the next day.

Question. Do you know whose fault it was that General Buell did not know that General McCook was being beaten?

I do not, indeed, sir.

Question. Have you ever know that General Buell has cast censure upon anybody for this dereliction previously spoken of, or that he has made such criticisms upon the conduct of anybody as would imply that censure for that neglect?

I do not remember to have heard General Buell censure any one in this conversation to which I have just referred. I thought that by implication General Buell censured some one because he had not received earlier information of this fight. I did not know nor do I know now whether General Buell meant such an implication or not, whether he was cognizant of the fact that information had been started to him;