Document marked A, September 1, 1862, and document marked B, were also introduced and read.*

The deposition of Colonel JOHN F. DE COURCY was then introduced by the judge-advocate and read, as follows:

Colonel J. F. DE COURCY, U. S. Volunteers, being duly sworn, responds to the questions submitted by the judge-advocate of the Commission called to investigate the operations of the Army of the Ohio, as follows:

By the JUDGE-ADVOCATE:

Question. State your name, present address, and your position in the United States service.

John F. De Courcy; colonel of the Sixteenth Ohio, commanding a brigade of five regiments near Vicksburg; present address, Lexington, Ky.

Question. State what occurred to the forces under General Morgan while on the march to and while in possession of Cumberland Gap, in the summer of 1862, and why that officer did not operate offensively with his forces in Eastern Tennessee.

The march undertaken by General Morgan to Rogers' Gap for the purpose of entering Powell's Valley, Tennessee, thereby turning the position of the Gap and cutting off the enemy from their communications with Knoxville, was suddenly arrested, when General Morgan's forces had nearly all concentrated at Rogers' Gap, by a telegraphic dispatch from General Buell, ordering a retrograde movement and stopping all further operations on the Tennessee side against the Gap. The countermarching began immediately, but owing to the narrowness of the road, proceeded very slowly. I was ordered by General Morgan to cover the movement, and to be the last to leave with my brigade. About thirty or forty hours after the main body of the force had retrograded I received the information that the enemy was evacuating the Gap. I immediately informed General Morgan of the same, and stated that I should not continue the retrograde movement with the troops under my command without further orders from him. General Morgan approved of this course, and sent me word that he would recommence the forward movement. The troops were once more reconcentrated at Rogers' Gap, and on the 18th of June the whole force moved and marched into the Gap, my advance guard entering the same a very few hours after the rear guard of the enemy had departed from it.

While in possession of Cumberland Gap General Morgan effected very little more than sending out some foraging parties on different occasions. I commanded two of those parties, and took the direction of Tazewell, about 13 miles south of Cumberland Gap. The first foraging expedition was perfectly successful; the second one, which began on the 3rd of August and operated around Tazewell until the 6th, was also successful, the enemy always retiring and being evidently in very small force. On the 6th, however, my advance posts, composed of the Sixteenth Ohio, were very suddenly attacked by a very superior force, which I afterward discovered was under the command of General Stevenson, and which I have every reason to believe, from the reports of the enemy and from our own officers, prisoners in their hands, was composed of about 20,000 men, with a large amount of artillery. This force we held in check on the 6th of August from 11 o'clock a.m. till half past 3 p.m., when they retreated from my front, and merely continued an artillery fire until 6 in the evening, when I made my return to the Gap unmolested or without even an attempt being made by the enemy to follow me.

Two days afterward the Gap was invested on the southern side; and I believe about the 11th or 12th of August the investment of the Gap on both sides, on the Tennessee and Kentucky sides, was completed by the forces of Stevenson and Kirby Smith.

The success of the previous foraging expeditions will go far to show that Eastern Tennessee was not occupied in force by the enemy between the dates of the 18th of June and on or about the 15th of July. I remember distinctly asking General Morgan, shortly after our occupation of the Gap on the 18th of June, to allow me to proceed with my brigade toward a point near Morristown, Jefferson County, Tenn., to there tap the railroad, believing that said operation would have materially interfered with the commissary arrangements of the enemy. This permission was refused me by General Morgan, owing, I believe, to his instructions or orders from General Buell not allowing him to undertake any very decided initiative steps toward Knoxville.

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*Not found.

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