the 12th of May, representing the necessity of increasing the Government forces in East Tennessee and Kentucky; another is a dispatch from General Thomas to General Halleck, requesting that the order as signing him to the command of the army at Louisville shall be revoked. I desire this dispatch to be received particularly, as it has been represented that that request was made from motives of generosity. The dispatch gives a different reason for it. I have another paper which I have been advised by my friends to submit. I should not otherwise have done it. It is a copy of some resolutions which were passed at the recent session of the Legislature of Kentucky, expressive of thanks for the services which were rendered to Kentucky by the army under my command.

The JUDGE-ADVOCATE. I have no objection to that last-named paper being introduced, but I shall object to the others. I see no reason for violating the practice of civil courts and certainly none for violating the decision of the Commission. That dispatch of General Thomas makes it incumbent upon me not to admit it. It is really opening up the whole case again, and I do not think it would be proper at this late day. The resolutions passed by the Legislature of Kentucky I have no objection to. I would introduce them myself as to that matter.

The court was cleared; when it was decided that, the judge-advocate having objected to the introduction of the papers offered by General Buell, with the exception of the resolution of thanks by the Legislature of Kentucky, the objection be sustained.

On the opening of the court.---

General BUELL. As you have refused to receive the other documentary evidence I offered, I decline to present the copy of the resolution of thanks offered by the Legislature of Kentucky for the services performed by my troops in Kentucky last fall.

Colonel JOHN F. DE COURCY was then introduced, and his cross-examination proceeded as follows:

Cross-examination by General BUELL:

Question. You have stated in your deposition presented to this Commission that the march of General Morgan to turn the enemy's position at Cumberland Gap last summer 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 of the Gap. State what knowledge you have of such instructions.

I was in the same house at Rogers' Gap with General Morgan the day when his troops were nearly all concentrated there. I may as well state that we marched by two routes, some by Rogers' Gap and some by Big Creek Gap, and we were expecting to move next day on toward the Gap, when General Morgan sent for me some time in the afternoon and showed me a telegraphic dispatch which he had just received from General Buell. The dispatch was to the effect that he should not proceed with the enterprise and compelled him to give us orders to countermarch all the troops. I read the dispatch myself, but do not remember the exact wording of it.

Question. Do you mean to say that that was the necessary effect of the dispatch or that that was the result?

I do. I remember distinctly discussing with General Morgan whether the order could be read in such a manner as to allow him to carry on the operations after having carried them to that point. I remember, further, even discussing whether it was necessary to return to the Cumberland Ford or whether he might not change his base of operations and take a base more toward the west, somewhere near Barboursville, so as to threaten more continually the enemy's communications with the Gap and Knoxville.