flanks, or of moving troops forward to protect them; I simply had to gain the crest. I obeyed every order to the best of my ability and did everything that I could do to place my troops in that position.

I have not elaborated as much as to the features of the ground in my front at the mine as I might have done, and I will not delay the Court with it now. I will endeavor to make that as distinct as possible in my official report, which will probably he prepared by to-morrow morning, and will probably be laid before this Court, together with the reports of the division and brigade commanders of my command.

I desire now to insert certain papers here which relate to the evidence that I have given before you. The battle order of General Meade is already before you. The document I now hand you is the circular containing the battle order to my corps (document 60).

I sent a copy of this to General Ord, General Warren, and to the headquarters of the army; and I should have sent a copy to General Hancock had he been here at that time.

I present now the order for the siege, dated July 9, directing operations on this line, and desire to state as the reason for presenting it, that the works on my front had been conducted with the understanding that there would be an attempt made to capture the position of the enemy by military operations conducted under the chief engineer of this army and the chief of artillery, together with the corps commanders (document 61).

I now desire to present a copy of a correspondence between General Meade and myself early in July. The first is an answer of mine to a circular sent to corps commanders with a view to ascertaining what were the chances of the success of an assault in their fronts, and is as follows (document 62).

I beg to say here that this is specifically an answer in reference to an assault in my front, which was the only opinion I was required to give. The second document is General Meade's answer to my letter and is as follows (document 63).

My reason for stating that my answer to General Meade was semi-official, and that the whole correspondence was of that nature, was the fact that it is marked at the top "Confidential." The dispatches sent by General Meade to me were marked like-wise, but in this copy that is omitted. The envelopes, at least, were marked "Confidential" (document 64).

Questions by the JUDGE-ADVOCATE:

Question. Were you in a position to see all the operations of the assault before Petersburg, or how much of them?

Answer. I was in a position at different times to see every particle of the assault before Petersburg-at one time in one position, at another time in another. Not that I desire to convey the impression that I was all the time looking to the front, but that at proper intervals of time I could see all that was desirable to see.

Question. What was the distance from the fourteen-gun battery to the crater?

Answer. I should say 600 or 650 yards. I wish to state that whilst at my headquarters, in order to get a look at what was going on on certain portions of the front, we placed ourselves upon the magazine of the fort, or upon the high ground just in rear of the fort, or upon the high ground just to the right and left of the fort. I was, however, frequently, to a considerable extent, in advance of the fort, as was the case when General Warren and myself made our reconnaissance; and I also visited a commanding position on the opposite side of General Potter's covered way during the engagement, from which other parts of the line could be seen. The fort I refer to is the fourteen-gun battery, which is established immediately in rear of the old brick wall and chimneys, and is essentially on our main line, say fifty yards to the rear. The advance line is about 115 yards from the crater, the main line is about 400 yards from that, and then the battery is a short distance, say fifty yards, in rear of the main line. But the position from which the most of the movements could be seen was in advance of the main line, between the two lines.

Question. What preparations were made for the passage of the attacking columns from the breast-works as directed by General Meade's order?

Answer. All the preparations were directed to be made that were possible, such as removing abatis and so forth, as directed by General Meade's order; but it was not expected by any one that any considerable success could attend any work of that kind without serious loss to the command and discovery on the part of the enemy. The abatis in front, which was the only serious obstruction, was very much cut up by the enemy's fire, and did not present as serious an obstacle to the move-