in attempting to obey the second branch of General Hunter's order, which was a necessity, while the first a mere expediency; sight, General Stevens had nearly 4,000 troops with which to carry an earthwork defended by less than 600 men, and he disobeyed my positive orders, "to be upon the work by the earliest daylight," and "with loaded muskets," by starting, as he did, so as to reach there after sunrise, and by ordering them "not to load;" seventh, General Stevens was not personally with his troops in the battle, and he ordered them to withdraw after the guns of the enemy had been silenced, and when the work was essentially within the grasp of his men, he being, by the best evidence I can obtain, fully seven-eighths of a mile distant, and unaware of his own success. If the attack failed, as I claim by no fault of mine, but by reason of the disobedience and bad management of my subordinate, I ought not be judged without a hearing, such less should I be punished upon the essentially false statements of a junior, made after I had left the department, and which otherwise he had never ventured to suggest.

The papers corroborative of the above statement are the letters of General Hunter of June 27 and July 10, 1862, and the letter of General Stevens of June 20 [22], and his denial card dated July 20, and published July 22; also letter of Captain Drayton of June 18, and order of General Hunter of June 10, together with my notes upon them, respectively, with which may be considered my notes on a letter to me from Colonel Hawley, the commander of the leading brigade during its advance to the assault, with extracts from published rebel accounts, and a map of the position, with notes and explanations, all herewith respectfully submitted; also an affidavit sent me that General Stevens was heard to say he believed the attack would be successful.* The following affidavit was offered to Captain A. B. Ely, the assistant adjutant-general of General Benham, in Boston, after the publication in the newspapers that General Stevens did not expect success:

STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS, Suffolk, 88:

I, William O'Connor, of Boston, Mass., on oath, declare and say, that I am a mariner; that I was employed as such in the Department of the South; that I was coxswain of the gig used by General H. W. Benham on the Stono River during the occupation of James Island by the Federal forces; that I was in the boat the night of the 15th of June, before the battle of James Island, and carried General Benham and General Stevens between the shore and the steamer Delaware on the evening before the battle; that I heard General Benham say to General Stevens, "Do you think we can succeed?" and General Stevens' reply, "I think we can."

WILLIAM O'CONNOR.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 21st August, 1862.

J. W. PRESTON,

Justice of the Peace for Suffolk County.

The letter of General Stevens, forwarded with this [Hunter to Stanton, July 10, 1862, p. 48], was dated July 8, and published in the New York Times, July 16. The sum of the allegations in it is, that the generals strongly remonstrated with General Benham against the attack.

The only reference to Generals Wright and Stevens in General Benham's letter of June 20 to General Hunter is in the following paragraph:

Those orders of General Hunter, I may say, were made known to General Stevens and to General Wright, and that neither of them ever intimated or appeared to think that the movement upon the fort on the 16th would be contrary to those orders-orders I most heartily approved and was most anxious to carry out.

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*For General Hunter's letters of June 27 and July 10, and his order of June 10, see pp. 43, 48, 46; for General Stevens' letter of June 22, see p. 44; extracts from published rebel accounts, not found; map to appear in Atlas.

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