case such acts must be sufficient to discredit the witness among military men.

IRVIN McDOWELL,

Major-General.

DECEMBER 5, 1862.

FOURTEENTH DAY.

COURT-ROOM, Numbers 467 SOUTH FOURTEENTH STREET, Washington, D. C., December 6, 1862.

* * * * * *

Brigadier General HERMAN HAUPT, U. S. Volunteers, a witness, was duly sworn.

Question by General McDOWELL. What official connection had you with the late Department of the Rappahannock?

Answer. I held the position of chief of construction and transportation on the military railroads.

Question by General McDOWELL. What was the principal work you performed in connection with the construction and management of the railroads in the late Department of the Rappahannock?

Answer. The reconstruction of the wharf and buildings at Aquia Creek; the reconstruction of about 3 miles of railroad which had been torn up and the iron removed by the enemy, and the bridges across Acckeek and Rappahannock Rivers and Potomac Creek. In addition to this, the reconstruction of seven bridges on the Manassas Gap road, the relaying of a portion of the track on that road, and the forwarding of supplies to the army by both roads.

Question by General McDOWELL. What is your present position with respect to the railroads in Virginia? Have you again had to rebuild some of the Aquia Creek Railroad?

Answer. I have at present the general charge of the construction and transportation of the railroads in Virginia and Maryland,with other duties prescribed in Special Orders, 248, Adjutant-General's Office, and I have again rebuilt a portion of the Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad.

Question by General McDOWELL. Look at the statement herewith in the New York Tribune, comparing the time required to rebuild the Aquia and Fredericksburg Railroad under General McDowell's administration and the time taken under the present commander in Virginia, and state if the contrast is just one; if not, wherein is it not so.

The statement, as embraced between the words "a ride" and "inspiration," is as follows:

A ride upon the cars to Aquia Creek to-day gave me a view of what General Haupt has accomplished within the past ten days in repairing the road from the Potomac to Falmouth. What it took nearly ten months last spring to reconstruct has been accomplished in about one-sixth of that time. Nearly all the labor then was performed by soldiers, this time by contrabands; or, to call them by a better name, loyal blacks have performed nearly all the hard labor. I saw hundreds of them at work to-day all along the line of the road, at the depots, upon the wharves, on the boats, or wherever there was anything to be lifted, carried, driven, or raised. They were working, too, with a will, not with one arm slowly following the other up and down, or one leg moving after the other as if they were on their way to the gallows, but with a rapid swing and a quick step, giving one to see in every blow and every movement that fifty cents a day, food and rations, and individual freedom are the sources of inspiration.

Answer. The statements in the Tribune are correct in several particulars. The work was not commanded on the Aquia Creek and Fredericksburg road before the 1st day of May, 1862, and before the 1st day of Mary, 1862, and before the 1st day of June we were operating on the Manassas Gap