Answer. Three of the four regiments composing my brigade had been under the command of General Banks. The brigade was, as they believed, temporarily attached to General McDowell's command. They were very desirous of getting back under General Banks' command, believing the amount of transportation they brought to General McDowell's command would be restored to them, and with it their baggage and comforts.

Question by General MCDOWELL. Was anything done at Front Royal or at Warrenton to lead these regiments to continue in this belief that they would not continued under General McDowell?

Answer. At Front Royal some officers of Massachusetts regiments visited General Banks, who was then, I believe, at Middletown, and brought form him the assurance that the brigade would soon be again under his command. At Warrenton, in July last, General Banks visited the command one evening and spoke to the regiments separately, I believe, telling them, as I heard, that they would soon be again under his command; that he was making efforts to get them back. I did not hear him myself.

Question by General MCDOWELL. What was the nature of the forced march, as to severity, of the brigade from Alexandria to Front Royal?

Answer. The weather at that time was very hot, and the march, considering the weather, was made as quickly as troops could perform it and be at all efficient at the end of the march.

Question by General MCDOWELL. Was that march the cause of complaint, so far as you know, in the brigade?

Answer. It was the cause of complaint, and I saw afterward letters written by officers of the brigade and published in Boston newspapers containing severe strictures on General McDowell as the author of suffering on the marches. The letter was filled with falsehoods.

Question by General MCDOWELL. Was there any complaint that the men were forced over the Blue Ridge in the rain and without tents or shelter?

Answer. There was such complaint.

Question by General MCDOWELL. Where did the brigade stop and how were they occupied the night before they reached Front Royal?

Answer. They stopped between 2 and 3 miles of the town of Front Royal, and bivouacked in some pine bushes by the road-side.

Question by General MCDOWELL. What kind of weather was it that night?

Answer. There was a sever rain-storm during nearly the whole of the night.

The court adjourned to meet to-morrow, December 16, 1862, at 12 o'clock m.

TWENTY-SECOND DAY.

COURT ROOM, 467 SOUTH FOURTEENTH STREET,

Washington, D. C., December 16, 1862.

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Major General GEORGE L. HARTSUFF, U. S. Volunteers, the witness under examination.

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Question by the COURT. Do you know any matter or thing tending to show that General McDowell was treacherous, incompetent, unfaithful, or otherwise disqualified for the command of a division, corps, or department; and if you do, state what you know as fully as though you were specifically interrogated in respect thereto?

Answer. I do not know any such cause.