Today in History:

303 Series I Volume XLIII-I Serial 90 - Shenandoah Valley Campaign Part I

Page 303 Chapter LV. THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY CAMPAIGN.

And also:

So numerous those who burst through its ranks, that it was difficult to form the line of the First Brigade.

The first and second of which statement are false and incorrect and slanderous. This at or near headquarters First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the latter part of September, 1864.

Specification 11th.-In this: That Brigadier General William Dwight, commanding First Division, Nineteenth Corps, did, in an official report made upon the part taken by the said First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the battles of the 19th and 22nd of September, 1864, near Winchester and Fisher's Hill, Va., state in words as follows, viz:

Under all these difficulties not an organization of this division was broken by the enemy, &c., but it held every position in the line to which it was assigned.

Which statement is false and incorrect, and which he, the said Brigadier-General Dwight knew, or ought to have known, at the time to be false and incorrect. This at or near headquarters First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the latter part of September, 1864.

Specification 12th.-In this: That Brigadier General William Dwight, U. S. Volunteers commanding First Division, Nineteenth Corps, id, in an official report made upon the part taken by said First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the battles of the 19th and 22nd of September, 1864, near Winchester and Fisher's Hill, Va., state in words as follows, viz:

This report must show why, &c., the division was at once reduced to staying a panic, &c.

Thus making a false and slanderous aspersion against the Second Division, Nineteenth Corps. This at or near the headquarters First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the latter part of September, 1864.

Specification 13th.-In this: That Brigadier General William Dwight, U. S. Volunteers, commanding First Division, Nineteenth Corps, did, in a supplementary report to the official report of the part taken by the First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the battles of the 19th and 22nd of September, 1864, near Winchester and Fisher's Hill, Va., state in words as follows:

Although he agreed (referring to the brevet major-general commanding the corps) that the conduct of that division (referring to the Second) was bad enough, &c.

Which statement was knowingly and willfully false in spirit and letter, and slanderous. This at or near headquarters First Division, Nineteenth Corps, on or about the 9th of October, 1864.

Specification 14th.-In this: That Brigadier General William Dwight, U. S. Volunteers, commanding First Division, Nineteenth Corps, did, in a supplementary report to the official report of the part taken by the First Division, Nineteenth Corps, in the battles of the 19th and 22nd of September, 1864, near Winchester and Fisher's Hill, Va., state in words as follows, viz:

I saw with my own eyes from the midst of the open ground over which the second line of the Second Division had just charged that line enter the woods beyond and immediately come out in a panic.

Which statement, so far as it accuses that line of coming out in a "panic," is false and slanderous. This at or near the headquarters First Division, Nineteenth Corps, on or about the 9th of October, 1864.

Specification 15th.-In this: That Brigadier General William Dwight, U. S. Volunteers, commanding First Division, Nineteenth Corps, did, in a supplementary report to the official report of the part taken by the


Page 303 Chapter LV. THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY CAMPAIGN.