Specification 2nd.-In this: That Brigadier General William Dwight, U. S. Volunteers, commanding First Division, Nineteenth Corps, did, while the troops of his command were engaged with the enemy and hard pressed and in a critical part of the day, go to the rear beyond the presence of his troops and beyond the falling of the shot of the enemy, and in a place of comparative safety, and id remain there, together with his staff, or a part of it, and eat his dinner or lunch. This at the battle of the 19th of September, 1864, near Winchester, Va.

Additional witness to charges and supplementary charges: Colonel Davis, One hundred and fifty-third New York Volunteers; Captain Turner, Twenty-ninth Maine Volunteers; Captain J. G. Leefe, acting assistant adjutant-general, First Division; Lieutenant T. C. Otis, aide-de-camp, Second Division; Captain Finley, mustering officer, Second Division.

HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Cedar Creek, Va., October 15, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. KINGSBURY,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I was yesterday, at a late hour in the afternoon, arrested, by command of Major-General Emory, on certain charges and specifications preferred against me by Brigadier-General Grover, U. S. Volunteers. A copy of the charges and specifications was served on me this afternoon. The first of these charges relates entirely to certain statements in an official report made by me of the part taken by the First Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, in the actions of September 19 and 22, at the battles of Winchester and Fisher's Hill. I trust that the attention of the major-general commanding the army has been called to this report. In regard to this charge and the specifications attached thereto, I have only to say that I can produce full and satisfactory evidence that every statement made in my report is true, although these statements have been cited against me in the specifications to this charge. I shall produce witnesses to the facts from among officers of my own division. General Grover has appended in his list of witnesses officers of his own division who let the field of battle, and who are known to have left it by every officer of my division who was ordered to the rear on any duty. With regard to the second charge, the conduct of my division in the battle of Winchester is a sufficient reply to any charge of neglect of duty on my part. The additional charge is too absurd to merit a reply from me. It is the result of passion and malice-too evidently so, in the fact that it is the result of my report and not of my conduct, for me to treat it with anything but contempt. I have been officially informed that I was placed in arrest on account of the additional charges and the additional specifications. That they were made two days after the original charges and specifications were hand in is sufficient evidence that they were prepared rather through the blindness of passion than with any regard to the good of the service. My whole military career is my sufficient vindication against these charges. I desire that I may not be deprived of the privilege of commanding this division throughout the period of active operations in Virginia through such means as have been used to deprive me of that command. I therefore respectfully request of the major-general commanding this army that I may be relieved from my present arrest and be again placed in command of my division, a command to which I was