moment. I have little doubt if that attack had been pressed that General Smith would have been entirely relieved and that we could have held our position and saved all our wounded. My command never yielded a foot of ground except under your order to retire. All I ask is equal and exact justice for myself and command, and I therefore respectfully request at your hands such action as the facts of the case not only justify but demand, and as will effectually prevent the circulation of false and injurious reports. I am preparing a full report of the operations of my command since we left he intrenchments on the 12th instant, which I will submit to you whem finished.*

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.

[36.]

HEADQUARTERS TENTH ARMY CORPS,
Hatcher's Run, Va., May 17, 1864.

Major General Q. A. GILLMORE, U. S. Volunteers,

Commanding Tenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: In relation to the order for the corps to fall back from the position occupied by it at 8 a. m. on the 16th instant, it was received during the time the troops were moving by their right flank to the support of General Brooks' division on the right of General Turner's position. I have a very clear recollection of Lieutenant-Colonel Kensel (of General butler's staff) having made use in substance of the following language when he handed a writtem paper to you: You can retire by two roads until you strike the pike in rear of General Smith's command; you will then hold the road form the pikde to the intrenchments. This order, to the best of my recollection, was given at the house used by the medical department as a hospital and by you as your headquarters, and before any troops of the Tenth Corps had marched to the rear. The impression left on my mind by the conversation with Colonel Kensel was that the enemy were endeavoring to turn the right flank of the army and cut us off from the intrenchments and that you were ordered to the rear and right of General Smith's corps to prevent this. During the conversation on this subject between General Butler and you yesterday, I understood Colonel Kensel to assent in emphatic terms to the correctness of the foregoing statement.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. H. JACKSON,

Lieutenant Colonel, Insp. General, and Chief of Artillery, Tenth Army Corps.

[36.]

HDQRS. VOLUNTEERS ENGINEERS, TENTH ARMY CORPS,
In the Field, Va., May 17, 1864.

Major General Q. A. GILLMORE,

Commanding Tenth Corps:

GENERAL: I have the honor to state that yesterday morning, just after breakfast, while you were standing in the yard of the house that was occupied as headquarters Tenth Army Corps, and officer of Major-General Butler's staff, of the rank of captain and who I afterward learned was Captain Kensel, came to you and in substance said that it was General Butler's order that you retire with the whole of the

---------------

* See VOL. XXXVI, Part II, p. 34.

---------------