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By Mr. Gooch:

Question. How are these things paid for?

Answer. It depends upon what the quartermasters have. Sometimes they pay in treasury notes, and sometimes they give their receipts.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. Have you not been yourself obliged to pay high prices for boarding at secessionists, when you knew you were eating our own food furnished by our commissaries to the rebels?

Answer. I have paid fifty cents and a dollar for a single meal, of nothing but salt meat and, perhaps, some coffee-that would be about all-that came from our commissaries. Our commissaries will allow the rebels to have whatever they want at government prices. The instructions are or, at least, the commissaries all say so-for the commissaries to let the people there have what they want at government prices. I do not know of any instance where it has been given to them, though I have no doubt it has been done. When it is paid for, however, it is taken at a very low figure, at government prices; and for anything they have to sell, they charge us the most extortionate, outrageous, unheard of prices.

Question. Is it not a great speculation for a man to be a secessionist there, and get his supplies from us at government prices, and sell them back to us at enormous prices?

Answer. Certainly. There is not a Virginian there that will not do everything he can to take advantage of our men. There is not an aristocratic family there that will not take money. Very few of them will take our treasury notes; but they demand the gold.

By Mr. Gooch:

Question. Were those people paid in gold?

Answer. A great many were paid in gold; very few of them will touch treasury notes.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. It must have been in small amounts then, for they do not have the gold.

Answer. Everything they have to sell is in small amounts generally. There are but few officers on the peninsula who do not have gold.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. Is there much gold circulating down there?

Answer. There is a great deal there among the officers, and all the men have specie. I never had any trouble among our own men in getting gold for treasury notes. I can always find more or less of it, although it is not profuse. It may be different since the last paying off.

WASHINGTON, July 12, 1862.

JOHN TUCKER sworn and examined.

By Mr. Chandler:

Question. What is your position under the government?

Answer. I am Assistant Secretary of War.

Question. Do you know anything about the transportation of troops to

our army at Yorktown and the peninsula ?

Answer. I do; I attended to the embarking of those troops.

Question. Can you state what number of troops were first embarked for that place?

Answer. Prior to the 5th of April, as I know from the statements made to me by the quartermasters who were attending to the details, there were 121,500 men.

Question. That was before General Franklin's division was ordered there? Answer. Yes, sir. Shortly after that Franklin's division was shipped; it numbered 12,000 men. About the first of June McCall's division was sent down; it consisted of 10,000 men; and about the same time from Baltimore and Fortress Monroe, there were sent 11,000 men. The last of June a part of Shields's division were shipped. I did not superintend that, but I am informed that there were about 5,000 of thein.

Question. You superintended the shipment of all the troops but those from Shields's division?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Does that comprise all that has been sent to General McClellan since he landed there?

Answer. That is all that I know of.

Question. That includes the number sent by Generals Wool and Dix? Answer. Yes, sir. That makes 159,500 men in all.

Question. Do you know of any other forces at the disposal of the government that could have been spared for his assistance?

Answer. I do not.

Question. Were there reasons why General McDowell's force could not be sent?

Answer. Yes, sir. The President deemed them essential for the protection of Washington.

Question. And the force was none too strong for the defence of this place? Answer. It was so regarded.

Question. Have you any personal knowledge of the state of the roads and the condition of the country on the peninsula when General McClellan first took his army there?

Answer. Early in April I visited the headquarters of General McClellan, and found the roads totally impassable for artillery, and almost so for sup plies. On my arrival at General McClellan's headquarters, I was informed that he was sending his cavalry back to the river, because it was impossible for him to transport forage to sustain them. As an evidence of the condition of the roads from Ship Point to his headquarters, I was myself eight hours going seven miles on horseback.

WASHINGTON, July 14, 1862.

Gen. M. C. MEIGS recalled and examined.

By Mr. Chandler :

Question. You are quartermaster general of the army of the United States?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Question. Can you state to the committee the number of troops that have been sent to General McClellan, prior to the late battles before Richmond? Answer. I cannot with any accuracy; those reports do not come to me. Question. Does not your department have charge of the transportation? Answer. Yes, sir. But I can only give estimates, which I do not think are reliable enough for the committee. I have opinions but I do not think

they are entirely reliable. I think you can get exact reports from the adjutant general. I would rather not express an opinion upon this subject, though I will do so if the committee require it.

Question. If you have no objection to give an approximate estimate, as near as you can, you will please give it.

Answer. I will do so, at the same time stating the grounds of my opinion. I was called upon to provide transportation for about 110,000 men, with their artillery, horses, baggage, provisions, &c. I am informed by Mr. Tucker, the Assistant Secretary of War, who negotiated for the most charters of the vessels at the first starting, that he made up an estimate just after they sailed, by which it appeared that about 123,000 men, 17,000 horses, 1,800 wagons, and 44 batteries of artillery, had been shipped for the peninsula. I do not understand that General Franklin's division was included in that enumeration. Since then General Franklin's division, which must have been 11,000 or 12,000 strong, and McCall's division, nearly 11,000 strong, have been sent down there. Certain troops were obtained from Fortress Monroe and Norfolk, they being drilled troops, and they were replaced by newer troops sent from here, Baltimore, and elsewhere. The number of them I could hardly guess at. I should suppose that they numbered from 8,000 to 10,000. And since the late battle about 11,000 men have been sent from Alexandria; they were part of Shields's division, and some regiments that were taken from here. I have estimated roughly that that would make a total of about 160,000 men, that have been sent to the peninsula, from first to last. We have sent more wagons, since the first: a considerable number. General Van Vliet, who was here the other day, and who was the chief quartermaster of the peninsula, stated to me that he estimated that there were about 3,000 wagons now in camp at Harrison's Point. And we have sent horses down, from time to time, to replace those that have died, or have been broken down and killed.

Question. You are a member of the military council of war?

Answer. I am a member of the body to which you allude. It has no legal existence; but the Secretary of War has invited some of us to come there for that purpose.

Question. As a member of such council, have you had the means of knowing, from time to time, whether the government has had it in its power to send more re-enforcements to General McClellan than it has sent since his landing on the peninsula?

Answer. I do not think the government could have safely sent considerable re-enforcements from any troops within its reach here beyond what it has already sent. A few hundred men, more or less, would have amounted to nothing. The only way, it appears to me, in which the government could have sent more troops was to have called for more soldiers, raised them, organized them, drilled them, and make them fit to go there, for raw troops would be of no use.

Question. Who made the order retaining General McDowell's force here? Answer. I have understood always that it was made by the President of the United States-possibly signed by the Secretary of War; but it was the order of the President, as I understood it.

Question. What was the reason for that order, did you understand? Answer. The reason for it was that it was not considered safe to leave Washington without a strong covering force and a garrison.

Question. Was that force, in your judgment, stronger than was necessary? Answer. No, sir.

Question. In your judgment, as a military man, was it a wise movement to divide the army of the Potomac, and take a portion of it to Yorktown and the peninsula, and leave a sufficient covering force here?

Answer. Every man has a right to his own opinion. My individual opinion is, and always has been, that it was an unwise movement.

Question. Your judgment, then, as a military man, is that the army of the Potomac should have been moved forward en masse from here upon the enemy? Answer. I believe I expressed that opinion to the committee when they examined me some months since, before the army here moved, and before I knew of any intended movement below; and I have never for a moment seen any reason to doubt that that view was correct.

Question. How is it among military men; is it considered an error to divide an army in front of an enemy?

Answer. There are occasions when it would be proper to divide an army. There are so many circumstances that go to make up a situation that you cannot very well suppose one, and say what would be right and proper to do in all respects. The more concentrated an army is the stronger it is. But there is often difficulty in moving large masses through a sparsely settled country; there are difficulties of supplies of food as well as of transportation. It is sometimes necessary to divide an army in order to subsist it. It is necessary to divide an army sometimes in order to make a diversion in its flank or rear.

Question. But there should be some strong military necessity for such division?

Answer. There should be a reason for it, of course. Unless an army is too large to be handled en masse, the more concentrated it is the stronger it is. Yet if it is kept in a mass, the enemy may get around it, and cut off its communications. The army of the Potomac is equal to the population of a large city, and requires an immense amount of food. A few days' interruption of supplies would produce the greatest disaster and perhaps its destruction.

Question. In your estimation has everything been sent promptly to General McClellan that he has required of the government?

Answer. I think so; I know the government has desired to do it. In my own department I have endeavored to supply everything called for; and I have no doubt it has been so in other departments.

Question. To the best of your knowledge and belief, it has been so in all the departments?

Answer. I think so.

WASHINGTON, July 16, 1862.

Colonel GILMAN MARSTON SWorn and examined.

By Mr. Covode :

Question. What is your rank and position in the army?

Answer. I am colonel of the 2d regiment New Hampshire volunteers, in the first brigade of Hooker's division.

Question. How long have you been in the service?

Answer. Since May, 1861.

Question. You were in the battle of Bull Run?

Answer. I was; I received a wound there; had my right arm broken, and was disabled until October; indeed I did not resume the command of my regiment until later, in November.

Question. Were you among the first troops that went down to Yorktown and the peninsula last spring?

Answer. I was with the first, not the very first; we went down from Budds' Ferry.

Question. What is your opinion of the condition of things when you got down there? Was there much difficulty in the way of your getting rapidly into Richmond?

Answer. Yorktown was before us; I had no means of knowing in what force the enemy then were behind their works at Yorktown, which, from what we could see of them, appeared to be formidable.

Question. How did you find it to be after Yorktown was evacuated? Answer. That portion of the work I saw immediately at Yorktown, on the York river, was a formidable work; not more so, and not so much so, however, as I had supposed from the examination I had made at a distance, and from what I had heard, and yet it was a pretty formidable earthwork, or a series of earthworks.

Question. What was the number of the enemy's forces at Yorktown? Answer. I have no means of knowing what the amount of their forces were at Yorktown when the evacuation took place. It was variously estimated.

Question. Was it anything like as strong as the Union forces?

Answer. I suppose it did not amount to half the number of our forces. Question. Have you at any time learned what was the force of the enemy when you landed on the Peninsula ?

Answer. I have heard from officers of the rebel army, who were taken prisoners at Williamsburg, that their force at Yorktown, and all along the line, from the York to the James river, was 10,000 men-not more.

Question. Why was it that our forces did not follow up the enemy after they retreated from Yorktown, inasmuch as we had a much stronger army than they had ?

Answer. We did follow them up.

Question. For what distance?

Answer. We followed immediately on to as far as the enemy advanced; that is, we followed them to Williamsburg-Hooker's divison, and Heintzelman's, and Sumner's corps. A part of the army went up the York river to West Point, and a part to other points. But I am unable to say how far the right wing immediately advanced, or how vigorous the pursuit was. Question. What stopped you at Williamsburg?

Answer. We found the enemy in force there; or supposed we had. The brigade to which I was attached left Yorktown at 1 o'clock. The first brigade marched first. We left at 1 o'clock, I think; marched through Yorktown and on towards Williamsburg rapidly until 9 o'clock. It rained that night very heavily. As soon as it began to dawn in the morning we resumed our march; it was then raining hard. After marching two miles we came in front of Fort Magruder, and some dozen or fourteen other earthworks flanking the principal fort. What amount of force the enemy had there was not well known then. It was supposed at first that the force was small. I know that General Hooker thought the enemy had evacuated the place. The force, in point of fact, was small in the morning when we arrived there. They were then on the retreat; but they sent forward and brought back a large force by 2 o'clock, or half past two in the afternoon. Their force amounted in all to 30,000 men, according to the best informa tion we could get, and that force was brought into the fight.

Question. Will you give us a description of that fight?

Answer. I can tell you what I know of it. The First Massachusetts regiment led the column, the Second New Hampshire following. The Eleventh Massachusetts and the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania constituted the rest of the first brigade. Some companies of the First Massachusetts were immediately deployed as skirmishers. We were halted as we came to the edge of the wood. Williamsburg and all those forts and works are on a very

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