Page:Hooker Inquiry (Wauhatchie Engagement) - Schurz Argument - Page 04.jpg

 Smith’s Hill, the head of the column received a volley from the left. It was on this occasion that one of my Aides, of whom the testimony speaks, was wounded by my side. The head of the column stopped a moment, fired a few shots in return, and upon the order to cease firing, pushed on again towards Wauhatchie. Meanwhile the firing on Smith's Hill became lively; it was evident that our troops were engaged with the enemy on that spot. At the same time the firing near Geary’s camp died gradually away.

General Howard, who had been with my command and left it not long before we reached the hill, afterwards known as Tyndale’s, sent me word through Captain Stinson, one of his Aides, that he desired me to move forward as rapidly as possible. Soon afterwards the skirmishers became entangled in a boggy thicket, which was impenetrable for troops. We had left the road at a place a few rods behind where it makes a slight turn, and moved forward on a bee line. The skirmishers were recalled, and after a stoppage of a few moments, the column regained the road by a movement to the left.

While this was going on I received notice that my 3d Brigade had been halted near Smith's Hill, and was under instructions from General Hooker himself, and also that the 2d Brigade had been halted by order of General Hooker, and was to go to Chattanooga.

I received this notice, as the evidence shows, with regard to the 3d Brigade, through Major Howard of the Corps Staff, and with regard to the 2d Brigade through Captain Orlemann, a member of the 2d Brigade staff. Until then I had been firmly believing that the 2d and 3d Brigades were following me according to orders, and the testimony proves this belief to have been very well founded until the brigades arrived near Smith’s Hill. About the same time I received through Lieut. Oliver, of General Hooker’s staff, the order to take and occupy the hill now known as Tyndale’s with one brigade.

I replied to Lieut. Oliver that I was ordered by General Hooker himself to push through to Geary. He observed that General Hooker wanted to have the hill occupied with a brigade, and repeated the order. While this order struck me as contradictory to orders originally received, it struck me also that circumstances might have changed. The firing at Geary’s camp, as the testimony shows, had died out; for some time the action had been far more lively in my rear than in my front. The enemy had, perhaps, made a new movement. The order delivered by Lieut. Oliver was, indeed, not in keeping with General Hooker’s original order; but General Hooker, as I was informed by two reliable staff officers, had kept back my two brigades, and that was likewise against the original understanding, and could hardly be without a sufficient cause. The word General Howard had