Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/108

 Second Brigade, Colonel Krzyzanowski's, of my division, and saying to Colonel Hecker: “You stay here!” he rode over to Krzyzanowski's brigade and remained with it a considerable time. Indeed, it was between it and Hecker's brigade, within speaking distance of both, where I found him when I returned from Tyndale's position. This was the report Hecker gave me. It was subsequently proved to be absolutely correct in every detail. It made the words addressed by General Hooker to me more and more inexplicable. I could understand how the sudden appearance of the enemy on the range of hills between us and Chattanooga should have produced upon his mind the impression that the main action that night would have to be fought not at Wauhatchie, but in the immediate vicinity of our camp, and how that impression should have led him to throw into the hills or to keep in his own hand the troops he had ordered to the relief of Geary. But that he should not have appreciated what he had done in changing his dispositions, even after he had been informed of it, and that he should have blamed anybody for the confusion but himself, was not so easy to explain, except upon the supposition that he wanted a scapegoat for the mistake he had made in leaving Geary in so recklessly exposed a situation, which might have resulted in a very serious disaster, had the rebels attacked with a larger force. However, I consoled myself with the hope that when after a good sound sleep he reviewed the events of the night quite soberly, General Hooker would find it to be the best policy to recognize the truth and tell it.

As soon as I had free disposition of my two brigades again, both Hecker and Krzyzanowski were promptly dispatched to Geary, and the gap between him and Tyndale was properly filled. I bivouacked in the woods near Tyndale's position, and before lying down to take a short sleep, I still had