* * * * * * * * * *

'Question [by the Chairman].--And that left Johnston free?
"Answer--Yes, Sir; left him free to make his escape, which he did.
* * *"

'Question.--In what direction would Johnston have had to move to
get by you?
"Answer--Right out to the Shenandoah River, which he forded. He
found out from his cavalry, who were watching us, that we were
actually leaving, and he started at 1 o'clock that same day, with
8,000 men, forded the Shenandoah where it was so deep that he
ordered his men to put their cartridge-boxes on their bayonets, got
out on the Leesburg road, and went down to Manassas."

"Question [by the Chairman].--Did he [Patterson] assign any reason
for that movement?
"Answer.--I was, of course, very indignant about it, and so were
all my officers and men; so much so that when, subsequently, at
Harper's Ferry, Patterson came by my camp, there was a universal
groan--against all discipline, of course, and we suppressed it as
soon as possible. The excuse given by Gen. Patterson was this:
that he had received intelligence that he could rely upon, that
Gen. Johnston had been re-enforced by 20,000 men from Manassas,
and was going to make an attack upon him; and in the order which I
received that night--a long order of three pages--I was ordered to
occupy all the communicating roads, turning off a regiment here,
and two or three regiments there, and a battery at another place,
to occupy all the roads from Winchester to the neighborhood of