may require an exoneration, though it
come from your hand, to be based upon the testimony of others.

Permit me to say, further, that as to the order you started to
me by Captain Baxter, I do not understand there is any question
of veracity between us. You tell me, that from the battle-field
you dispatched a verbal order by the officer named, to be
delivered to me, at Crump's Landing, directing me to march my
division to Pittsburg Landing by the road, parallel with the
river; and, supposing, as you did, that the order would reach me
by 11 o'clock, A.M., you reasonably concluded my command would
be on the field by 1 o'clock, P.M.

Now in all candor, if you have been, as I am informed, of
opinion that I received that order as it was given, and at the
time stated (11 o'clock, A.M.), and that for any reason, such as
personal feeling against you, or that I lost my way, or took the
wrong road, or lingered on the march, making but five miles in
seven hours, it must be admitted that you were justifiable in
any, even the most extreme judgment against me; and I must
confess that your moderation was greater than mine would likely
have been, had our positions been reversed. I do not flinch from
that conclusion, at all; but what I do say in my defence is that
the opinion and the conclusion, which is its corollary, are both
wrong, because the order admitted to have been dispatched was
not delivered to me, in form or substance, as dispatched. On the
contrary, the order I received from your messenger was in
writing, unsigned, and contained substantially the following
instructions:

"You will leave a force at Crump's Landing, sufficient to guard
the public property there; then march the rest of your division,
and _effect a junction with the right of the army_; after which
you will form your line of battle at right angles with the
river, and act as circumstances dictate."

This order was read by Colonel Ross, under circumstances well
calculated to impress it upon his memory. It was also given to
Colonel Knefler, then my Adjutant General, and by him read and
unfortunately lost. Finally, its purport, as stated by me above,
is vouched for by Captain Ware as the aide de camp. To refuse
credit to my version of its contents will be very hard, indeed,
corroborated as it is by so many gentl