timore and Taneytown, by directing me to post the
First Corps on the left in the cemetery, while he assembled the
Eleventh Corps on the right. Soon after he rode over to ask me,
in case his own men (Steinwehr's division) deserted their guns, to
be in readiness to defend them. General Schurz about this time
was busily engaged in rallying his men, and did all that was possible
to encourage them to form line again. I understood they were told
that Sigel had just arrived and assumed command, a fiction thought
justifiable under the circumstances. It seemed to me that the
discredit that attached to them after Chancellorsville had in a
measure injured their morale and _esprit-de-corps_, for they were
rallied with great difficulty.

About 3.30 P.M., General Hancock arrived with orders from General
Meade to supersede Howard. Congress had passed a law authorizing
the President to put any general over any other superior to rank
if, in his judgment, the good of the service demanded it, and
General Meade now assumed this power in the name of the President.
Owing to the false despatch Howard had sent early in the day, Meade
must have been under the impression that the First Corps had fled
without fighting. More than half of them, however, lay dead and
wounded on the field, and hardly a field officer had escaped.

Hancock being his junior, Howard was naturally unwilling to submit
to his authority and, according to Captain Halstead of my staff,
who was present, refused to do so. Howard stated in a subsequent
account of the battle that he merely regarded General Hancock as
a staff officer acting for General Meade. He says "General Hancock
greeted me in his usual frank and cordial manner and used these
words, 'General Meade has sent me to represent him on the field.'
I replied, 'All right, Hancock. This is no time for talking. You
take the left of the pike and I will arrange these troops to the
right.' I noticed that he sent Wadsworth's division, without
consulting me, to the right of the Eleventh Corps to Culp's Hill,
but as it was just the thing to do I made no objection." He adds
that Hancock did not really relieve him until 7 P.M. Hancock,
however, denies that he told Howard he was merely acting as a staff
officer. He says he assumed absolute command at 3.30 P.M. I know
he rode over to me and told me he was in command of the field, and
directed me to send a regiment to the right, and I sent Wadsworth's
division ther