officer in charge of them, 40 rounds of cartridges in boxes, one blanker, canteen and havresack, with two days' cooked rations.
"Leave small camp guard, preserve silence in marching.
"Brigadier-General Commanding."
"Note.—Send a staff officer to let me know you are ready. D. R."
(Endorsed) "Official business, (and):
"Received this dispatch at ¼ to 4, A. M., 5th April.
"Brigadier-General."
"A true copy of the original.
"Brigadier-General late C. S. Army."
"Fredericksburg, Va., Aug. 4th, 1879,"
General Patton Anderson, commanding my Second Brigade, in his report of the battle of Shiloh, says: "My brigade was ready to march at 3 o'clock, A. M., on the 5th, and was so reported at the division headquarters." "My other two brigades were ready to march at the same hour—3 A. M.—on the 5th of April, and their commander and his staff with them."
Applying Colonel Johnston's rules of logic, is Ruggles's answer sufficient?
As I am dealing in facts somewhat cumulative, I have to state that on or about the 20th of October, 1878, at Corpus Christi, Texas, I received a letter from General G. T. Beauregard, the second in command of the Confederate army on the battlefield at Shiloh, which was published, by permission, in the Galveston Daily News, November 22d, 1878, and of which an extract is appended.
"314 West 58th Street.
"My Dear General,—I have just read in the Fredericksburg Semi-Weekly Reporter" (Recorder) "of the 13th ultimo, your vindication of yourself against the 'calumny' of Colonel W. P. Johnston, in the life of his worthy father, relative to the concentration of troops, April 5th, 1862, preliminary to the battle of Shiloh.
