By Mr. Means:
Q. Do you know of any telegrams passing between General Brinton and Colonel Scott in regard to General Brinton clearing those tracks?
A. I do not know of any communications whatever, between them; but I am very confident, I am positive, I heard General Brinton say—we said to each other during the afternoon, we have possession of those tracks, and why don't they send out their trains.
Q. Then, in your opinion, they could have sent out trains, so far as you had possession of the tracks?
A. So far as the tracks were cleared up to the point where we were. But we understood the reason to be that the men would not serve.
Q. That they refused to run?
A. That was the excuse we heard; but there was no time during the afternoon, after the first firing, when the crowd were cleared from our immediate neighborhood, and no time, only during the night, that I did not feel as a military officer, that we had command of the position, and were competent to deal with the crowd. The only thing was, that we were lacking rest, and were greatly reduced in strength from hunger.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. Did you hear General Pearson give such an order as follows, to the officers: "Order your men to fire," before the firing took place?
A. I did not—nothing of the kind. I heard nothing in relation to firing, except the first fire.