A. Yes, for the reserves; but under no circumstances would I go into the round-house, without I was certain that every approach to the round-house was thoroughly and properly guarded, and, if it was going to take too many men to guard the approaches to the round-house, I would not go into it then.
Q. Where would you have stationed your men?
A. The hill side there furnished an excellent position. Men could have slept there, and with a small portion of them guarding it, and been free from attack. They could have been free from danger. I like to be out in the open air myself, where I can swing free and clear.
Q. Could you have intrenched yourself on the hill side, so as to make the position secure and safe?
A. I do not think it needed any—it is naturally a strong position. If it was necessary they could have gone to the top of the hill, and nothing could have come in there. A very small force would have guarded any approach. It would not be likely that anybody would have crawled up there.
Q. If there would have been an assault made, would not the troops have been exposed without entrenchments?
A. Not to any extent. Men could have hidden behind a house here and there, and might have taken advantage of the inequalities of the ground, and no large body could have got there.
Q. That hillside is terraced with ravines and wash-outs, which would have given your men as much protection as the enemy?
A. Just as much, and with the advantage that a man in command of the troops would have the selection of the ground. I never walked over the ground particularly—I walk by there twice a day, and I am familiar with the appearance of the hill. What the number of inequalities of the ground are, I do not know, but it is a hill, at all events, and the mob would come from below.
Q. The hill would have been the most eligible position for the force From your knowledge of the Union depot, would that have served as a fortification for General Brown's command to repel the mob, in case they had made an attack on the depot?