d
appeared before the committee. The captains and lieutenants, fresh
from private life, whose names he probably did not know, and with
whom he perhaps never exchanged a word, were summoned in large
number. They had remarkable stories to tell about General Stone's
disloyalty; about his holding secret correspondence with the enemy;
about his permitting letters and packages to be taken across the
line without examination; about his allowing rebels to go freely
back and forth; and finally about his passing within the rebel
lines to hold confidential interviews with the officers commanding
the force opposed to him. It is singular that men of the acuteness
and high character of those composing the committee did not carefully
sift the testimony and subject it to the test of a rigorous cross-
examination. The stories told by many of these swift witnesses
were on the surface absurd, and should have been exposed. Publicity
alone would have largely counteracted the evil effect of their
narratives, but the examination was secret, and the witnesses
evidently felt that the strongest bias against General Stone was
the proper turn to give their testimony. The atmosphere was, as
it often is in such cases, unfavorable to the suspected man; and
his reputation was mercilessly assailed where he could not reply,
and was not even allowed to hear. When officers of the higher
grades, who came near to General Stone, who shared his confidence
and assisted in his councils, were examined, the weight of the
testimony was markedly different. General F. W. Lander regarded
General Stone as "a very efficient, orderly, and excellent officer."
Colonel Isaac J. Wistar, who succeeded Colonel Baker in the command
of the California regiment, gave the highest testimony to General
Stone's loyalty, and to the "full confidence" reposed in him by
men of every rank in the brigade with which he was serving. Colonel
Charles Devens who, with his regiment, the Fifteenth Massachusetts
Infantry, had borne an honorable part on the bloody field, testified
that he and the officers of the Fifteenth "had confidence in General
Stone." Colonel James H. Van Allen, commanding a regiment of
cavalry in General Stone's division, gave the most cordial testimony
of his loyalty and high character.

After the larger part of the evidence adverse to General Stone had
been heard, he received an intimation through General McClellan
that it might be well for him to appear again b