efore the Committee
on the Conduct of the War. He obtained leave of absence from his
command, repaired to Washington, and presented himself before the
committee on the 31st of January, twenty-six days after his first
testimony had been given. For some reason which the committee did
not deem it necessary to explain, General Stone was not furnished
with the names of the witnesses who had testified against him in
the dark; their testimony was not submitted to him; it was not even
read in his hearing. He was simply informed by the chairman--
Senator Wade of Ohio--that "in the course of our investigations
there has come out in evidence matters which may be said to impeach
you. I do not know that I can enumerate all the points, but I
think I can. In the first place is your conduct in the Ball's-
Bluff affair--your ordering your forces over without sufficient
means of transportation, and in that way endangering your army, in
case of a check, by not being able to re-enforce them. . . . Another
point is that the evidence tends to show that you have had undue
communication with the enemy by letters that have passed back and
forth, by intercourse with officers from the other side, and by
permitting packages to go over unexamined, to known Secessionists.
. . . The next and only other point that now occurs to me is that
you have suffered the enemy to erect formidable fortifications or
batteries on the opposite side of the river, within the reach of
your guns, and which you could easily have prevented." General
Stone's answer was as lucid, frank, and full as could be made to
charges of so sweeping a character. His explanations were unreserved,
and his justification apparently complete and unanswerable against
every form of accusation which the chairman submitted. To the
charge of disloyalty General Stone replied with much feeling, "That
is one humiliation I had hoped I should never be subjected to. I
thought there was one calumny that could not be brought against
me. Any other calumny I should expect after what I have received,
but that one I should have supposed that you personally, Mr.
Chairman, would have rejected at once. _You_ remember last spring
when the Government had so few friends here, when the enemy had
this city I might almost say in his power, I raised all the volunteer
troops that were here during the seven dark days. I disciplined
and posted those troops. I commanded them, and they were the first
to inva