al Forsythe,
chief-of-staff, making the same request was negatived and an order
issued directing the commission to remain in session until that
particular case was disposed of and providing that such members as
should then desire it, be relieved and their places filled by others.

During the progress of the trial the commission was informed that a very
important witness had been detained under guard, by order of General
Sheridan, in order that his testimony might be taken. On the witness's
first appearance it was noticed that the guard detail was very careful
to give him no opportunity to escape. He proved to be a person of most
noticeable appearance. Rather above than under six feet, well-built,
straight, athletic, with coal-black hair worn rather long, a keen,
restless black eye, prominent features, well-dressed, and with a
confident, devil-may-care bearing, he was altogether, a most striking
figure. His name was Lemoss; his testimony to the point and unequivocal.
He acknowledged having been a guerrilla, himself. He had, he said, been
a member of Gilmor's band and of other equally notorious commands. He
had deserted and tendered his services as a scout and they had been
accepted by General Sheridan. He swore that he knew the prisoner; had
seen him serving with Gilmor; and knew that he had been engaged in the
practices charged.

After this witness had given his testimony the court saw no more of him,
but he left a very bad impression on the minds of the members and there
was not one of them who did not feel, and give voice to the suspicion
that there was something mysterious about him which was not disclosed at
the trial. When news of the assassination of the president came to
Winchester, all wondered if he did not have something to do with it and
the name "Lemoss" was instantly on the lips of every one of us. He had,
in the meantime disappeared.

When I met General Sheridan in Petersburg, after the surrender, and he
inquired what disposition had been made of that case I told him of the
distrust of the principal witness and that it was the unanimous opinion
of the commission that the witness was a much more dangerous man than
the prisoner. The general smiled and remarked, rather significantly I
thought, that he kept Early's spies at his headquarters all winter,
letting them suppose that they were deceiving him, and that before the
army moved he had sent them off on false scents. The inference I drew
from the convers