in the field, in the absence therefrom of General Thomas, up to
and including the battle of Franklin, where signal victory had
prepared the way for the less difficult but brilliant success of
General Thomas at Nashville.

(2) In the first letter from General Thomas recommending promotions
for service in the campaign, containing the names of a large number
of officers, no mention was made of my name or that of General
Stanley, who had been conspicuous for gallantry at Spring Hill and
at Franklin, where he was wounded.

(3) In a telegram from the Secretary of War calling for recommendations
for promotion, General Thomas had been informed that while there
was no vacancy in the grade of major-general (the last having, in
fact, been given to General Thomas himself), there were then two
vacancies in that of brigadier-general; and it was after the receipt
of that information, and in view of all it might be understood to
imply, that General Thomas sent his telegram to the Secretary of
War recommending that Stanley and I be brevetted one grade in the
regular service, not, as he had said in his indorsement on my report
of the battle of Franklin, for "skill," but for "good conduct."
As General Thomas well knew, I was then only a captain in the
regular army. Hence he recommended me for the brevet of major--
that is, of commander of a single battalion of four companies--for
my services in command of an army of thirty thousand men, including
artillery and cavalry.

(4) The telegram from General Thomas to Secretary Stanton recommending
those brevets for Stanley and me was dated December 31, 1864, 5 P. M.,
while my general report including that of the battle of Nashville
bears the same date without hour, but may have been, and probably
was, received by General Thomas before he sent his telegram
recommending my promotion.

(5) Neither the report of General Thomas nor of any of his corps
commanders made any mention of order for "pursuit" in the morning
of December 16, and General Thomas himself in his report took no
notice whatever of the glaring discrepancy between my report and
some of the others, nor of any facts demonstrated or suggested by
the correspondence which was made a part of my report, nor made
any mention of the change in his plan of battle for December 15,
which was made the day before.

(6) In the publication of my report in the War Records there is a
foot-note which says that the orders and correspondence referre