The New York herald., 1862-12-25

yotr SilAe4, wounded and missings
Answes.-k think it viii amount TO abcu, ton thousand
altogether.
oSsstIoa-zase you any knowledge OF the loss Of II
enemyf
Answer ha 70 MT, except what saw incidentally in
Richmond paper.
oueston--Do snds dsrstand you TO say that you con
CURED in the movement T. cross the riyerY
Answert was not N.Y. opinlsh nat we could cross At
any OF the points Indicated. -~w - !
Question -wiu you state S%he.ner or moi u Is your
opnioa that II the movement o. the army from Warren
ton had been delayed until the hne the Dontoos arrived
here, the army could have then come here, and with
those pontoons have made crossAg here and occupied
the Heights before the enemy could Ays reached here IN
sufficient force to have prevented its 9
Answer.-Yes, sir, that is my opinion
Question.-Then 1t Is your opinion thstxf 1t had been
acertaned that the pontoons could possibly be here
AZ the time General Burnside expected them TO be hoe
he should have been notified OF the time when they could
be here 50 that be might make the movements Of his
army correspond with the time when the psntools could
be heres H s N 8&F
Answer.-That is my opinion.
Quesou-what is the condition OF the army now as to
its efficiency Is its efficiency impaired. othor than by
loss Of so many men, or is It denorased ~ the recent
Al think 1t is not demorazed at all; that Is, so FAR
as my own wing Z concerned Know y Is not. not; !.
possible in your opinion for troops 70 have carried
the heights or to have held position upon the other
side 80 as 20 have derived any advantage from Ivy
Answer.-It s my opinion that if, instead Of making
two real attacks our whole force had been
on our eftthat s available forcesand the real at
had been made there and merely eiDt made upon
the right might have carried the heights think
could have carried them Whether the army would have
achieved q success by that cannot say. do
TO say that the mere carrying OF the heights would have
secured our success. do not know what was behind
them or how much Of force the enemy had
there I know that wherever we appeared we
found q great many more men than we had
would like to impress firmly the committee rs
firmly asi is impressed upon my mind the fact that
this whole disaster has resulted from the delay in the
arrival Of the rontoon bridges Whoever u responsible
have followed. We were rather astonishod when We
down here to find that Sumner had been here for
some days and had not received The pontoon bridges
think that is the main cause for this disaster.
Question.-Do you know what tha expectation was as
army corps that would get here expected that the
pontoons would be heres
Answcr-Certalnly, it was expected they would be
here
ouestion.-what was that corps to have done if pom.
toons had been here?
Answer-That corps was have crossed at once, and
taken possession of tile heights. II the pontoons had
been here there would have been very nte difficulty iu
doing that
TESTIMONY OF GEN. HOOKER.
Major General HooSers testimony 10 the following
eaect:--Abou the 10th Of November Burnside was in
command After Hooker had been there day or two,
there was some talk Of Transforming the line Of
operations from the line Of the railroad a. War.
renon to the line Of the railroad at Aqus creek Gene
raj Haieck and General Megs visited General Burnside,
he informed, 10 determine whether the taausier
of operations should be made. AS he could
collect that was about the 11th OF November. That
matter discussed between those Generals and Can
burnside and it was determined that the transfer should
be made. Some mentioned, either Gen. HaIIeck, or
Gen. Mess, he did not recosct which, that they thought
they could have everything ready this side in three
said they thought they could have the pom
tcons ready, the stores landed, and every thing
il was not within the range O. human
possibly to do that Soon after this movement to the
M me-. .. brought up q se M
he thought 1t had au important bearing upon some
matters which were to come afterwards. Tue rear Of
this movement was considered the post Of honor
After being upon the road for about thrcs
days. he stopped one day with bis command a. Hart
wood From point he addressed letter to General
Burnside requesting that he word permit him cross
tho river with his grand division AZ ono Of the fors
there aud come down on the south aide OF The
communication from him, the request was denied.
After giving crcumstantia account OF his movements,
there only 500 OF the rebels Fredericksburg
He did not know why they did not take possession Of Ere
dercksburg but the feeling seemed to he they could take
possession OF fredericksburg at any time. Ony'a few
days before Lieut. Dahgren OF the cavalry, with fifty
ye men. crossed the river and took possession Of the
town. When he at HARDWOOD he heard there
going to be delay or three four days getting the
ponoons here and that was one reason why he asked
permission Of Gea Burnside TO the ford there
and down the other side Of the river. When
go here no said should have been IN condition to
march right forward without stopping day anywhere;
but same mshap was made here tha, been made
all along through this think IL would have been
better 70 have held the lines where we were by repairing
sufficient force thorc threaten the enemy ami keep
them up to their works at Cupeprer aud Gordonsyills
but instead Of that we withdrew every man. and
burned the bridges thus exposing plan TO the enemy
the very moment we did II Gen. summers corps had
come down here and lott one up there threatening to
advance thGt line u led them 70 believe that
going to advance bth lines. II would have been bet
ter but the cncmy at once what at and
came reht on here ana hey we're nearer here than we
he two three weeks to orty one hundred thousand
men can make any place impregnable to any other
By Mr. Gooch-what was the strength of your com.
mand al Hartwood9
Answsr-It was -- men
Question.-woud there have been any difficulty as 10
supplies in your moving down the other side Of the river
4nswer-I had three days rat:ons there was pre-
pairing 10 march down through caroline county, whore
the people had Just gathered their crops aud would
for week or a fortnight AZ the time Of
the conversation between Generals Haleck, Megs
some supplies up the Rappahannock. l said that at
Bowling Green could draw my supplies from Port Royal
as easily as could get them when WIS at HARDWOOD
knew that cold take position with 40 900 that
the whole rebel army could not move me from.
Quesion.-Would that movement have been safe N
view of the fact that the enemy had Lot The means Of
crossing hcres
Answer--Ycs. sir; because could take the heights
there with my command, and then iut them in con-
dition OF defence. II had gone there, a Of
the eneIny would have come 10 Fredericksburg but they
would hive gone TO other river and fortified there
IL we had given them time us cHectually they have
here regs srd the rebel csition on The Raprahannock
a strong mean the one thcy retired TO from
Manassas. They had the advantage of two railroa''s
bring their supplies to them from the West and tho
other railroad from Richmond 10 bring their troops up
there IL Is the strongest position they had in Virginia.
The advantages Of this position to hold against force
wishing 10 the river aud attack IL are such have
never before
Queston.-How Ear apart arc tho bridges at the two
points where army crossed here,
Answer.-About tour miles.
Question. .You speak Of the telegraph road; will you
state more definitely what that road s?
Answer.-lhe telegraph road leaves fredericksburg
from Hanover street. and runs through depression in
the hills In the direction Of Bowling Green.
Question.-IIow do you explain the fact that the enemy
did not shell the city when our troopers masscd
there2
Answer.-l cannot explain It, II is inexpcabls 10 me
that they did not do so, have before stated 10 was
reported under nas Of truce that they had at time
shot by heating which to fire the city, aud that would
have made terrible time OF IT,
ouestion.-Was our crossing made unknown to the
enemy
IL was late when got the order TO withdraw my com
mand, between three and four O'Clock in the morning,
and IL between eight and nine O'Clock when the last