George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

This is the first time I have publicly noticed this accusation by Banks, and should not now (believing it unworthy of notice) but for the part it bears in this history. In dismissing it, I should add that Banks affirms that he sent me “half-a-dozen times” an order to move to support Crawford. In his behalf I think it should be stated, that General Banks honestly thinks that if he sent me such orders, I am entirely responsible whether I received them or not. Did he send them? I challenge him to name a person, other than General Williams's aid, who brought me an order to move to Crawford's support on the 9th of August, 1862. It cannot be done; it never has been done. And the accusation of not moving when ordered, finally substituted for not moving quickly as first reported, must be regarded as an unworthy effort to escape merited censure. In Crawford's behalf there should be urged in extenuation his inexperience in the duties of a general officer.¹

In conclusion, there can be among intelligent men, among fair-mindet men, but one opinion of the disaster, of the crime, of Cedar Mountain. Censure and condemnation must fall upon the commander who in the presence of all that transpired in his front from the morning of the ninth of August until his final fatal assault upon the enemy, made that assault, with the knowledge that in his rear, a distance of less than three miles, there was a whole division of troops resting leisurely by the road-side that he