bravery, though compelled at last to retire. They brought in 35 prisoners. Both regiments were badly cut up. Colonel Rippey, of the Sixty-first, and his adjutant were killed. The lieutenant-colonel and major were wounded and are missing. The casualties in the Sixty-first amount to 263, and are heavier than in any other regiment in Couch's division. After this attack the Twenty-third took part in the hard fighting which closed the day near the Seven Pines. The Sixty-first withdrew in detachments, some of which came again into action near my headquarters.

Almost immediately after ordering the Twenty-third and Sixty-first to support the right, and as soon as they could be reached, I sent the Seventh Massachusetts, Colonel Russell, and the Sixty-second New York, Colonel Riker, to re-enforce them. The overpowering advance of the enemy obliged these regiments to proceed to Fair Oaks, where they fought under the immediate orders of Generals Couch and Abercrombie. There they joined the First U. S. Chasseurs, Colonel Cochrane, previously ordered to that point, and the Thirty-first Pennsylvania, Colonel Williams, on duty there when the action commenced. The losses in the Sixty-second were not so great as in some of the other regiments; its conduct was good, and its colonel, J. Lafayette Riker, whose signal bravery was remarked, met a glorious death while attacking the enemy at the head of his regiment. The First U. S. Chasseurs, Colonel Cochrane, fought bravely. By that regiment our enemy's standard-bearer was shot down and the battle-flags of the Twenty-second North Carolina Regiment captured.

For further particulars of the conduct of the Sixty-second New York and the First U. S. Chasseurs, as well as for the account of those two excellent regiments the Seventh Massachusetts and Thirty-first Pennsylvania, Colonels Russell and Williams, I refer to the reports of Generals Couch and Abercrombie. Those regiments, as well as Brady's battery, First Pennsylvania Artillery (which is highly praised), were hid from my personal observation during most of the action. They acted in concert with the Second Corps, by the opportune arrival of which at Fair Oaks in the afternoon, under the brave General E. V. Sumner, the Confederates were brought to a sudden stand in that quarter. They were also present in the action of the following day near Fair Oaks, where, under the same commander, the victory, which had been hardly contested the day before, was fully completed by our troops.

At the time when the enemy was concentrating troops from the right, left, and front upon the redoubt and other works in the front of Casey's headquarters and near the Williamsburg road the danger became imminent that he would overcome the resistance there and advance down the road and through the abatis. In anticipation of such an attempt I called Flood's and McCarthy's batteries, of Couch's division, to form in and on the right and left of the junction of the Williamsburg and Nine-mile roads, placed infantry in all the rifle pits on the right and left, pushing some up also to the abatis, and collecting a large number of stragglers posted them in the woods on the left. Scarcely had these dispositions been completed when the enemy directly in front, driven by the attack of a portion of Kearny's division on their right and by our fire upon their front, moved off to join the masses which were pressing upon my right.

To make head against the enemy approaching in that direction it was found necessary to effect an almost perpendicular change of front of the troops on the right of the Williamsburg road. By the ener-