RECAPITULATION.

Killed in both battles ................................... 80

Wounded in both battles .................................. 304

Missing in both battles .................................. 16

-----

Total casualties ......................................... 400

I have learned that several of those reported missing have been heard from, and that it is entirely probable that not one is a prisoner.

I have the honor, sir, to be your very obedient, humble servant,

JNumbers B. ESTES,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Forty-fourth Georgia Regiment

Brigadier General R. S. RIPLEY.

Numbers 270. Report of Lieutenant Colonel William L. De Rosset,

Third North Carolina Infantry, of the battles of Ellison's Mill, or Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, and Malvern Hill.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS, Camp near Richmond, Va., July 11, 1862.

GENERAL: Owing to the death of Colonel Gaston Meares, it becomes my duty to report the part which my regiment took in the late great battles before Richmond:

On Thursday, June 26, at 2 a. m., we took up the line of march for the Chickahominy River at the Mechanicsville Bridge. Preparatory to an advance I was ordered to organize and take command of a battalion of skirmishers, composed of one company from each regiment in the brigade: Company B, Captain Brown, First North Carolina; Company B, Captain Thruston, Third North Carolina; Company --, Captain Beck, Forty-fourth Georgia, and Company --, Captain Hall, Forty-eighth Georgia.

I was soon ordered to reconnoiter, the bridges, and "to advance to Mechanicsville, in conjunction with a line of skirmishers from General A. P. Hill's division, on the left of the pike."

Before I had crossed the river the brigade was advanced down the road, and with my battalion in front crossed the bridges and took position in line of battle to the left of the road. I was then ordered to take position on the left of the brigade, as it was not intended to use them as skirmishers, and prepare to advance in line of battle to charge the batteries at Ellison's Mill, on the right of the pike, which proved to be about 1 mile distant. The movement was made in good order and at double-quick. Being on the extreme left and Colonel Meares next on my right the charge was ordered, and this portion of the line went up directly in front of the batteries. Upon reaching the top of a hill, about 200 yards from the battery, this portion of the line was thrown into considerable confusion by the rapid and precipitate retreat of a large portion of one of the Georgia regiments; which one I have been unable to learn.

The left of the skirmish battalion, being rallied by Captain Thruston, continued to advance until it reached the mill-race in the ravine, about 80 yards from the battery. Only about 40 men being left with me and

42 R R-VOL XI, PT II