The remainder of the month was spent in cannonading and in placing guns for the great assault of April 2.

My address is, "Colonel First Connecticut Artillery, City Point, via Fort Monroe, Va."

I am, general, very respectfully, &c.,

HENRY L. ABBOT,

Captain of Engineers and Bvt. Brigadier General of Volunteers.

Brigadier General RICHARD DELAFIELD,

Chief Engineer, U. S. Army.

Numbers 10. Report of Major George Ager, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, of operations March 25.

HEADQUARTERS SIEGE BATTERIES,
Before Petersburg, Va., March 27, 1865.

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor to transmit the following as the part taken by the batteries under my command in the action of March 25, 1865:

About 4 a. m. the garrison of Battery Numbers 10, consisting of about sixty men of Company K, Captain John M. Twiss commanding, were alarmed by the sentinel on guard, that the enemy were assaulting our lines. Before the mortars could be brought into action the enemy had captured the picket-line, and were advancing over the parapet. Small-arms were brought into use, and for a short time the enemy were held in check by a hand-to-hand conflict. Owing to the darkness the entire garrison of this advanced battery was captured. Captain twiss having been wounded, went to the rear, where a portion of his company was stationed, formed them, and continued the action from bomb-proof. By this time the enemy had flanked him on the right and left, and receiving no support he conducted his men to Battery Numbers 4, where he reported to me. Lieutenant Odell, commanding one section of this battery, was killed at the commencement of the assault. At daylight I was informed that Fort Sterdam, including Battery Numbers 10, was in possession of the enemy, and that they were massing troops there. I immediately ordered Batteries Numbers 4, 5, 8, and 9 to concentrate their fire on the fort and vicinity. This was done with good effect until our troops prepared to charge and retake the line.

Battery Numbers 12, on the left of Stedman, opened fire at the first alarm, and continued until the enemy had formed a line of battle in their rear, when the mortars were turned and several shells thrown among the troops there forming. But finding themselves the particular object of the enemy's fire, and it being impossible to serve the pieces any longer, Lieutenant Lewis, commanding, led his men by the left to Fort Haskell, where this company with small-arms assisted in repulsing the assaults on this fort, at the same time directing their mortar fire on the battery previously occupied. Having been informed that a charge was to be made by the infantry retake the line, I ordered Lieutenant Casey, who had reported to me with the remainder of K Company, to follow up, and, if successful, to take possession of Battery Numbers 10 and prepare for immediate action. This was done with promptness. He and his small detachment, arriving at the works with the charging column, found the implements destroyed and carried off, making it impossible to use the mortars.