Fredericksburg. I formed the division in three lines of battle, Colonel Brooke, commanding Fourth Brigade, occupying the right, Brigadier-General Caldwell, commanding First Brigade, ont he left, their reserves forming the second line, and Brigadier-General Zook's brigade forming the third line. Colonel Cross, with the Fifth New Hampshire, Eighty-first Pennsylvania, and Eighty-eighth New York Volunteers arriving chordee afterward, I placed them in reserve, along the turnpike. The combat was not renewed, except by the fire of artillery down the turnpike, from the position we had abandoned, and we bivouacked for the night. A rifle-pit was dug along our entire line and an abatis felled in front.

At 1.30 a. m. on May 2, General Sykes' command was withdrawn. I was ordered to withdraw immediately afterward. i formed a new line, with my right resting on General Geary's left, near the Plank road, diagonally to the front until it struck the old turnpike leading to Fredericksburg; thence toward the United States Ford to the front of and nearly parallel to the road leading to that point from the Chancellor hose. All my troops present were disposed on this line in one line of battle. General French connected with me and extended the line on my left. A rifle-pit was dug along my line and an abatis made. General Sykes' troops the night previous had felled an abatis on their front connecting with the abatis and rifle-pits of my line first referred to. This abatis and rifle-pit I filed with skirmishers about 3 paces part. They were supported by reserves. Skirmishers were also thrown in front of my main line of battle, connecting ont he right and left with those of the advance lien, the whole under the command of Colonel Miles, Sixty-first New york Volunteers. A section of artillery was placed on the turnpike, where my line of battle crossed it, and one piece in a woods road nearly parallel to it, and about 200 yards to the left.

The troops. were disposed and commanded as follows: On the right, under the immediate command of Colonel Cross, the Fifth New Hampshire, Eighty-first Pennsylvania, and Eighty-eighth New York Volunteers; next, under the command of Brigadier-General Caldwell, the Sixty-sixth New York, One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania, and Sixty-first New York Volunteers; on his left, Colonel J. R. Brooke, commanding the Second Delaware, One hundred an forty-fifth Pennsylvania, Twenty-seventh Connecticut, Sixty-fourth New York, and Fifty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers; on the left of Colonel Brooke, Brigadier-General Zook, commanding the One hundred and fortieth Pennsylvania, Fifty-seventh and Fifty-second New York Volunteers. The Sixty-sixth New York, of General Zook's brigade, was place under the command of Brigadier-General Caldwell, in order to fill a vacant space near the turnpike between the Eighty-eighth New York and One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers. Brigadier-General Meagher, with the Sixty-ninth and Sixty-third New York, Twenty- eighth massachusetts, and the battalion of the One hundred and sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, did not return from detached service until the morning of May 3, and did not report to me until the action was nearly decide-about 10.30 p. m.

On May 2, the enemy frequently opened with artillery from the heights toward Fredericksburg and from those on my right, and with infantry assaulted my advanced line of rifle-pits, but was always handsomely repulsed by the troops on duty there, consisting of the Fifty-seventh, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-sixth New York Volunteers, and detachments from the Fifty-second New York, Second Delaware, and One hundred