To Colonel De Trobriand, Thirty-eighth New York; Colonel Walker, Fourth Maine; Colonel Leidy, Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania; Colonel Egan, Fortieth New York; Colonel Lakeman, Third Maine, and Colonel Wheeler, Twentieth Indiana, and to the field and line officers under their command, my thanks are due for their gallant conduct and prompt obedience to orders. To Lieutenant-Colonel Merrill, of the Seventeenth Maine, and Lieutenant-Colonel Kirkwood, Sixty-third Pennsylvania, and the officers and men of their command temporarily assigned to me, my grateful acknowledge are tendered for their valuable assistance and gallant conduct on the night of May 2, and to Captains Sawyer and Mattocks, of the Seventeenth Maine, and the companies under their command my especial thanks are due. To Capts. J. M. Cooney and [George W.] Meikel, assistant adjutant and inspector-general, and Lieutenant [Alfred M.] Raphall, aide-de-camp, and Acting Aide-de-Camp [William D.] Vatchet, I am indebted for valuable, prompt, and efficient service. Captain J. M. Cooney, assistant adjutant-general, on this, as on all other occasions, has exhibited a capacity of a very high order. I regret to state that Lieuts. T. J. Leigh and E. L. Ford, of my staff, were captured by the enemy on the night of the 2nd instant, during the charge. These gentlemen have always distinguished themselves among their fellows, and on this occasion Lieutenant Leigh excelled himself.

I herewith transmit list of casualties.*

Respectfully submitted.

J. H. HOBART WARD,

Brigadier-General.

Major H. W. BREVOORT,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Third Army Corps.

No. 122. Report of Colonel John Wheeler, Twentieth Indiana Infantry.

HDQRS. TWENTIETH INDIANA VOLUNTEERS,
May 7, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers in the advance made upon the enemy on Saturday, the 2nd instant:

At noon the regiment was ordered into line, with one company thrown forward as skirmishers, Company K, Captain Brown, was placed in the advance, to skirmish and feel the enemy. At 12.30 o'clock the regiment moved, and at 1 o'clock we gained the crest of the hill, and halted until the supports came up. We next got orders to move by the left flank. We commenced the flank movement, and continued until we came up with Berdan's Sharpshooters. The skirmishers we had sent out joined with those of Berdan's, and drove the enemy some distance until they came to an old railroad cut, where they undertook to make a stand, but soon came out, and about of 200 of them surrendered and laid down their arms. We advanced about a quarter of a mile beyond, put out pickets, and prepared to stay over night. About dark all the other regiments got orders to return except ours and the Sixty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers. We remained in that position until near midnight, and then orders to fall back to our brigade.

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* Embodied in revised statement, p.178.

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