corps, I desire, in this official report, to attribute mainly the efficient and superior condition and conduct of this command.

I attach hereto a sketch of the positions of this division on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of May. I add also a separate list of field officers of the division killed, wounded, and missing, and transmit herewith reports of subordinate commanders.

I have the honor to be, with much respect, your obedient servant,

A. S. WILLIAMS,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

Lieutenant Colonel H. C. RODGERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Twelfth Army Corps.

Numbers 261. Report of Brigadier General Joseph F. Knipe, U. S. Army, commanding First Brigade.

NEAR STAFFORD COURT-HOUSE, VA.,

May 12, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this brigade, commencing on the morning of April 27 and ending May 6:

In obedience to orders, the command moved from its place of encampment near Stafford Court-House, Va., at sunrise on the morning of April 27, and marched to Hartwood Church, on the road leading to Kelly's Ford, a distance of about 12 miles, and encamped there for the night, in the woods.

Started the next morning, and marched to within 1 1/2 miles of Kelly's Ford, where we again encamped in the woods for the night.

Started the next morning at 4 o'clock; crossed the Rappahannock River at Kelly's Ford, on pontoons, and rested for an hour, after which we pushed forward and moved to a point on the Rapidan River opposite Germanna Ford, where we crossed the same evening, and encamped on the left of the Plank road leading from Culpeper to Fredericksburg, having marched during the day about 10 or 12 miles. The Twenty-eighth Regiment New York Volunteers was sent about three-fourths of a mile to the front on this road as a picket, which duty was well performed, under the immediate supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, the commanding officer of the regiment.

On the morning of April 30, at about 9 o'clock, we again took up our line of march, and moved to within half a mile of Chancellorsville, when I was ordered to place my command in a position for defense, my right resting on the Plank road and my left connecting with the Third Brigade (General Ruger's), the whole forming an arc of a circle, the right of the line facing due west and the left about southwest.

About 6 o'clock in the evening, I received orders from General Williams, commanding First Division (of which my brigade is a part), to cut an abatis in front of my position. This was done under the supervision of Lieutenant John Care, of the Forty-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. The brigade was kept in line during the night, with arms stacked, and the men cautioned to be ready to fall in at the first alarm. One-half of the Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers was sent to the front as a picket. In this position the command bivouacked for the night.