to the west of Chancellorsville, on the right of the Plank road, facing toward and about 4 miles from the village. This disposition was soon changed, however, and we were again formed about one-fourth of a mile to the front of our former position, and about 100 yards in rear of General Rodes' command, with orders to support him, when requested to do so, without further instructions. In this last position the brigade was formed perpendicular to the Orange and Fredericksburg Plank road, with the Twenty-third and Thirty-seventh Virginia Regiments on the right of the road, and the First and Third North Carolina Regiments and the Tenth Virginia Regiment on the left of the road, in a densely thick woods, with undergrowth of scrubby oak, mixed with pine, myrtle, briers, bamboo, and other obstacles sufficient to impede the progress of an inhabitant of the wilderness.

In a few moments after the line was formed (say about 5 p. m.), the order to advance was given, and the brigade moved off in the second line in perfect order, taking into consideration the fact that it was divided by the road and space on each side of the road, in all about 125 yards, and the density of the forest in which it was formed. After an advance of about fifteen or twenty minutes, or before we got to the first field or open ground, General Rodes called on Colonel Warren to support him, and by the time the field was reached the two commands became considerably mixed, and very soon our brigade took the front of its portion of the line. Just at this time the intrepid Warren fell, wounded in the right shoulder, and the command devolved on Colonel [T. V.] Williams, the next in rank.

The brigade continued to advance on both sides of the road, driving the enemy before it, and were the first to storm and enter his first line of earthworks, capturing many prisoners, 3 field pieces on the right of the road and 1 on the left, and passing over many small-arms, which the enemy seemed to have thrown away in their flight. Unchecked by the lead and iron hail-storm, the brigade advanced from position to position of the enemy till it reached a position on the right of the road, at which the enemy made a stubborn resistance the next morning. At this last position we captured two field-pieces, but being unsupported, and having been considerably reduced in numbers by casualties and fatigue, we were forced to abandon them, and were ordered to the rear. With the exception of a few immaterial changes of position, and being subjected at about 10.30 o'clock at night to a most terrific shelling from the enemy, we remained quietly on our arms during the remainder of the night.

The next morning (Sunday, the 2nd [3rd] instant), the brigade was taken on the left of the road, and formed in the second line, where it remained for about an hour, when it recrossed the road, and was ordered to support a South Carolina brigade, being about two hundred yards in its rear. While in this position, Lieutenant-Colonel [S. T.] Walker was killed instantly, and others were killed and wounded.

An advance was ordered, and we soon occupied the line of breastworks that were reached the preceding night, as before referred to. Here the enemy made a stubborn resistance, and at one time were in the act of completely flanking us, when General Colston, with the First and our brigade, moved by the right flank under a most terrific fire, met and thwarted the enemy's designs, thus saving the day, as the knowing ones say, on our part of the field. It was here Colonels Williams and [John A.] McDowell and Lieutenant-Colonel [S. D.] Thurston fell, wounded, and Major [Joshua] Stover was killed, and many brave officers and men fought their last battle. I, being the senior officer pres-