and other troops of General Osterhaus on right, and you will be ready to cross as soon as they may force the enemy off the ridge to the right. A section of our artillery will open from the hills in your rear and right, on the rebel works on hill and the rifle-pits.

By order of Brig. Gen. Charles Cruft:

LYNE STARLING,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

No. 24.

Report of Colonel Isaac C. B. Suman, Ninth Indiana Infantry.

HDQRS. NINTH REGIMENT INDIANA VOLUNTEERS, Ringgold, Ga., November 30, 1863.

SIR: Being ordered to furnish a report of the part taken by my regiment in the late battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, November 24,25,26, and 27, I have the honor to report as follows:

On the 23rd of November, my regiment left camp on Raccoon Mountain, near Whiteside's Tennessee, and with the brigade marched to near the foot of Lookout Mountain, where we camped for the night. In the forenoon of the 24th, after crossing Lookout Creek, we were put in line of battle and moved forward toward the top of Lookout Mountain, which we found very steep and rocky. In passing up this mountain for half a mile my regiment was under the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters; 2 of my men were struck by them., though but slightly hurt. As my regiment moved forward I found that my line of battle was coming on a line with the range of two pieces of artillery on the top of the mountain. The enemy depressed one of his pieces and fired at my regiment, when his gun exploded and part of the fragments fell in the ranks of my regiment, but doing us no harm. From that point I moved my regiment by the flank and under cover of the rocks to the open field, where again I found the enemy. Here they made a stand, and I again brought my regiment into line of battle. At this point I received orders from one of the aides of Colonel Grose to halt my regiment. After remaining at this point near one and a half hours, I received orders to move my regiment forward and relieve some regiment that was reported out of ammunition. Some officer, representing himself as belonging to the regiment that was being pressed and out of ammunition, offered to guide my regiment to the point where the said regiment was engaged, but after following him a short distance I found if I continued to follow him I should be nowhere near the point that Colonel Grose had ordered me to occupy with my regiment. After arriving at the point indicated by Colonel Grose, I threw out skirmishers and moved my regiment forward, paying no attention whatever to the guide, and soon engaged the enemy at a range of about 125 yards, the fog being so thick that it was impossible to see a man at that distance. The enemy holding ground some 20 feet higher than that which I occupied behind the crest of a hill, caused him to fire over my regiment to a great extent. At this point it would be well to speak of the gallant services of my adjutant, S. P. Hodsden, in connecting the left of my regiment with the troops on my left, which he did with promptness, although the task was one of great danger to his person, having to pass over a ridge that the enemy's bullets struck that passed over the regiment. He descended