No. 27.

Report of Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, U. S. Army, commanding Second Division.

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, FOURTH ARMY CORPS, Loudon, Tennessee, February 20, 1864.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit to the general commanding the following report of the operations of my division in the Valley of Chattanooga, embracing the storming of Mission Ridge and the pursuit of the enemy to the crossing of Chickamauga Creek, at Bird's Mill:

On the morning of November 23, my division lay inside of the fortifications of Chattanooga, its right resting on Fort Negley; the left well over toward Fort Wood; the front parallel to Missionary Ridge. This ground I had occupied for a long time. The right of my picket line commenced on the direct road from Chattanooga to Rossville, swept around on the arc of a circle, crossing Moore's road, and in front of an elevation on my front, known as Bushy Knob-now designated the National Cemetery-and joining on to the picket line of General Wood, nearly in front of Fort Wood. The division of General Baird was on my right; that of General Wood on my left.

My division consisted of three brigades, the First, commanded by Colonel Francis T. Sherman, composed of the following regiments: Second Missouri, Fifteenth Missouri, Twenty-second Indiana, Thirty-sixth Illinois, Forty-fourth Illinois, Twenty-fourth Wisconsin, Seventy-third Illinois, Eighty-eighth Illinois, and Seventy-fourth Illinois.

The Second, commanded by Brig. Gen. G. D. Wagner, embracing the following regiments: Fifteenth Indiana, Fortieth Indiana, Fifty-seventh Indiana, Fifty-eighth Indiana, Twenty-sixth Ohio, Ninety-seventh Ohio, and One hundredth Illinois.

The Third, commanded by Colonel C. G. Harker, Sixty-fifth Ohio Infantry, consisting of the following regiments: Twenty-second Illinois, Twenty-seventh Illinois, Forty-second Illinois, Fifty-first Illinois, Seventy-ninth Illinois, Third Kentucky, Sixty-fourth Ohio, Sixty-fifth Ohio, and One hundred and twenty-fifth Ohio, in all, twenty-five regiments; the effective force about 6,000 officers and men.

The command had been prepared for an offensive movement for some days. About 12 m. of the 23d, I was notified by Major-General Granger that General Wood would make a reconnaissance to an elevated point on his [Wood's] front, known as Orchard Knob, and I was directed to support him with my division and prevent his right flank from being turned by an advance of the enemy on Moore's road and from the direction of Rossville. In obedience to these instructions, I marched my division from its camp at about 2 p.m., placing Wagner's brigade on the northern slope of Bushy Knob, Harker's brigade on the southern, and Sherman's in reserve.

Immediately upon taking this position, I was joined by two batteries of the Fourth Regular Artillery,* from the Eleventh Army

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*Osborn joined with Battery G, Fourth U. S. Artillery, and Battery I, First Ohio Light Artillery. See Osborn's report, p.-.

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