or 8 rods of the crest, where he was struck down and disabled. The flag was then seized by Corpl. S. C. Compton, who bravely bore it erect to within a few feet of the crest, when he was shot dead. Private Hensey, of Company I, then seized it as by instinct of duty and planted it where it was started-on the breastwork, on the very crest of Missionary Ridge, which they had boastingly but vainly regarded as inaccessible and impregnable. The schedule hereto attached will show the casualties of my command.*

Your obedient servant,

JASON MARSH,

Colonel, Commanding Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteers.

Colonel F. T. SHERMAN,

Commanding First Brigade.

No. 33.

Report of Lieutenant Colonel George W. Chandler, Eighty-eighth Illinois Infantry.

HDQRS. EIGHTY-EIGHTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY Volunteers, Chattanooga, Tennessee, November 27, 1863.

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor to make the following report of the part taken by this regiment in the recent engagement with the enemy:

The regiment, on the 23rd instant, was on picket in front of Fort Negley when the movement of the army was begun. We were relieved on the morning of the 24th and ordered to join our brigade, which had moved to the left during the night.

At 11 a.m. on the 25th, under the direction of Colonel Sherman, I took position behind the breastwork on the picket line to the left of the road leading out from the left of Fort Negley. At 2 p.m. the regiment with the brigade advanced to the rise of ground on which had been the enemy's picket line, where it was halted. The regiment occupied the right of the second line, and at 3 o'clock, under the immediate direction of Colonel Miller, who had the direction of the second line, we advanced to the assault of the enemy's works on Missionary Ridge. We advanced on quick time until we reached the edge of the timber, when we took the double-quick across the plain, a distance of half a mile to the first line of works, the enemy firing into our from the first line and pouring grape and canister from the batteries on the crest of the ridge. Here, under the little shelter afforded by this first line of works, the men sank from exhaustion. We remained here only a few moments,and advanced to the second line, driving the enemy before us. The men were now so completely exhausted, and there was kept up such a galling fire from the enemy, that a farther advance seemed almost out of question. A few moments of rest, however, and they followed the colors, which were ordered forward. The advance was slow but sure, having to contend not only with the direct fire, but an enfilading fire from the right. When near the upper works of the enemy we halted, waiting for the troops on our right to advance and draw from us the fire which was enfilading our own line of advance. This fire not in any way diminishing, I ordered the colors forward on the works, which

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*Embodied in revised statement, p.81.

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