No. 44.

Report of Lieutenant Colonel George W. Lennard, Fifty-seventh Indiana Infantry.

HDQRS. FIFTY-SEVENTH INDIANA VOL. INFANTRY, Chattanooga, November 28, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by this regiment in the brilliant movement which resulted in the capture of Mission Ridge, with all its trophies of cannon and colors:

On the morning of the 25th instant, this regiment was moved forward, and one-half of it deployed as skirmishers in front of the entire brigade, the other half being held in reserve. In this condition we advanced several hundred yards, meeting with but little resistance from the enemy. At 2 p.m. I was ordered by Brigadier-General Wagner to deploy my entire regiment as skirmishers, to cover the front of his brigade, and move forward to a wood some 800 yards in front of the enemy's first line of works at the foot of Mission Ridge, and then fix bayonets and await the signal to advance.

About 3 o'clock the signal was given, when, with remarkable promptness, every man in the regiment moved forward in splendid style on the double-quick. Immediately upon debouching from the wood the enemy opened a brisk artillery fire from the summit of the ridge. Under this fire, with the addition of musketry, when we had come within its range, the men advanced to their desperate work across an open plain of at least 700 yards in width, with a firm and steady step.

At this juncture, the scene was truly sublime. To the left, and on a line with us, swept forward the plucky men of General Wood's division, while on the right and a little to the rear came the gallant Forty-second Illinois, of Colonel Harker's brigade. Immediately in our front,and extending away off to the right and left, was the enemy's rifle-pits, filled with men apparently awaiting our near approach to deal death and destruction among us. Eight hundred yards beyond, and at an altitude of not less than 400 feet, was the crest of Mission Ridge, blazing with the quick, sharp flash of cannon and alive with the enemy's long lines of infantry, in busy preparation for the encounter.

The hiss and scream of deadly missiles from a hundred guns filled the air, and the very earth seemed to reel and rock under the rapid discharge of heavy guns from Forts Wood and Negley.

When we arrived within about 150 yards of the enemy's works, he commenced giving way, when I ordered my men to fire, and then push forward and clear the rifle-pits with the bayonets. This the men did in handsome style, capturing at and near the pits over 100 prisoners, with the loss on our side of but 2 men mortally wounded, since dead. Here were halted until the first line, composed of the Ninety-seventh Ohio, Fifty-eighth Indiana, Twenty-sixth Ohio, and One hundredth Illinois came up, under command of Colonel Wood, of the Fifteenth Indiana, when the order was given to move forward, my men falling in with the different regiments composing this line, and moving forward with them. My regiment being thus mingled with the others of the line, and there being no officer on the left of