Captain Leeson, who commanded the regiment, after reaching the works upon the hill (Captains Patterson and Moore having been wounded and carried to the rear), requests me to submit with my report a list* of casualties of the regiment, he having been called away with the regiment on duty.

I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. J. ESPY,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Comdg.68th Regiment Indiana Vol. Inf.

Captain CARL SCHMITT, Assistant-Adjutant-General.

No. 68.

Report of Colonel John A. Martin, Eighth Kansas Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS EIGHTH KANSAS VOLUNTEERS, Chattanooga, Tennessee, November 27, 1863.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Eighth Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry in the late battle:

On the morning of the 23rd instant, the regiment was ordered on picket duty, and was on the outer lines, when, at noon, orders for the advance were received. The brigade shortly afterward marched out and formed in rear of the picket station. I was ordered by General Willich to strengthen my outside picket line by doubling the outpost reserves on it and advancing the station reserve to their place, and then to move forward rapidly until I reached the enemy's first line of intrenchments. This was immediately done, and at the signal the line advanced. We at first met with a stubborn resistance, but the men pressed forward with such impetuosity that the enemy broke and we drove them a mile and a half, passing their first line of works before they could recover from their confusion. Our skirmishers passed on some 200 yards beyond their line, the brigade occupying the enemy's works.

Our loss in this day's fight was but 3 men wounded. We captured some 40 prisoners and wounded about a dozen of the enemy.

The night of the 23d, and until noon on the 25th, we remained at this line, strengthening it by various additions. At noon on the 25th, we were ordered to take the enemy's line of intrenchments on Mission Ridge. We moved out of our works, taking position in the second line in rear of the Twenty-fifth Illinois, our left resting on the Sixty-eighth Indiana. We then advanced steadily in line through the woods and across the open field in front of the enemy's intrenchments at the foot of the hill, subjected during the whole time to a very heavy artillery fire from the enemy's batteries. Reaching the first line of works, we halted to rest our men for a few moments, and then again advanced through a terrible storm of artillery and musketry to the foot of the hill and up it as rapidly as was possible. The crest of the hill where we moved up was formed like a horseshoe, we advancing on the interior, while the enemy's batteries and infantry on the points on both the right and left poured in a most terrific fire. But the line never faltered or wavered, although from the nature of the ground regiments were mixed one with another, and company organization could not possibly be preserved. Each man

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*Embodied in revised statement, p.81.

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28 R R-VOL XXXI, PT II