Words cannot express the gratitude and praise due to a command that has so cheerfully suffered every hardship in order to perform its part and secure to our country and to our cause results more glorious and more valuable than any of the war.

But it will be better than praise to clothe you and cover your bleeding feet, so that the general now will only tender you his warmest congratulations and hearty thanks for the good name which you have won and secured in this eventful campaign. We will not soon forget a battle which has cost us such precious lives as those of Lieutenant-Colonel Taft and Major McAloon and the other dead. At the post of honor and duty these true and noble soldiers have with their blood enhanced the price of victory. Let God in his wisdom temper our rejoicing by car for the wounded and sympathy with the friends that have been afflicted.*

By order of Major-General Howard:

T. A. MEYSENBURG

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 92.

Report of Surg. Daniel G. Brinton, U. S. Army, Medical Director.

OFFICE OF THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR,

ELEVENTH CORPS, ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND,

February 20, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor too submit to you the following report on the action of the medical department of the Eleventh Army Corps during the battle of November 23 and 24, 1863, at Chattanooga:

The Second and Third Divisions of the Eleventh Corps moved across the pontoon bridge from Lookout Valley, and bivouacked on the plain south of Fort Wood, Chattanooga, on the afternoon of the 22nd of November.

That evening I reported to you in person, and by your instructions was placed in possession of the barrack hospital, adjacent to the public school, and that building itself. This gave me fourteen wards, accommodating 50 men each, and room for 100 more in the schoolhouse.

The next day I made the requisitions for the necessary articles, had the surgeons appointed report at the hospital, and detailed Surgeon Gunkle, Seventy-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, as surgeon in charge. As you are aware, less was attempted on our left that day than had been anticipated,and the only action of our troops in that direction was the movement in front of Fort Wood, resulting in the capture of Orchard Knob. This corps was not severely exposed, and the whole number of cases that reported to the hospital was only 21.

The next day, November 24, 25 more were brought in; some wounded on the previous afternoon, but the greater part by desultory picket firing along the line.

On the 26th, the First Brigade of the Second Division was assigned temporarily to General Sherman's command, and during the day was ordered to charge a battery of the enemy on the northernmost hill of Missionary Ridge. They did so, but after suffering a

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*For Burnside's letter, see p. 36; and for Sherman's order, see Part III, p. -.

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