Captain James Mooney, Nineteenth Infantry; First Lieutenant S. S. Culbertson, Nineteenth Infantry; First Lieutenant Alfred Curtis, Nineteenth Infantry; Second Lieutenant A. B. Carpenter, Nineteenth Infantry; Second Lieutenant R. Ayres, Nineteenth Infantry.

I have pleasure in making favorable mention of my action adjutant, C. W. Hotsenpiller, Sixteenth Infantry, who rendered me efficient service.

Casualties: 1 officer and 2 men killed; 10 men wounded, and 1 man missing.*

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. A. CROFTON,

Captain, Sixteenth U. S. Infantry, Commanding.

Major JOHN R. EDIE,

15th U. S. Inf., Comdg. Reg. Troops, 1st Div., 14th A. C.

No. 147.

Report of Captain George W. Smith, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry.

HDQRS. DETACHMENT EIGHTEENTH U. S. INFANTRY,
Chattanooga, Tennessee, December 1, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the troops under my command in the recent operations in the vicinity of this city, as well as in the pursuit of the rebel army southward:

My command consisted of the following companies, composing the First Battalion, Eighteenth U. S. Infantry, viz, B, D, E, F, G, and H, First, and Companies G and H, of the Third Battalion, serving with the First, together with the Second Battalion, under the immediate command of Captain Henry Haymond.

The detachment, consisting of the two battalions above mentioned, was ordered on picket duty on Sunday, the 22nd ultimo, and remained on that duty during Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and until about 12 m. on Wednesday, the 25th, at which time I was ordered to join the Second Brigade, First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, on the right of the Rossville road, near the picket line. The battalions were assigned a position in the second line and on the right of the brigade, covering the Fifteenth U. S. Infantry. The whole soon moved forward, crossing the Rossville road, and steadily advanced over difficult ground toward the Missionary Ridge. About half a mile from the base of the ascent we emerged from a dense wood upon an open plain, which was crossed under a heavy fire of the enemy's batteries advantageously posted upon the heights, and exposed to a fire of musketry from the line of earth-works held by him immediately at the base of the hills.

The works were speedily cleared by the skirmishers from the first line, and the First Battalion, of the Fifteenth U. S. Infantry, having swept to the right, my command closed up the space thus left. The line halted a few moments for breath, among the huts of a camp from which the enemy had been driven, when, finding the fire of shell and spherical case-shot becoming concentrated upon us, I almost immediately gave the order to resume the advance. The command was obeyed with the zeal and alacrity which these gallant troops have

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*Nominal list omitted.

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