up with a brigade of rebels, said to number 2,100 men, under command of a brigadier-general. By your direction I deployed six companies as skirmishers and held three in reserve (one company being held as prisoners at Richmond), by which means the enemy was soon compelled to make a stand. The remaining regiments of your brigade and the Third Brigade were promptly formed in line and moved forward to my support. Considerable confusion was occasioned in my regiment by the inadvertent and unauthorized firing of some of our own regiment upon my line of skirmishers while I was attempting to rally them on the reserve in a dense thicket of timber, and under a galling fire of grape and musketry from the enemy. I succeeded, however, in getting all who were not deployed too far away into line with the rest of the brigade. The enemy was soon driven in disorder from his position, and I was sure that nothing but the darkness that covered his retreat saved him from capture or a complete rout, but the night was too far advanced to follow, and we rested for the night.

The next morning we continued our march to Graysville, thence to the vicinity of Ringgold, where we remained until the morning of the 29th, when we started on the memorable expedition to Knoxville to raise the siege of Longstreet and to re-enfore General Burnside. At no time since the organization of the regiment have we been so poorly equipped for such a trip. Many of the men were barefooted and a majority of them without shirts and overcoats, but they all understood the importance of their mission and went with alacrity and cheerfulness. On two different days we were without rations of any kind, and for many days had nothing but unbolted corn meal, or fresh meat and corn meal without salt. The roads were very muddy, and the weather, a portion of the time, cold and wet. The men necessarily suffered a great deal, but I heard no murmurings or complaints.

On the morning of the 6th instant, when some 20 miles this side of Knoxville, we heard with joy the expedition had been highly successful, and that Longstreet had been driven into North Carolina, with the loss of his wagon and siege trains and of many men as prisoners and deserters. We gladly received the order to "right about" and march toward camp and the supposed depot of rations and clothing. We arrived in Chattanooga on the eve of the 18th instant, in time to see the pontoon broken, an occurrence which compelled us to remain all night on the bank of the river, one of the coldest nights of the season, without fires, which occasioned more suffering and inflicted more permanent injury by far than any day's privation and hardship of the trip.

We returned to camp the morning of the 19th, with at least onethird of the men unfitted for immediate duty on account of being barefooted and footsore, but in general health the regiment was never in better condition.

In behalf of the regiment, allow me to return you my sincere thanks for your uniform kindness and solicitude for the comfort of the men, as well as for your undaunted courage and skill in time of danger.

The casualties in my regiment during the engagement mentioned were as follows: Killed, Sergt. Moses A. McCandless, Company I, by grape-shot; mortally wounded and since died, Private William H. Bowman, Company I, musket-shot in thigh; severely wounded, Private William G. McClellan, Company I, musket-shot in hand;