where it lay until the morning of the 29th, when it returned to camp at Chattanooga.

Below is given the loss sustained on the afternoon of the 25th instant.*

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

WM. R. TOLLES,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Regiment.

Captain JOHN R. BEATTY,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 173.

Report of Colonel William H. Hays, Tenth Kentucky Infantry, commanding Third Brigade.

HDQRS. THIRD BRIG., THIRD DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS,
Chattanooga, Tennessee, December 3, 1863.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Third Brigade, Third Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, in the late engagement:

Owing to the death of Colonel E. H. Phelps, who commanded this brigade until the evening of the 25th of November, and was killed while gallantly leading the brigade on the last charge to take Missionary Ridge, my report will necessarily be but a brief outline of the movements of the brigade up to that time.

November 23, at 3 p. m., the brigade was ordered out to act as a reserve to the First and Second Brigades of this division, who were posted about three-quarters of a mile in front of Fort Negley, and near the enemy's picket line. This brigade was posted near the center, 200 yards in rear of the First and Second Brigades, where it remained until 3 a. m., November 24, when we were moved to the left of the La Fayette road and advanced near the enemy's lines, where after posting a strong picket, we were ordered to intrench our position, which was done very effectually during the night, and by 9 o'clock the next day our position was very secure behind a strong line of breastworks.

We remained in this position until 10 a. m., November 25, when we were ordered to move to the left. After moving in that direction about 4 miles up the river, we were faced about and marched back 1 mile. We then halted, and after a few minutes were moved to the front across a small stream and the railroad, and took up a position on the left of the division, one-quarter of a mile from the enemy's works, at the foot of Missionary Ridge. Here a strong skirmish line was thrown to the front and left flank, the Second Brigade being on our right.

The regiments of this brigade were posted as follows: Tenth Kentucky, Fourth Kentucky, Seventy-fourth Indiana, and Thirty-eighth Ohio in the front line; Tenth Indiana and Fourteenth Ohio in the rear line as a reserve, two companies of the Thirty-eighth Ohio on the left as skirmishers to protect our left flank, as there were no

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*Embodied in revised statement, p. 85.

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