by Lieutenant Peetz, [Battery E,] Second Missouri Light Artillery; Companies A, G, and D, Thirty-sixth Iowa, by Captains Porter, Fee, and Hale, and Lieutenants Baird, Pearson, and Birnbaum; Companies E, H, and C, Forty-third Indiana, by Lieutenants Thompson, Cooper, and Holman; and I cannot but express the highest commendation for the coolness and bravery they exhibited during this terrible and unequal contest, and the men proved themselves all heroes. Privates George Barr and Harvey J. Clingenpeel, Company C, First Iowa Cavalry, acted as my orderlies during the engagement, and were of great service; they are good and brave soldiers. The casualties of my detachment are 1 officer, Lieutenant Dow, slightly wounded in head, and 30 men wounded, 11 of them supposed mortally, several sixth Iowa, 11 from the First Iowa Cavalry, 4 from the Forty-third Indiana, and 3 from the [Battery E] Second Missouri Light Artillery, a list of which will be reported by regimental commanders.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. M. DRAKE,

Lieutenant Colonel 36th Iowa Infy., Commanding Detch. 2nd Brigadier

Captain W. E. WHITRIDGE,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, THIRD DIV., 7TH ARMY CORPS,
Marks' Mills, April 25, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on the 22nd day of April, by order of Brigadier-General Salomon, the Second Brigade was detailed to escort a supply train, consisting of 240 Government wagons and a number of sutler and other private wagons, from Camden to Pine Bluff. Colonel William E. McLean, Forty-third Indiana Infantry, the brigade commander, being sick, was unable to go personally in command. Colonel C. W. Kittredge, Thirty-sixth Iowa, Colonel W. B. Mason, Seventy-seventh Ohio, being also sick, the command devolved upon me as the ranking officer. At the request of Colonel McLean I reported to Major-General Steel for instructions, who ordered me to move with the train early next morning to Pine Bluff, and when the same was loaded to return with it to Camden. In obedience to his instructions I crossed the Ouachita that parked. My forces consisted of the Forty-third Indiana Infantry, Major W. W. Norris commanding, about 300 strong; Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry, Major A. H. Hamilton commanding, about 500 strong; Seventy-seventh Ohio Infantry, about 400 strong, Captain McCormick commanding, and two sections of Battery E, Second Missouri Light Artillery, Lieutenant Peetz commanding.

Next morning at daylight Major McCauley, First Indiana Cavalry, reported to me for duty with a detachment of 240 men from that regiment and the Seventh Missouri Cavalry. I would further report that in addition to the above-named forces three accompanied the train Lieutenant Schrom, of General Salomon's staff, Captain Sprague, of General Carr's staff, and Captain Townsend, of General Rice's staff, together with a large number of citizens, cotton speculators, Arkansas refugees, sutlers, and other army followers, and also some 300 negroes. At 5 a. m. on the 23rd instant I moved and