established. At 12 o'clock an aide of the major-general commanding the corps came to the right of Colonel Carle's regiment. I accompanied him to the neighborhood of the corn-field, and learned from him that it was determined to make a change in General Bragg's line; that it was to be advanced to the edge of the corn-field from that point indicated by two trees, which were pointed out. The line was to run directly east, and that it must be run by the compass.

General Bragg was, in the meantime, endeavoring to establish his line as previously ordered. I rode to the right for the purpose of conferring with him. I went along the entire front. Upon arriving at the Strong house I could not find the right of his line. I sent a staff officer to determine it, and to direct it to advance. I then returned, passing different portions of the Ninth Corps en route to the support of the Fifth. As I was returning along the rear of my line, when opposite the Nineteenth Indiana Regiment detail of Bragg's brigade, I met the men from that regiment upon the road along which our ambulances had gone in the morning. I asked why they had left the front. They replied they had been driven back by the enemy, and asked if I had not heard the firing. I called a second lieutenant, who seemed to be in charge, and directed him to reform his line, and at once return to his position and establish his connection to the right and left. I at once sent an order to General Bragg, who was now on the left of his line, with the intention of rectifying it according to the orders received from Major Roebling, an aide of the major-general commanding the corps, and directed him to send a portion of the regiment which he had in reserve to support the line occupied by the Nineteenth Indiana Regiment. I then rode down the rear of my line. I had scarcely reached the center, however, when the enemy, who had steadily concentrated in the cornfield on the right, burst through he thin line of Bragg's brigade, crossed the road into the woods beyond, and, changing front, swept down in rear of my entire line. I was at this time near my left flank. Simultaneously with their flank attack they advanced in line of battle and attacked our whole line from right to left. They advanced within 30 yards of our works. In front their advance was checked, and they were being repulsed, when the rebel line commenced its advance along our rear. At this moment our artillery opened fire upon friend and foe, the shells bursting among our men, the projectiles striking in the rear of the breast-works, killing some officers and men and wounding many others. Immediately the cry was raised that the enemy were in our rear, and the men began to fall back from the entrenchments on the left of Lyle's brigade. In the dense thicket in which they were engaged it was impossible to know the truth. Colonel Wheelock, commanding the Second Brigade, finding that our artillery was producing such effect upon his men, ordered them to leap over the breast-works and take position on the other side. This was accomplished just as the rebel line, diverted from their purpose, were driven by the fire of our artillery into the woods in my rear and were making a hasty retreat. A volley was fired from this brigade, which drove them upon a wood road, which led into the corn-field, and this entire brigade, under the gallant officer who commanded it, remainder in the entrenchments until the close of the action. The left of Lyle's brigade, in retreating through the woods into the space in the rear, met the rebel lines as they were advancing into the woods from the fire of our artillery, and many of them were captured. The brigade under Colonel Hartshorne, while attacked in front, was also