fourth Massachusetts (who subsequently commanded), deserve great credit for the manner in which they handled the regiment in the engagements in which they participated, both displaying gall the qualifications requisite to competent commanders.

To my staff i desire to return thanks for the valuable assistance rendered me in all situations. Captain Sellmer, acting assistant inspector-general, received a slight wound in the leg, and Lieutenant Odiorne, acting commissary of subsistance, had his horse shot under him, while in the prompt discharge of their duties.

For the details of the operations I have the honor to refer you to the accompanying regimental reports.

In recapitulation I would report about 200 prisoners, 4 guns, and 200 small-arms captured, and my loss, 566 killed, wounded, and missing, 24 of whom are commissioned officers, among them Lieutenant-Colonel Hill, Eleventh Maine, and many other valuable officers.

In closing, I wish to state, in excuse for the small portion of my command who broke and went to the rear during the attack of the enemy on the evening of the 18th, that there was no faltering on their part until our batteries on my left and rear opened a heavy fire of shell and case-shot, much of which fell short and inside my line of works, killing and wounding a number of men of my brigade.

Very respectfully,

R. S. FOSTER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Captain A. TERRY,

Assistant Adjutant-General, First Div., Tenth Army Corps.

Numbers 276. Reports of Colonel Harris M. Plaisted, Eleventh Maine Infantry, commanding Third Brigade, of operations August 27-September 25 and October 1, 7, 13, and 27-29.

HDQRS. THIRD Brigadier, FIRST DIV., TENTH ARMY CORPS,
Before Petersburg, Va., September 25, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that since my last report nothing of importance connected with the Third Brigade has transpired, excepting its movement from the trenches last night. Having been relieved by the Second Corps about 12 o'clock midnight, I moved the brigade by the orders of the general to this position, in rear of Tenth Corps headquarters, bivouacking at 3 a. m. This brigade was in the trenches before Petersburg thirty days, having entered them at daylight on the morning of 27th of August, and left on the morning of the 25th instant. In these thirty days the brigade has done 9,300 days' fatigue duty, not counting any details of less than 100 men. Across two-thirds of its front of 600 yards it constructed an infantry parapet, revetted and ditched, seven feet thick, with a relief of ten feet, and in a style creditable to the corps of the bastioned badge. Three days in every five each regiment has had its equipments on. Every day in the week the entire brigade has been "at the front," and every hour of the day and night under fire. Forty-one men have been killed or wounded; 12 of these were killed or died of wounds.