the last, when, on account of the movements of the enemy, we had to separate from our supplies, and many generals, as well as privates, had no food, or only such as could be picked up in the orchards or corn fields along the road. In all this the patience and endurance and general good conduct of the men were admirable. To fight and retreat and retreat and fight in the face of a superior force i a severe test of soldiership. This they did for fifteen days, and, though many broke down under the fatigue and exposures and many straggled from the ranks, the troops as a general thing behaved most creditably, and even to their return to the lines in front of this place, though they were sad at seeing their numbers so much diminished by hardships and battles which had availed them nothing and were tired and reduced from marching and fasting, they preserved their discipline, and it is an abuse of words to say they were either demoralized or disorganized.

This report has been delayed so long, for the reasons mentioned at the commencement, that I now forward it without returns of the killed, wounded, and missing. I will supply this deficiency when all the returns are received.

General Ricketts, who at Cedar Mountain and at Rapphannock was under my immediate valuable service with his division, speaks in high terms of the gallantry of Brigadier-Generals Duryea and Tower, both at Thoroughfare Gap and in the battle of the 30th, in which the former was slightly and the latter severely wounded.

The services of Tower's brigade were especially arduous, forming the rear guard on almost every occasion. On the retreat from Cedar Mountain, from the Rappahannock Station, from the Waterloo road, and from Thoroughfare Gap it had and undue share of the severities of this campaign. The general was detached from the division with his own and Hartsuff's brigade, and posted on the Bald Hill Ridge, where he remained till a severe wound forced him to retire.

Brigadier-General Hartsuff was so ill and weak from overwork as to have to move from place to place in an ambulance. He had rendered valuable service both at Cear Mountain and at Rappahannock, where he occupied the advanced position beyond the river. He would not leave his brigade, though unable to get on his horse, and to save his life I was obliged to interfere and have him quit us at Warrenton, and thus lost him in the battles which followed.

Colonel Carroll, and acting brigadier-general, commanding brigade, was wounded beyond Cedar Mountain in visiting the outposts, and left before we began the retreat. He had done good service at Cedar Mountain, and by his wound was lost to us in the succeeding battles.

Thus Ricketts' division lost all of its brigadiers.

Amongst others General Ricketts makes especial mention of those excellent volunteers, Colonel Root, Ninety-fourth New York Volunteers, who, although painfully wounded, continued on duty; of Colonel Coulter, Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, whose regiment bore the brunt of the action at Thoroughfare Gap, and of Colonel Thoburn, First Virginia, commanding Carroll's brigade after the latter was wounded.

Brigadier-General Reynolds, always active himself and whose division did good service in the campaign, makes especial mention of the services of Brigadier-Generals Meade, Seymour, and Jackson, commanding brigades; also of Surgeons King and Read, who remained on the field to attend to he wounded, there being no ambulances with the division to bring them away. General Reynolds mentions the First Rifles, under Colonel McNeil, to whose lost the advance skirmishing principally fell; the First Infantry, Colonel Roberts; the Second