manded his company (K) during the engagement, behaving with marked coolnes and courage. He was severely wounded near the close of the fight on the ridge. First Sergt. George W. Shuman, of Company I, distinguished himself by gallant conduct during the engagement, especially by taking the colors of the regiment from Corporal Mullen, who had fallen wounded, and keeping them aloft and in the front through the hottest of the fight. Sergeants Talbot and Westerman, of Company B, were killed on the ridge and in the front. Sergts. Lafayette Hadley, of Company B; Thomas Harney, of Company E, and A. B. White, of Company K, are all entitled to special notice for gallantry, as are also Privates Cox, Marsh, and McNeeloey, of Company A, and many others whose gallant deeds, though telling in the fight, were not specialy observed and reported.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J. W. BISHOP,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Second Minnesota Volunteers.

Captain JOHN R. BEATTY.

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, 2nd Brigadier, 3rd Div., 14th Army Corps.

[31.]

Report of Lieutenant Henry. Ayers, Acting Signal Officer, U. S. Army.

HDQRS. SIGNAL CORPS, DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Chattanooga, Tenn., January 19, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of communication from the office of the Signal Officer of the Army, dated Washington, D. C., January 11, 1864. I would most respectfully state that I am not aware that I was guilty of the grave charges brought against me in that document, and in vinkication I have the honor to submit the following report of the duties I had the privilege of performing in the late brilliant achievement of the battle of Lookout Mountan by Major-General Hooker: On the morning of the 24th instant, while on duty at the signal station in Lookout Valley, I was called upon by Major-General Hooker to furnish from two to hour signal officers to accompany him on the expedition to Lookout, to report without delay. This was the first notification that I had of the movement. I at once signaled to Captain Merril, chief signal officer of this department, for instructions, and was ordered by him to join General Hooker myself, and that officers would immediately be sent forward to join me. The station I then held was important, and I was obliged to leave the only officer at my command with men and necessary equipments to run it. Taking with me one man, flag, and pole, and depending upon the officers reporting during the day with men and apparatus for any future operations, I immediately joined Major-General Hooker, and received and sent during the entire engagement, constantly under fire, the messages marked A, B, C, D, acompayning this report, which proves whether I was supplied with day signals, or was not.

After the battle of the 24th instant was over and we had gained the heights, I reported to Major-General Hooker that the officers ordered to report had not done so. The reason of their not reporting will, I think, satisfactorily explain why I was not supplied with night signals. Major-General Hooker said there was no further use for me that night, and ordered meto return to my station in Lookout Valley, and if possible call in a signal officer who was on a station of observation on