and holding two in reserve, and to take and hold, in conjunction with Colonel Kirby's command, a bald knob in front of the left of our position and the right of Colonel Kirby's brigade, of the First Division, and which the enemy then held with a strong line of skirmishers, protected by rifle-pits. The position had been taken the day before by a regiment of Colonel Kirby's brigade, and they had been compelled to relinquish it. Under instructions from General Howard, delivered in person, I reconnoitered the position and satisfied myself that in order to hold it after it was taken it would be necessary to drive the enemy out of and hold the woods to the right of and front of the knob, which would afford him a good cover to rally under in case he was driven off the knob, or to mass any force with which he might attempt to retake the position. Accordingly, Company B, Lieutenant Smith, and Company G, Captain Dawson, were moved forward by the right flank under cover of a skirt of woods to a place as near the knob as they could get without exposing themselves, with instructions that on the signal from the bugle they should make a right wheel and dash rapidly for the enemy's rifle-pits on top of the knob without halting to fire. Company E, Lieutenant Du Bois, and Company K, Captain Corroll, were moved directly in rear of Companies B and G, with instructions that as soon as the movement was begun by Companies B and G, so that they would have room, to deploy as skirmishers, connecting the left to Company K with the right of Company G, and dash forward into the woods to the right of the knob. The other six companies were moved in column of company, left in front, directly in rear of Companies E and K. At the signal the front companies, B, G, K, and E, dashed forward in splendid style and with such rapidity that the astonished enemy had hardly time to get off, as we captured some 25 or 30 in their works, but in going to the rear some of them went into the lines of the First Division and we got no credit for them. As soon as the front companies had gained the top of the knob and driven the enemy back in the woods I deployed the other six companies by the right flank on the left company and moved them rapidly forward, so that the left of the left company (H) struck the top of the knob and the right extended out into the woods near the open field, near where the left of General Hazen's brigade afterwards rested. As it was General Howard's instructions that we should fortify and hold the knobs at all hazards, I immediately set to work with three companies on the left, viz, H, Lieutenant Dorneck; C, Captain Byrd, and I, Captain George W. Cummins, together with the pioneers of the brigade, who had been ordered to report to me for that purpose, to fortify the knob. This we did under a most terrific fire from two or three batteries of the enemy posted in their main line of works from 600 to 700 yards distant. At the same time the other seven companies of the regiment were engaged in a hard in a hard fight in the woods to the right of the knob, as the enemy had (as we learned afterwards from their newspapers) determined to retake the position, and had sent two regiments, the Fifteenth and Thirty-seventh Tennessee, for that purpose. They approached through the woods to our right and were gallantly met by these seven companies, their advance checked, and, with the assistance of the Forty-ninth Ohio, which about this time came to our support, driven back with a very heavy loss, as they admit, leaving a number of their dead and wounded in our hands. We were then relieved for a short time, until we had gathered