Numbers 100.

Reports of Major John R. Edie, Fifteenth U. S. Infantry, commanding Second Brigade.

HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, FIRST DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS,
Jonesborough, Ga., September 3, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit for the information of the general commanding the division the following report of the operations of this brigade on the 1st instant:

At an early hour in the morning we took up our line of march from Mrs. Evans' farm in the direction of the railroad leading from Atlanta to Macon. We marched in rear of the Third Brigade. After proceeding some four or five miles, we reached a point on the Jonesborough road, about a mile and a half from the town and the railroad. A line of battle was there formed on the left of the Third Brigade, deploying the Sixteenth Infantry, Captain Barry, as skirmishers, and sending him forward with instructions to advance his line and drive the enemy until the railroad was reached. Captain W. J. Fetterman, Eighteenth Infantry, acting assistant adjutant-general of the brigade, accompanied the Sixteenth, and reports its duties well and creditably performed. Captain Barry's regiment took possession of a point on the railroad, about two miles north of Jonesborough, and held it until the troops of the Fourth Corps occupied the ground. It then returned to the brigade, which had in the mean time been ordered forward and taken position on the right of the Third Brigade. The Nineteenth Infantry had been thrown to the front to make a connection with the skirmish line of General Morgan's division, on our right, and the Third Brigade, on our left. As we advanced some of the companies of the Nineteenth Infantry were thrown out of the skirmish line, and were formed in the line of battle on the right of the brigade. About 3 p. m. the brigade in a single line of battle, and without any support, was ordered to advance and attack the enemy in his works. Two regiments, the Sixteenth and Eighteenth, had to move through a dense thicket, which caused some confusion in their alignment. The two battalions of the Fifteenth and the part of the Nineteenth in the line of battle passed through an open field. After emerging from the wood the entire brigade had to pass a morass, densely covered wit brambles and undergrowth, so that it was impossible to preserve an exact alignment. The officers and men, however, pressed through the swamp, and rushed gallantly up the hill in the face of a galling fire from the enemy, and before support of any kind was given them, succeeded in driving the enemy from their front line of works, which was held until some troops of General Baird's division were brought up to our relief. On the arrival of General Baird's troops the brigade, which had suffered severely from the enemy's fire, and had exhausted its supply of ammunition, fell back to the rear of the support, leaving them to finish the work they had so well begun; this General Baird's troops did with great gallantry. At dark, our ammunition replenished, we were again put in the front line, to the left of our point of attack, threw up works, held them through the night, and in the morning found no trace of the enemy. They had fled. In our attack a large number of prisoners were sent to the rear, but on account of troops from two divisions participating in the attack at the same point, it is impossible to say how many of the prisoners belonged to the brigade and how many to General Baird's troops.

I deem it a most pleasurable duty to express the opinion that the