alacrity by my regiment; not a man faltered or fell back. Our fire was delivered upon the enemy with great deliberation and accuracy, and when their lines were broken and they driven in rout from the field we were the first to occupy the ground.

In the long and hotly-contested fight of the afternoon my regiment was all the time in face of the enemy and under his severest fire. Three several times we were ordered against the rebel infantry and under the range of his batteries. Each time we drove them from the field. Late in the afternoon, by your order, we charged up the hill, in conjunction with the Twenty-first Iowa, and on the left of General Burbridge's brigade, against the enemy's lines, there strongly posted in almost impenetrable timber and underbrush. Though unable, rom the character of the ground and the raking fire of the enemy's batteries, to reach the extreme summit of the hill, we reached the point to which I was ordered and remained there, receiving and returning the enemy's fire, until about sundown, when, by your order, we returned to our former position, and remained upon the field until the firing had entirely ceased and quiet reigned along our whole line. Throughout these series of engagements the officers and men of my regiment behaved with great coolness and gallantry. I found them always ready and eager to obey the order to move on the enemy.

So well did the entire command acquit themselves that I cannot, without seeming invidious, enter into particulars. It is sufficient to say that they acted nobly, and well sustained the honors already so well earned by Iowa soldiers.

Great care was taken to shelter our men from the enemy's fire, which the unevenness of the ground enabled us to do with comparative success; yet the loss in this regiment being greater, with but one exception, than any other regiment in the brigade, shows clearly where we were in this long and hotly contested engagement, and that my men did not shrink from their duty.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to our surgeons, White and Peabody. Their department was conducted with skill and ability; their attention to the wounded was truly commendable, and will doubtless be long remembered by these unfortunates.

Very respectfully,

J. B. ATHERTON,

Major, Commanding Regiment.

Captain L. H. WHITTLESEY.

Number 22. Report of Major General James B. McPherson, U. S. Army, commanding SEVENTEENTH Army Corps, including operations April 18-May 19. HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS, In rear of Vicksburg, MISS., May 26, 1863.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of operations of the SEVENTEENTH Army Corps from the time of leaving Milliken's Bend, La., until our arrival before the land defenses of Vicksburg:

On my arrival at Milliken's Bend from Lake Providence with a portion of my command (the Seventh DIVISION), the Thirteenth Army Corps, Major-General McClernand commanding, had moved toward New Carthage, via Richmond and Smith's plantation. I was ordered to move