stantly under fire, both cannon and musketry, day and night, and losing some 280 officers and men killed and wounded. During these twelve days the labor and military duty of the division were of the hardest kind and performed under the most disadvantageous circumstances-confined for ten days in narrow trenches with no water to wash with and none to during except that obtained at the risk of losing life. Unable to obey a call of nature or to stand erect without forming targets for hostile bullets, and subjected to the heat and dust of midsummer, which soon protected sickness and vein, the position was indeed a trying one, but all bore in cheerfully and contentedly, constructed covered ways down to the water and to the rear, and joked of the hostile bullets as they whites over their heads to find perhaps a less protected target far in the rear of the lines. I regard this as having been the most trying period of this most trying campaign.*

CONCLUSION.

To give some idea in regard to the losses and services of the division during this eventful campaign it becomes necessary to refer to certain facts:

The division left camp May 3 with three brigades, numbering in the aggregate 6,799. At Spotsylvania Court-House, May 16, it was joined by the Corcoran Legion, 1,521, and the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, Colonel F. A. Haskell, 765; on the next day by the Eighth New York Heavy Artillery, Colonel P. A. Porter, 1,654, and during first two weeks in June was further increased by 323. Total, 11,062.

Its losses up to July 30 were; Killed, 77 officers and 971 men; total, 1,048. Wounded, 202 officers and 3,825 men; total, 4,027. Total, 5,075, or 46 per cent, of the whole strength in killed and wounded alone. The Corcoran Legion and Eighth New York Heavy Artillery were formed into a fourth brigade. The brigades have had 17 different commanders, of when 3 have been killed and 6 wounded. Of the 279 officers killed and wounded 40 were regimental commanders. Of course, the bravest and most efficient officers and men were those fell; it is always so. These fact serve to demonstrate the wear and tear to the division, and to whew why it is that the troops, which at the commencement of the campaign were equal to almost any undertaking, become toward the end of it until for almost any. The effect upon the troops of the loss of such leaders as Tyler, Webb, Carroll, Baxter, Connot, McKeen, Ramsey, Blaisdell, Coons, Haskell, Porter, Murphy, McMahon, Macy, Curry, Priece, Abbott, Davis, Curtis, and a host of others, can be truly estimated only by one who has witnessed their conduct in the different battles. This report, written in the midst of active operations, is scarcely more than a general sketch, and must necessarily be very defective from the absence of so many sub-reports and the loss of so many commanders whose information would have served as a guide in awarding credit by special mention to many gallant officers and men, both of those who fell and those who have survived through this eventful and unexampled campaign. All the sub-reports received are inclosed herewith.

I have to thank the members of my staff for uniform and energetic attention to their duties, and gallant conduct in conveying

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* For portion of report (here omitted), see Vol. XL, Part I

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