Numbers 155. Report of Brigadier General Frank Wheaton, U. S. Army, commanding First Brigade.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, SECOND DIV., SIXTH CORPS,
September 1, 1864.

MAJOR: For the information of the general commanding the division, I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this brigade during the late campaign, from the Rapidan to Petersburg:

FIRTS EPOCH.

May 4, 1864, the camp of the brigade was broken at 4 a. m., and the brigade marched via Stevensburg and Germanna plank road to Germanna Ford, on the Rapidan River, which we crossed at 1.30 p. m. of that day. The command was massed near the abandoned works of the enemy on the south side until 3 p. m., when it was marched to the vicinity of Flat Run, and bivouacked with the rest of the division for the night.

May 5, 1864, marched at 6.30 a. m. down the Chancellorsville road to within a quarter of a mile of its intersection with the Orange turnpike. The brigade was here massed on the left of the division, and immediately in front of army headquarters, until 11 a. m., when it was marched to and down the Brock dirt road to its intersection with the Orange plank road. Upon reaching this point it was found that our cavalry had been driven back from the direction of Parker's Store, and that the enemy's skirmish line was but a short distance from the junction, and advancing. The rapidity and character of his fire showed that it was an infantry force, and the two leading regiments of the brigade (the Ninety-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Long, and One hundred and thirty-ninth Pennsylvania volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel W. H. Moody) were deployed with the grates rapidity to the left and right of the plank road, and succeeded in checking their farther advance. About this time I was informed by General Getty, commanding the division (under whose immediate supervision the movement of the brigade had thus far been made), that he had received instructions from headquarters of the army to attack at once, without waiting the arrival of the Second Corps, which was coming up on the left from the direction of Chancellorsville. He directed me to take the advance on the right (north) of the plank road, and the following disposition of regimens was made:With its left on the road and in the front line the One hundred and second Pennsylvania Volunteers, Colonel J. W. Patterson, was posted; on his right the One hundred and thirty-ninth Pennsylvania volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel W. H. Moody, and on the right of that the Sixty-second New York Veteran Volunteers, Colonel D. J. Nevin. In the second line next the road was the Ninety-eighth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Colonel J. R. Ballier, and on its right the Ninety-third Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel J. S. Long. At 4 p. m., in conjunction with the rest of the division, the lines advanced, and notwithstanding the dense woods and underbrush, their alignments were well preserved. After an advance of about an eighth of a mile the skirmish line became warmly engaged, and a short distance farther were involved in the line of battle, which at the