Numbers 234. Reports of Brigadier General Orlando B. Willcox, U. S. Army, commanding Third Division.

HDQRS. THIRD DIVISION, NINTH ARMY CORPS,
Before Petersburg, Va., September 13, 1864.

CAPTAIN: As the full report of this division for the campaign is yet delayed by the brigade commanders not sending their own reports, I beg leave to furnish you with the following preliminary sketch of the operations of the division:

In the Wilderness, on the 6th of May, the First Brigade, General Hartranft, in support of the Second Division, engaged the enemy where that division broke, and Hartranft held them in check until I came up with Second Brigade, Colonel Christ, which had been left temporarily to guard the Parker's Store road. In the afternoon, supported by the Second Division, we attacked the enemy, drove him back into his entrenchments, and opened communication with the Second Corps, which was the principal object of the movement, without, however, carrying the enemy's works, but which he evacuated during the night. On the 9th of May my orders were to march the division from near Chancellorsville to a place named Gate on the map, on the north side of the Ny River, and near where the Fredericksburg pike crosses that river toward Spotsylvania Court-House. Finding the enemy in small force at the bridge, I drove his skirmishers across, and, Christ's brigade leading, crossed the division and took position within 1 1/4 miles of Spotsylvania Court-House, where we repulsed repeated assaults of the enemy, and finally intrenched ourselves. I was re-enforced by the First Division about 12 m., after the fighting was over, except sharpshooting, in which, the next morning, the gallant Brigadier-General Stevenson, commanding First Division, was killed. On the 12th of May this division started in reserve after the corps, but came up into action in the morning on the left of the First Division, while we wee actually pressed on our left flank by the enemy. The division now held the extreme left of the whole army, and a furious assault was made upon us by the extreme left of the whole army, and a furious assault was made upon us by the enemy, who attempted to turn our left and capture our batteries. Anticipating this very movement, I had, however, requested Lieutenant Benjamin, chief of artillery, to bring up additional batteries to mine, which were Roemer's and Twitchell's. Benjamin massed two other batteries in rear of my left, and our artillery, with the supports, repulsed the enemy it slaughter, while the front attack was being made. The latter was not able to advance farther than the line of the First and Second Divisions, and lost some prisoners on the left flank, but one brigade which charged the left and the batteries was scattered, and its commander, Colonel Barbour, taken prisoner, with some 100 others of the enemy. The field of action remained in our hands, and we intrenched there.

May 31, on the Totopotomoy, the division advanced (or the left of the Second Division) out of our entrenchments to engage the enemy; took their skirmish pits and established a new advance line close up to the enemy's intrenched position, with our left thrown forward on the Grove Church road.

June 1, the enemy attacked the First Division immediately on our left, breaking the advance line of that division, across the Grove Church road, lately held by the Fifth Corps, but he failed to turn