you himself his congratulations upon your success and his appreciation of your daring and gallantry. To have carried by storm, with a mere skirmish line and a feeble support in numbers, powerful earth-works, a strong natural position, manner by the flower of the rebel army, and strengthened by artillery, would be an achievement that a division of our forces might well feel pride in; but it was not too much for the gallant sons of Maine and Wisconsin.

Your general felt confident that soldiers who in camp observed all the strict rules of military life with fidelity, would prove equally reliable in the field; and in this, his first essay of your prowess, you exceeded his most sanguine expectations.

With the actual results of your engagement, you are all too familiar to render any recapitulation necessary, but there is the further reflection, to offset the saddening influence of the loss of your well-tried and courageous brothers in arms, that any subsequent attack upon your opponents, better prepared and strengthened as they would have been, must have been attended with a yet sadder and it may be a less successful result.

The hearty, generous, and glorious support of Pennsylvania in the strife, as represented by the Forty-ninth and One hundred and nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, should serve to bind yet closer to-gether the East, the Middle States, and the West, and to her troops belong no small of our victory.

And it is just and fitting here to acknowledge the soldierly conduct and valuable assistance of Colonel Upton and his gallant regiments, the Fifth Maine and One hundred and twenty-first New York. Prompt in their support, they deserve our heartiest thanks, as by their bravery they won a large share of the honors of the day.

The banners of these regiments should bear the name "Rappahannock Station," to perpetuate, so long as those banners shall endure, dropping and shredding away though they ma, for generations the proud triumph won by you on the 7th of November, 1863.

By command of Brigadier General D. A. Russell:

C. H. HURD,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 30. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas B. Catlin, Fifth Wisconsin Infantry, of engagement at Rappahannock Station.

CAMP NEAR BRANDY STATION, VA., November 8, 1863.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by this regiment in the engagement of yesterday, November 7, before Rappahannock Station, Va.:

On the morning of the 7th instant, the regiment marched from Warrenton and halted in line of battle about 1 mile north of Rappahannock Station. We remained in this position until shortly before dark, when we received orders to move forward toward the river. Halting long enough to load, we pressed on to the front.

When we arrived within about a quarter of a mile in front of the enemy's works, we moved on at a double-quick until we arrived at