position on the extreme right, connecting with the left of the Twenty- third Corps. The Fifteenth Army Corps, connecting with Sweeny's division, was in position with the First DIvision, Brigadier General C. R. Woods, on the right, the Second Division, General M. L. Smith, in the center, and the Fourth DIvision, General Harrow, on the left. The extreme left of the line was held by the Seventeenth Corps, disposed as follows; The Third Division, General Leggett, on the right, and the Fourth Division, General Giles A. Smith, on the left. The Third Division, General Leggett, occupied a hill, a military position of great importance, and athe Fourth Division was in position on a continuation of the ridge along the McDonough road, with its left flank refused toward the east. The First Brigade, Forth Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, General Fullery, was in reserve to the Seventeenth Corps. The Second Cavalry Division, General Garrard, which had been covering the flank and the trains, of the command at Decatur, having been sent on an expedition to Covington, the Second Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, commanded by Colonel Sprague, was posted at Decatur, three miles to our rear and right, to cover the supply trains. The position occupied by the army was intrenched, and crossed the Augusta railroad at the connection of the First and Second Divisions of the Fifteenth Corps. At at early hour in the morning it was discovered that the enemy had abandoned their line of works in our front, and fallen back to their main intrenchments about Atlanta. Our lines were at once advanced, the rebel pickets readily drriven in, and the line which the rebels had held the evening before was occupied. By order of Generl McPherson, the troops at once commenced to reverse the works. The Fifteenth COrps was moved up to the rebel line in the same position, by divisions, as it held the previous day. Of the Seventeenth Corps only the skirmish line was advanced. The main force remained on the hill and the ridge along the McDonough road, a prolongation of the line of the Fifteenth Corps. two regiments of Colonel Hill's brigade, the extreme left of General Smith's division, being refused. Soon after the occupation of this line, General McPherson ordered General Dodge to withdraw General Sweeney;s division, of the Sixteenth Corps, from the right and mass it in the rear of a new position, to be selected for the Seventeenth Corps. The division moved along a road parallel to the railroad, and bivouacked about theree- quarters of a mile in rear of the Seventeenth Corps. General McPherson also ordered Geenral Dodge to put a brigade of his FourthDivisin or the left of the position assigned to the Seventeenth Corps. The brigade had not yet moved when the attack was made.

The interval between the Fifteenth and Twenty- third Corps, made by the withdrawal of Sweeny's divisiom, was filled by moving up the right of the Fifteenth and left of the Twenty- third Corps. Very soon after 123 o'clock the pickets of General Giles A. Smith's division, of the Seventeenth Corps, which had been thrown out a mile and a half in rear of his line and in frnt of General Sweeny's division, of the Sixteenth Corps, were attacked. Skirmishers were thrown out by Geeneral Sweeny, who at once found the enemy advancing toward the Sixteenth Corps. The enemy had moved a heavy force into the woods on the left flank and rear of the Seventeenth Corps, with the evident intention of striking the left of the Seventeenth Corps, and at the same time throwing a heavy column in its rear. At the time the firing commenxced General McPherson was near the Fifteenth