some time by the almost impassable nature of the swamp at the point at which they crossed.

Praise is due to Colonel Corse, Seventeenth Vir

had originally formed) standing fast at or near the ing, took position on Branch's right. If it had position they had occupied in the beginning, and been possible for these brigades to have advanced near the line from which my advance was begun. simultaneously with my own, the victory of the I was informed that this regiment had remained day would have been achieved on the right of our from the first in that position, having received no line with comparatively little difficulty, and at an subsequent orders to move forward. I trust I early hour. When my line emerged into the shall not be understood as alleging or intimating open field in front of the enemy's batteries, the any delinquency upon the part of the Second Seventh Virginia, commanded by Colonel W. T. brigade, and I certainly do not undertake to Patton, gallantly assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel say at what time that brigade, commanded by Flowree and Major Swindler, was in good order, Colonel Jenkins, advanced; but, if its advance considering the difficulties of the ground over was simultaneous with my own, it must have which it had passed; and this regiment and the happened that the lines of advance of the two First Virginia, nobly sustained by such portions brigades were so divergent as to leave a wide in- of the other regiments as had come up, made the terval between the right of the one and the left first daring charge which drove the enemy from of the other. Whatever were the operations of his position. Seven companies of the Seventhe Second brigade, they were doubtless in keep-teenth Virginia were unavoidably delayed for ing with its proud character in the past, and that of its gallant commander. All that I undertake to state positively in this connection is, that the right regiment of the Second brigade did not ad-ginia, and to Lieutenant-Colonel Hairston, Twenvance for a long time after my brigade had been moved forward, and that at the time when my command had obtained virtual possession of the enemy's position, no Confederate troops were anywhere visible except my own. It now became The same praise is accorded to Captain K. Otey, evident that the position sought to be held by my commanding Eleventh Virginia; Captain Norton, command was wholly untenable by them, unless commanding First Virginia; Lieutenant-Colonel largely and immediately reenforced. The inferior Marye and Captain Simpson, of the Seventeenth, numbers which had alarmed the enemy and fell into the hands of the enemy, while dischardriven him from his breastworks and batteries ging their duties with conspicuous gallantry. I soon became apparent to him, and he at once am satisfied all the field officers did well. I esproceeded to make use of his advantage. While pecially commend the good conduct of Captain greatly superior numbers hung upon our front, W. T. Fry, my A. A. General, and Mr. A. Camp considerable bodies of the enemy were thrown Beckham, who acted as my volunteer Aid-deupon both flanks of my command, which was now camp. in imminent danger of being wholly captured or destroyed. Already they were capturing officers and men at different points of my line, principally upon the right. No reenforcements appeared, and the dire alternative of withdrawing from the position, although of obvious and inevitable necessity, was reluctantly submitted to.

ty-fourth Virginia, as well as to Colonel W. T. Patton, Seventh Virginia, (who acted with eminent gallantry,) for discharging their duties with the utmost fidelity and bravery.

Among those reported to me as deserving especial notice for gallantry on the field, are Captain Joel Blanchard, company D, and Lieutenant W. W. Gooding, company K, Seventh Virginia, who were both killed, Lieutenant W. E. Harrison, company A, Sergeant-Major Tansill and ColorSergeant Mays, both wounded, and both of whom had distinguished themselves in the battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines; First Sergeant William Apperson, company C, who was killed, and private George Watson, company F, who has also repeatedly distinguished himself for bravery, all of the Seventh Virginia regiment.

Owing to the difficulties offered by the wilderness through which the brigade had advanced, the task of reassembling and re-forming the regiments was attended with much trouble. I sent out details as speedily as possible to direct officers and men where to re-form, and as soon as this task was accomplished, imperfectly it is true, Captain James Mitchell, company C, and Lieubut as effectually as was possible at so late an tenant Logan Robins, company B, First Virginia hour of the day, I repaired to General Long-regiment, both of whom were wounded; Lieustreet's headquarters as soon as I could find them, and, under instructions there received, it now being night, I proceeded to select a suitable position on the road in the rear, at which stragglers could be arrested, and such of my men as had not then come in could be re-collected.

I should have mentioned before, that soon after my command was overpowered, and before all of it had fallen back, General Branch's brigade was found coming up, and General Branch was shown by me into the position which my gallant men had vainly sought to hold against overwhelming odds; and immediately afterward the Third brigade of this division, Colonel Hunton command

tenant W. R. Abbott, company E, and Lieutenant E. T. Dix, company K, Eleventh Virginia, both of whom were killed; Lieutenant Calfee, company G, of the Twenty-fourth Virginia, who was killed within a few paces of the enemy's battery, and Captains Bentley and Nowlin, of the same regiment. I doubt not there are many others, omitted in the reports, who equally distinguished themselves. The list of killed and wounded is made up of the very best officers and men of which my command could boast.

The following is a recapitulation of the losses of the day, of which full returns have already been rendered:

Brigadier-General, commanding First Brigade, Longstreet's Division. he did not meet Major-General Hill, and did not find the state of battle such as to require my moving forward without waiting for orders, I remained in position. The brigade lay on its arms that night. Early in the morning of the twentyseventh, I received orders from General Hill to take the advance with the Second brigade, and to drive the enemy from their position on Beaver Dam Creek, at Ellyson's Mills. Forming the First regiment South Carolina volunteers, Colonel Hamilton commanding, and the Twelfth, Colonel Barnes, in line of battle, with two companies of skirmishers

Lieutenant-Colonel Cadwallader Jones, to meet brow of the hill on the Cold Harbor side, from the enemy seen on the left, took and brought in which he commenced firing on the enemy across some twelve of the prisoners, belonging in chief the valley, who replied from batteries on the hill to regiments of Pennsylvania reserves. At the in our front. In this position, with the fire of arintersection of the roads, near Walnut Grove tillery passing over head, the infantry remained Church, where Major-General Hill stopped to at a halt, by General Hill's orders, from about confer with Major-General Jackson, I received half past two o'clock until four, to await the forGeneral Hill's further instructions, and resumed mation of the line of battle on our right and left, the advance on the roads running near the Chick-preparatory to a general attack. When General ahominy to Gaines's Mill. Approaching the vi- Hill sent the order to make the attack, I directed cinity of Hogan's house, where General Lee the First and Twelfth regiments to advance up stopped me by the roadside and gave me further the hill-side. The ground, especially in front of directions for advancing and attacking the enemy, the First, was covered with a dense thicket of I moved the brigade forward in nearly the same young pines. As our troops ascended toward order as the first- the First and Twelfth regi- the open ground, they were met by a continuous ments leading, with skirmishers in front. In fire of small arms from a much superior number compliance with a request sent me by General of troops, and at the same time were exposed to Longstreet, I rode hastily across to Hogan's a heavy fire of artillery, both direct and oblique. house, where I informed General Longstreet of The fire was so destructive they could not adthe route by which my brigade was moving, and vance farther. Finding that great damage was learned from him the parallel road on my right, done by an enfilading fire from a battery establishby which his troops were to move. In approach- ed a good distance to our right, I directed Colonel ing Powhite Creek, we passed an extensive de- Marshall, with his regiment, to charge and take serted camp of the enemy, with great quantities it, throwing forward two companies in open orof accoutrements and stores abandoned or burn- der, supported by two others, as a reserve, in ing. A large pontoon train was burning in a close order, and following with the rest of the field to our left. The enemy made some stand at regiment, joined in column of companies. ColGaines's Mill, and here our skirmishers (Cor-onel Marshall, addressing a few brief and stirring dew's and Haskell's companies, of the First, and Miller's, of the Twelfth) became sharply engaged. The enemy was sheltered by trees. Our riflemen availed themselves of the inequalities of the ground, where they could fire and load lying down. This exchange of fire having continued for some time, while the First and Twelfth were preparing to advance in line, and judging that a rapid charge of skirmishers would dislodge the enemy, with least loss to our troops, I ordered them forward at the double-quick. At the word of command the riflemen sprang to their feet, and, advancing impetuously, drove the enemy before them. The First and Twelfth now followed in line of battle, and, after the bridges on the creek and mill-race, torn up by the enemy, had been rebuilt by a working party under Lieutenants Johnson and Izard, of the engineer corps, crossed the stream and again formed line of battle on the brow of the hill to advance, supported by the other two regiments.

words to his regiment, proceeded upon the execution of this highly perilous service in the handsomest manner. The two flank companies of Captain D. M. Perrin and Captain T. J. Norton, were thrown forward as skirmishers, under command of Captain Perrin. The companies of Captains Miller and Miles M. Norton followed in support. The four leading companies were all under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Ledbetter. The charge was made at the doublequick, the column of six companies being deployed into line after reaching the open ground. A most destructive fire of musketry and artillery, in front and in flank, did not check the charge, which was continued for several hundred yards, across the open ground and into a wood, where several regiments of the enemy were posted. The battery, which was the object of the charge, had been withdrawn. The regiment, on reaching the wood, commenced firing on the enemy's infantry, and drove them in, many of the men enIt was now nearly two o'clock P. M. The ad-gaging in a hand-to-hand conflict with the bayovance across the plain, which extends from the valley of Powhite Creek to that beyond Cold Harbor, was made rapidly and steadily, under the fire of the enemy's skirmishers. For a good part of the distance, the line advanced at the doublequick. Among the troops driven from the ground, the Ninth Massachusetts was noticed. Descending into the hollow beyond Cold Harbor, the sides of which are wooded and the bottom occupied by a marsh somewhat difficult to cross, the brigade dislodged the enemy, and was formed in two lines. The first consisted of the First and Twelfth regiments, on the farther hill-side; the second consisted of the First rifles and the Thirteenth, in the low grounds, behind Captain Crenshaw's guns, now placed in battery near the

net and with clubbed rifles. A strong body of New York Zouaves now made a hot attack on the left wing and flank of the regiment. They were repulsed and brought to a stand by the steady and well-directed fire from a party which, on the spur of the moment, and with marked presence of mind and skill, Lieutenant Higgins formed to check them. Colonel Marshall, finding that no support was sent to him from the rest of the brigade, now too hard pressed on its front, ordered his regiment to fall back, and re-formed it in the wooded hollow, some distance to the right of its original position, where a North Carolina regiment, which just then came up, aided in holding the ground. Of five hundred and thirty-seven men carried into action, Colonel Marshall's regi

ment lost eighty-one killed and two hundred and The bridge at which they met was one constructed thirty-four wounded. Nearly all this loss oc- by the enemy opposite Dr. Friend's house, and curred in the charge just described. I refer to torn up and burned by the enemy the night before. Colonel Marshall's report for the names of many Leaving his horse at the river, Captain Hammond gallant officers mentioned by him, both those got across on foot, and carried the order to Colowho fell on the field and those who passed safely nel McGowan, who at once led his men across through. I have to remark that, in the two lead- the valley, and hastily repairing the bridge, ing companies deployed in open order, the loss marched on for the battle-field, under the conwas not so heavy in proportion as in the other stant fire from one of the enemy's batteries. Stopcompanies. I have no doubt but, by drawing the ping the fire of Crenshaw's battery for a short time, fire of the enemy, those companies made the loss to allow a passage through the guns, I ordered in the whole regiment less than it otherwise the Fourteenth forward. Tired as they were, would have been. While the First rifles were thus by two days and three nights of outpost duty, and engaged, the First and the Twelfth regiments, al- by a rapid march under a burning sun, they rethough relieved from the enfilading fire of the covered strength at once, and advanced with a battery on the right, had a hard struggle to cheer at the double quick. Leading his regiment to maintain their ground against the superior forces the right of the Thirteenth, and across the holin their front. The Twelfth was able at one low, Colonel McGowan arrived just in time to time to gain some distance in advance in the repulse the advancing enemy, and prevent him open field; but Colonel Barnes, found it necessary from establishing a battery on the edge of the to withdraw it, and re-form his line on or near his open ground on the brow of the hill. The Fouroriginal ground in the hollow. Two of the com- teenth was formed along a fence, up the hill, on panies of this regiment at first, McMeekin's and the other side of the hollow, and maintained its Erwin's, afterward relieved by Booker's and position gallantly to the end of the battle. After company G, Lieutenant Garvin commanding, it had held it some time alone, other troops came had, during the halt in the hollow, been de- up, and in concert with a North Carolina and a ployed as skirmishers in advance, to watch the Georgia regiment, the Fourteenth made a charge enemy. The two last named only resumed their across an open field for the purpose of taking a places in line after the return to the hollow. At battery. In this charge Colonel McGowan was this time, in consequence of the difficulty of the bruised by a grape-shot, and for a short time disground, the right of the Twelfth got in rear of abled. The distance to the battery being too the First, and there was much danger, in such a great, and the fire, both direct and across, too thicket, of the First suffering from the fire of heavy, our troops halted and lay down to shelthat portion of the Twelfth behind it, until Col- ter themselves, then retired, and the Fourteenth onel Hamilton interposed and prevented it. The resumed its position near the brow of the hill, Twelfth advanced again, abreast with the First, where, after the battle, it lay on its arms. Meanand the two regiments fought bravely to main- while, the Thirteenth held its position, Colonel tain their ground, but suffered great loss, and Edwards commanding. The enemy did not venwere compelled to full back in some disorder. ture to charge directly down the hill upon his In the First regiment all the members of the position, but kept up a constant fire, which caused color guard were shot down around Colonel considerable loss. Colonel Edwards threw forHamilton, who, for part of the time, bore the ward his right company, deployed as skirmishers, colors himself. Colonel Barnes, of the Twelfth, to dislodge the enemy from the pines in front and received a hurt which, although he did not leave on the right, then ordered the rest of the regiment the field, in a great measure disabled him for the to take position a little in advance of the foot of the rest of the day. The nature of the ground ren-hill, beyond the boggy stream. From this difficulty dering it impracticable to preserve or establish reg-of crossing the bog and the incessant roar of cannon ularity in the front line, I therefore ordered Colonel and musketry, his commands not being well heard, Edwards to hold the Thirteenth ready to receive a separation of the regiments took place. A part the enemy with a steady fire, at short range, if of the left wing effected the movement intended they should descend the hill-side through the pine by Colonel Edwards, and maintained the new pothicket. The Twelfth not being at the time so sition until the close of the battle. The right and heavily pressed as the First, I left it to continue centre companies, supposing the order to be to the struggle; the First I ordered to re-form at move in a different direction, marched under Colosome distance in the rear of the Thirteenth, retir-nel Farrow a short distance to the rear. Desiring ing around the left of that regiment. The Four- to form a reserve of this force and of the First teenth regiment, Colonel McGowan, now arrived regiment for further movements, I directed Major on the field at the moment it was so greatly needed. By General Lee's order, I had sent my Aid-decamp, Captain Henry Hammond, across the valley of the Chickahominy, to relieve this regiment from duty on the post so long occupied by it, and to guide it to the brigade. Captain Hammond met, at the river, Captains Wood and Taggert, sent forward with their companies by Colonel McGowan, to endeavor to communicate with me.

Farrow to march farther to the right and rear, and form near Colonel Hamilton. Two companies of the First, those of Captain W. T. Haskell and A. P. Butler, not having heard the order to retire, remained engaged in the front, and on the advance of the other troops, acted in concert with those nearer them, to the end of the battle. Before I made any further dispositions of the portions of the First and Thirteenth, under Colonel Hamilton and Major