HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT SOUTHEAST MISSOURI,
Cairo, Ill., November 5, 1861.

Colonel C. C. MARSH, Commanding Twentieth Illinois Volunteers:

COLONEL: I am instructed by General Grant, commanding, to extend to you and your command a cordial welcome on your return form the field of battle and of victory. The reports that have reached him from Fredericktown have filled him with the highest admiration of the valor and patriotism displayed by you and your command in that engagement. Amid the gloom that filled the country on the announcement of the reverses of our arms at Leesburg, Fredericktown arose and threw athwart the clouds its bow of promise. I t was your privilege to be among the foremost of that gallant band who raised our drooping banner and emblazoned it with victory. The importance of that success cannot be measured by any ordinary standard. It gave new life to tens of thousands of our discouraged soldiers. It crushed out the rebellion in Southeast Missouri; it sustained the prestige of victory to our flag, and not the least of your general's congratulations is that you have brought back your entire command.

WM. S. HILLYER,

Aide-de-Camp.

No. 8. Report of Lieutenant Colonel W. E. Panabaker, Eleventh Missouri Infantry, of engagement at Fredericktown.

HDQRS. ELEVENTH MISSOURI VOLUNTEERS,
Camp Girardeau, Mo., October 26, 1861.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on taken up our line of march for Fredericktown, on the morning of the 21st of October instant, five companies of my command, consisting of Company A, Lieutenant O'Donnell; Company C, Captain Warner; Company D, Captain Hendee; Company F, Captain Singleton, and Company K, Captain Stewart, marched immediately in the rear of the Seventeenth Illinois and in front of the baggage train; and four companies, consisting of Company B, Captain Weber; Company G, Lieutenant Carter; Company H, Captain Dollhan, and Company I, Acting Lieutenant Hummel, were detached as a guard to the train. About 10 o'clock a. m. I was ordered to detach a company as a guard to the center of the train, and Company D, Captain Hendee, was detached for that purpose. My command was marching in this order when the enemy was discovered. In obedience to orders I immediately formed the four companies that were in advance of the train in line of battle on the right of the Seventeenth Illinois and to the left of the battery commanded by Lieutenant White, and advanced on line with the Seventeenth until the enemy were driven from their position and completely routed, when I received an order to support Lieutenant White's battery on my right, which I did, and advanced with it to the extreme front and remained with it until the end of the engagement. The four companies guarding the train, under command of Captain Wever, were ordered forward, and joined by Captain Hendee, to support the battery during our advance on the left, and after the retreat of the enemy on our left Captain Weber was ordered and took position in line on the right of the Thirty-third Illinois, and