the field indications were observed in the direction of the enemy's entrancements of a hostile movement. This was about 1 o'clock p. m. General Wallace, whose division was formed near the ground selected for my second line, file it to the right, and, guided by Captain Stewart of my staff, formed a portion of his fresh troops in front of my second line and in close supporting distance of it, resting the left upon a section of Taylor's battery, which Captain Schwartz, of my staff, had, under my instructions, posted so as to command the road leading back to my former position. The remainder of the battery was placed a short distance in the rear, to guard against a flank approach either from the right or left.

From this position Captain Taylor opened a fire of canister, and was soon after joined by Lieutenant Wood, with a section of Willard's battery, who also opened a fire in the same direction, and generously renewed Captain Taylor's failing stock of ammunition. Several of the enemy afterwards found dead some 400 yards above in the road were supposed to have been killed by the fire of these guns.

Colonel L. F. Ross, of the Seventeenth, who had been assigned by you to the Third Brigade of my division, came up about this time and took command of it. General Wallace, having formed the line already mentioned, also opened a fire of musketry in the dame general direction, of infantry in the thick woods in front and to the left of his line. About the same time Dresser's battery was advanced under my order upon the same road to a position in front, land opened a fire intended to command the approach to our present position across Indian Creek and to silence the guns of the enemy in that direction. This fire was continued and returned with much spirit for some time. One of the shots from redan Numbers 2, scathing a tire close to Lieutenant Harrison C. Barger, a brave and promising young officer, stunned him by concussion of the air.

While little or no loss was sustained on our part in this second engagement, it served to discourage the enemy and relieve us from any further attack. We rested upon our arms until about 1.30 o'clock p. m., when your arrival gave promise that the general wish to advance would soon be gratified. In reply to my suggestion, urging a simultaneous assault command was put in readiness to move while you returned to put the Second Division in motion. Sending Major mudd, of the Second Illinois Cavalry, to reconnoiter to the right and front, he hastened forward through thick woods and across a field covered with snow in that direction, and, finding a detached body of the enemy, he reported the fact. About the same the Eight Missouri and Eleventh Indiana came up, and, forming on the right of General Wallace's line, advanced in the same direction.

Major Brayman, my adjutant, and others, in the mean time reporting the hearing of commands in the thick woods a short distance in front and to the left of Taylor's battery and the discovery of other hostile indications farther down in the valley of Indian Creek, I ordered Colonel Wallace to form the Second Brigade in line of battle, resting their right upon the battery and their left near Indian Creek. This dispositions, being promptly executed, commanded the space between Taylor's battery and the right of General Smith, and thus protected the left of the second line of battle from flank attack.

While these movements were being executed the sound of General Smith's musketry was heard, indicating an attack upon redan Numbers 1, in his front. Soon after, Colonel Webster, chief of your staff, came with