of the command resting upon me. Of the officers connected with this command I cannot speak in to high terms of commendation. They, with one or two exceptions, conducted themselves with remarkable coolness and intrepidity. Colonel Lawler, although severely wounded, remainder on the ground until the regiment had all retired, exhibiting through out the trying scene a perfect coolness and self-possession.*

Permit me here to congratulate you, sir, upon the skilful and satisfactory manner in which you conducted your command.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. B. MARKS,

Captain, Commanding Eighteenth Illinois Regiment.

Colonel RICHARD J. OGLESBY,

Commanding First Brigade.

Numbers 10. Report of Captain Jasper M. Dresser, Battery A, Illinois Light Artillery.

FORT DONELSON, February 19, 1862.

COLONEL: I have the honor to hand you herewith a report of the operations of my battery during the battle before Fort Donelson on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th instant

We arrived before Fort Donelson on the 12th instant, and were ordered by you to the front with one gun, with which we opened fire upon the enemy's camp at a distance of three quarters of a mile. We expended in this fire 21 shells under your direction. The result was to disperse a body of infantry which was drawn up in line of battle and to compel the enemy to strike their tents in that camp. During the remainder of the day we followed the movements of your brigade. That night we lay in the woods with our teams hitched up and the men with their equipments on. The next day, the 13th, we again moved forward under your direction, taking a position opposite to a four-gun battery, which we engaged and silenced in fifteen minutes. We were again ordered forward, when we became engaged with a battery of two guns, which was compelled to leave the field in ten minutes. We were again ordered forward, when we became engaged with a battery of two guns, which was compelled to leave the field in ten minutes. We again limbered up and moved forward to position where the batteries of Captains Schwartz and Taylor were engaged with a battery of the enemy. By our united efforts this battery was silenced when we had expended but five rounds with each gun. The balance of the day we were engaged in shelling the enemy's camp, with what result I am unable to say. This day we exhausted our ammunition. On the 14th we were not engaged. We, hoverer, received a supply of 120 rounds in the following proportions: 75 shells, 30 solid shot, and 15 canister.

On the morning of the 15th we received orders from General McClernand to report at the place we first opened upon the enemy's battery on the morning of the 13th, and engaged a battery which had been planted during the night opposite to that position. This we did under the fire of three different batteries. We succeeded after a desperate resistance, in forcing the enemy to withdraw their batteries and leave us masters of the field. We were then ordered back to our camp and to hold ourselves in readiness to move forward. About 3 o'clock we were ordered to the position we occupied in the morning. We

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*List of casualties shows 53 killed, 158 wounded, and 18 missing.

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