all under my command with promptness, energy, and zeal executed at all times every order and command given to them by me, and my warmest thanks are accorded to them, one and all.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES G. SPEARS,

Brig. Gen., Comdg. Twenty-fifth Brigade, Army of the Ohio.

Captain CHARLES O. JOLINE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

No. 6. Report of Colonel John F. De Courcy, Sixteenth Ohio Infantry, commanding Twenty-sixth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, of operations June 7-18.

HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SIXTH BRIGADE,
Cumberland Gap, June 20, 1862.

CAPTAIN: In accordance with the orders just received, I hereby submit to you, for the information of Brigadier-General Morgan, the following report of the march of the troops under my command from the Moss house, Cumberland Ford, to this point:

The march began on the 7th instant, at 4 o'clock a.m., when I moved the Twenty-sixth Brigade, composed of the Sixteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteers, Twenty-second Regiment Kentucky Volunteers, and the Forty-second Regiment Ohio Volunteers, a distance of 8 miles. This march, as well as those on the following days, was necessarily short, in consequence of the great difficulties encountered in moving the wagon train over very steep hills and very bad roads. ON the following day I marched the brigade 13 miles. On this march I had to detail 300 men to assist the wagon-train. The last 2 of the 8 miles marched on the 9th were full of difficulties, and the train was halted for eight hours, during which time the brigade was employed in constructing an almost entirely new line of road. On reaching camping ground that night I found myself in such a narrow gorge, and so near the mountain, that I deemed it common prudence to send forward six companies to take possession of all the defiles leading into that part of Powell's Valley opposite Wilson's and Rogers' Gaps. I instructed this duty to Lieutenant-Colonel Pardee, of the Forty-second Regiment Ohio Volunteers, who performed it in a manner which gave proof of his energy and military skill. When the enemy's pickets attempted, early in the morning, to crown the mountain with their vedettes, they were repulsed with a loss of 3 horses, which they left in their hurried retreat.

The march on the 10th instant offered few difficulties, and at 8 o'clock a.m. the brigade was encamped at the foot of the mountain. With as little delay as possible the work of clearing the heavy blockade was begun and completed under the able direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Monroe, Twenty-second Regiment Kentucky Volunteers, by 2 o'clock next day, and on the evening of that day the Twenty-sixth Brigade bivouacked on the south side of Rogers' Gap. The halt made here, and the partial countermarch which took place, being matters which concern the division, are out of my province, and need not from part of the report. The skirmishes which took place betwixt the enemy's cavalry and the pickets of my brigade were not of sufficient importance to demand more than a passing notice.

On the 18th instant I resumed the march, the force under my command