marched into battle under more unfavorable auspices and never bore themselves more gallantly. During the whole of the long and terrific battle neither officer nor man wavered for one moment. When all behaved so well there is little room for discriminative commendation of any. Many of them had been exposed, after great fatigue, to a heavy rain the night before on the steamboats, and all of them were necessarily greatly crowded, so that they could not sleep, and as they marched from the boats they passed through and among the ten thousand fugitives from the fight of the day before, who lined the banks of the river and filled the woods adjacent to the Landing. Within a quarter of a mile of the Landing, and directly on the way to our position on the field, lay hundreds of dead men, mostly our own, whose mangled bodies and distorted features presented a horrible sight. Numerous dead horses and our partially-sacked camps gave evidence of the havoc, and, which was far worse, of the reverses and disasters of the day before.

All around them impressed them with the belief that they must fight the battle for themselves. It must not be forgotten that we fought this battle some miles within the lines of the encampment of General Grant's army and in the camps occupied by his troops, and it was thereby rendered apparent to the most ignorant soldier that the army had been driven in by the enemy till within a few hundred yards of the river and that the work before us was by no means easy. Under all these unfavorable circumstances you will recollect, sir, the men were in no way appalled, but formed line of battle promptly and with great coolness and precision.

To Majors J. H. King and S. D. Carpenter, of the Regular Army, who commanded the regular troops in my brigade, I am especially indebted for the valuable aid which their long experience as soldiers enabled them to render. Captains P. T. Swaine and E. F. Townsend, commanding battalions under Major King, and Colonel B. F. Smith, First Ohio Volunteers, a captain in the regular service, were likewise conspicuous for good conduct. I strongly recommend these officers to the proper authorities as soldiers by profession, who have shown themselves amply fit for higher offices of usefulness. I also return my thanks to Colonels T. T. Crittenden and H. M. Buckley; Lieutenant Colonels E. A. Parrott, W. W. Berry, and Hiram Prather, and Majors E. B. Langdon, J. L. Treanor, and A. H. Abbott for their coolness and gallantry. Lieutenant-Colonel Parrott was on detached service at the time, but joined his regiment during the action, and remained with it to the close. I also acknowledge my great obligations to Lieutenants Armstrong and Rousseau, my regular aides; to E. F. Jewett, esq., of Ohio, volunteer aide; to Lieutenant John W. Wickliffe, of the Second Kentucky Cavalry, acting aide, and to Captain W. M. Carpenter, brigade quartermaster, during the battle, for valuable services in the field. It is due to Colonel Oliver, officers, and men of the Fifteenth Michigan that I say he joined us early in the morning with about 230 officers and men of his regiment, and behaved well during the day of the battle. Accompanying this report you have a list of casualties incident to the battle,* and also the reports of the various commanders of battalions and regiments of the brigade.

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

LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU,

Brigadier-General.

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*Embodied in revised statement, p. 105.

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