firing a gun, leaving behind five locomotives and a large amount of rolling stock.

To prevent the enemy from penetrating toward Nashville, I ordered the destruction of a small bridge between Stevenson and Bridgeport, which we can replace, if necessary, in a single day. The expedition from the Eighth Brigade, under the immediate command of Colonel Turchin, proved eminently successful. To arrest his advance the enemy fired a bridge on the farther side of the Tennessee River, but our troops reached it in time to extinguish the flames. A small force of the enemy fled from the town, leaving their tents standing and their camp equipage behind them.

Thus in a single day we have taken and now hold a hundred miles of the great railway line of the rebel Confederacy. We have nothing more to do in this region, having fully accomplished all that was ordered. We have saved the great bridge across the Tennessee, and are ready to strike the enemy, if so directed, upon his right flank and rear at Corinth.

Respectfully,

O. M. MITCHEL,

Brigadier-General.

General BUELL.

Abstract from "Record of Events," Third Division, Army of the Ohio.*

The eighth Brigade left Murfreesborough, Tenn., on April 5, at 6 a. m., and marched to Huntsville, Ala., arriving there at 7.30 a. m., on the 11th.

At 6 p. m., April 11, the Twenty-fourth Illinois were moved on cars for Decatur, arriving opposite Decatur on the morning of the 12th, driving the enemy's troops from the fortifications at Decatur, and saving the bridge over the Tennessee River that the rebels had fired on their retreat, occupying the town on the 13th. The rest of the brigade were moved by cars to Decatur, arriving there the same day at 8 p. m.

April 15, the brigade, except guard for baggage train, was moved to Tuscumbia, Ala., the Eighteenth Ohio going to Athens.

The Ninth Brigade left Murfreesborough, Tenn., April 4, and arched thence, via Shelbyville and Fayetteville, to Camp Taylor, Huntsville, Ala., arriving April 11; since which time the brigade has been divided and sent in different directions on the line of the railroad. The Eighteenth Wisconsin Regiment now being at Bellefonte, the Second Ohio on provost duty at Huntsville, the Twenty-first Ohio at Athens, and two companies of the Thirty-third Ohio now in camp, the balance guarding the water-tanks, bridges,&c., on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.

The Seventeenth Brigade left Murfreesborough April 3, arriving at Shelbyville April 4, and left for Fayetteville April 8, remained at that point until the 14th, and received orders to proceed to Huntsville, Ala. The brigade, with the exception of the Forty-second Indiana, which was left at Shelbyville, marched into camp on the 15th; remained there until

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*From division return for month of April, 1862.

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