navy, and of a large regular artillery, skilled by constant practice in the large maritime fortresses of Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu in all the maneuvers of heavy artillery, and that only the same time (twenty-three days) was occupied (the 12th of April to the 3rd of May) in placing seventy-one guns in battery, many of them much exceeding in wight any that have before been used in a siege, it is evident that the labors of the First Connecticut Artillery will compare favorably with anything of the kind that has been done before.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ALEXANDER DOULL,

Major 3rd N. Y. Arty., Ord. Officer to Siege Train, 1st Conn. Arty.

Colonel R. O. TYLER,

Commanding First Connecticut Artillery.

Numbers 25. Report of Brigadier General Erasmus D. Keyes,

U. S. Army, commanding Fourth Corps, of operations April 4-15.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH CORPS,
Warwick Court-House, Va., April 16, 1862

SIR: I have the honor to report the operations of this army corps from the 4th to the 15th instant, inclusive.

Two divisions (Smith's and Couch's) marched from their camps near Newport News at 6 a.m. the 4th. Smith, being in advance, encountered the enemy's pickets at Watts' Creek. While halting at this point to close the column it was reported that the enemy had strong works and a force at Young's Mill. I caused the column to be closed up, but the two regiments of the enemy retreated in great haste at our approach, firing only a few shots, and wounding one of our men. The enemy's works at Young's Mill are so strong that with 5,000 men he might have stopped my two divisions there a week.

At 6 o'clock the head of Smith's column left Young's Mill, and at about 11 a.m. came in sight of the enemy's works on Warwick Creek, near Lee's Mill, 2 1/2 miles front here. The rain had been falling in torrents all the morning, and it was with the utmost difficulty that a few guns could be got forward to the edge of the woods fronting a wide open space from which the enemy had burned the buildings and cut the timber to give a field of fire for his two forts in advance, which we could see. A brisk fire was opened on both sides between guns and skirmishers; Brigadier-General Davidson's brigade being posted and partly deployed on the left, and Brigadier-General Hancock's brigade on the right, while Brigadier-General Brook's brigade was held in reserve about half way through the strip of woods of a mile wide, which we occupied, Couch's division being in rear.

Between 2 and 3 o'clock p.m. it was reported to me that a body of 2,000 or 3,000 of the enemy was filing out from the rear of the works about Lee's Mill, and moving to our left. Immediately I directed Graham's brigade to move too the left, and sends scouts far enough through the dense forest to discover, if possible, the enemy's intention. Word was soon brought to me that another of the enemy's forts was found, and that the course of Warwick River seemed to be nearly parallel to our line of advance from Young's Mill. Accordingly, leaving