A tabular account, together with a nominal list of killed, wounded, and missing, has already been forwarded.*

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

J. J. ABERCROMBIE,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Brigade.

Captain FRANCIS A. WALKER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 90. Report of Brigadier General Innis N. Palmer,

U. S. Army, commanding Third Brigade, of the battle of Malvern Hill.

CAMP NEAR JAMES RIVER, VA., July 4, 1862.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report the following as the operations of my brigade in the battle of the 1st instant:

On the 30th ultimo two regiments of my command, the Second Rhode Island and the Seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, were detached by the order of Brigadier-General Couch, commanding the division, in order to take up a position near the Turkey Island Bridge, and they were unfortunately not present during the engagement. The remaining regiments of my brigade-the Tenth Massachusetts Volunteers, commanded by Major Miller, and the Thirty-sixth New York Volunteers, commanded by Major Raney-were on arriving on the battle ground placed in position under the direction of General Couch, and they were directed to hold the woods on the right of the battery formerly Griffin's, and to act at the same time as the support to this battery. A company of the Tenth Massachusetts was detached as skirmishers to watch the ravine a little to the right and front of the battery, and four companies of the Thirty-sixth New York, under the command of Captain Walsh, were thrown out obliquely across the field on my right, in order to get a cross-fire upon any force that might appear from the woods immediately in front of the battery.

Affairs remained in this state until about 3 o'clock p. m., when, after a sharp artillery fire from both sides, the enemy appeared in force on the right. This force proved to be a brigade of North Carolina troops, commanded by General Anderson, and it advanced in good order until it was within about 350 yards of my men. A heavy fire was then opened upon it by the Tenth Massachusetts and the four companies under Captain Walsh. As soon as it was within the view of the battery a fire from it was opened, and I directed the remaining six companies of the Thirty-sixth New York to wheel from its position in the wood and open fire. This was done in gallant style, and after a sharp contest, which, however, lasted only a few minutes, the enemy broke and fled. After pursuing for some distance my command was recalled, as a pursuit would necessarily bring them in front of the batteries. In this short engagement the battle-flag of the Fourteenth North Carolina Regiment was captured by the Thirty-sixth New York Volunteers, and brought in by Captain Donoghue, of that regiment. The loss in my brigade was small in this affair.

This ended the first engagement of the day. Notice was immediately given to me by the general commanding the division, General Couch,

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*Embodied in revised statement, p. 28.

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