ately gave way. Our line of battle was now halted, the enemy having fled on our approach.

Directly opposite our lines was a very formidable battery, which had proved to be a great annoyance during the whole afternoon. After some contention between two officers of apparently equal rank, supposed to be brigadier-generals, it was concluded to charge it; so the whole line moved on rapidly and in excellent order, but we had not advanced far before the battery ceased firing and made good its retreat.

The order was now given to retire a few rods to the rear and remain for the night. While making these charges the Twelfth Alabama was placed between a portion of General Jackson's command and Hampston's Legion, the latter being on the right.

The casualties in the Twelfth Alabama in this battle were not heavy, as will be seen from the list of casualties already sent of brigade headquarters.* The number carried into battle, as near as can be ascertained, was about 200; number killed, 1; number wounded, 11.

B. B. GAYLE,

Colonel, Commanding Twelfth Alabama Regiment.

Numbers 264. Report of Brigadier General Samuel Garland, jr.,

C. S. Army commanding Third Brigade, of the engagement at King's School-House, or Oak Grove, and battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill,and Malvern Hill.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, THIRD DIVISION.

July 14, 1862

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this brigade in the recent engagements and operations of the army before Richmond:

On June 25 the movements of the enemy on the Williamsburg road inducing Major-General Huger, whose troops were in front, to call for support, I was ordered to move forward my brigade in supporting distance of Generals Armistead and Wright, and co-operate with them to such extent as the exigency might require. Those generals having moved forward their troops into the woods in front of our lines on the Williamsburg road, my brigade was placed in the vacated rifle pits and kept under arms and exposed to artillery fire during the entire afternoon. The Fifth North Carolina, Colonel D. K. McRae, was ordered to move forward out of the rifle pits across the field in front to the edge of the woods opposite and protect a section of artillery brought up to that point to silence the enemy's guns. This duty they performed with their accustomed alacrity and happily, escaped casualties.

Having spent more than half the day under arms and under fire, the brigade was permitted to return to camp after dark and make preparations for the impending movements. I mention the foregoing fatigues and exposure because they were in the nature of extra duty borne by this brigade on the eve of general operations, and the troops should receive the proper credit for it.

Cooking until a late hour of the night and then catching a little sleep, the brigade moved about 2 o'clock on the morning of June 26, along with the rest of this division, to a position on the Mechaniscville turn-

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*Embodied in returns, pp., 633. 975.

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