have died since the action. A list of killed and wounded has heretofore been forwarded to you.

Respectfully submitted.

WILL. M. BARBOUR,

Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding Thirty-seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops.

P. S.-List of officers of Thirty-seventh Regiment who absented themselves from their companies without leave: Lieutenants McCoy and Sammon, Company I, allege sickness; Lieutenant Owens, Company K, behaved badly, and has not yet returned; Lieutenant Smith, Company F, went to camp on Tuesday without permission-alleges that he was sick and unfit for duty.

No. 347. Report of Brigadier General J. J. Archer,

C. S. Army, commanding Fifth Brigade,

of the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines' Mill.

HDQRS. FIFTH Brigadier, LIGHT DIV., July 10, 1862.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that [on] the evening of June 26, by direction of Major General A. P. Hill, I marched my brigade, 1,228 strong, into Mechanicsville and thence up the Mechanicsville turnpike in line of battle, the left flank guided by the line of the turnpike; the Nineteenth Georgia [Lieutenant Colonel T. C. Johnson] on the left, the First Tennessee [Lieutenant Colonel J. C. Shackelford] on the right, the Fifth Alabama Battalion [Captain Van de Graaff] and Seventh Tennessee [Colonel John F. Goodner] supporting. The Fourteenth Tennessee [Colonel W. A. Forbes] became separated from me during the movement, and becoming involved with General Field's brigade, did not join me until night.

The brigade moved on steadily to the Beaver Dam Creek under a heavy fire of artillery and rifles from the batteries and strongly intrenched positions of the enemy on the opposite bank. Night closed in before a crossing could be effected. We remained through the night in possession of the ground we had gained and the next morning the enemy abandoned their works.

My loss in this action was 43 killed and 171 wounded; among the former was Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson, commanding Nineteenth Georgia, who fell gallantly cheering his men in battle; and among the latter the gallant and efficient Captain Van de Graaff, commanding the Fifth Alabama Battalion.

On the 27th, at Cold Harbor, my brigade, reduced to less than 1,000 men, advanced alone and unsupported across an open field to attack the enemy, strongly posted and protected in the wood beyond by the works which a short time afterward it required seven brigades to carry. The troops under my command, except the Nineteenth Georgia, which was held in reserve, advanced at a double-quick to within 20 steps of the breastworks, when they fell back before the irresistible fire of artillery and rifles. The obvious impossibly of carrying the position without support prevented me from attempting to check the retreat. Had they not fallen back I would myself have ordered it. A half hour later my brigade, constituting the right of the Light Division, again moved forward to the attack of the same position and entered it in the front line of attack. Beyond this point my brigade, worn-out, exhausted, and intermingled with the regiments and brigades of the

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