HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, TWENTIETH ARMY CORPS,
Atlanta, Ga. October 31, 1864.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the foraging expedition made in compliance with orders from Major-General Slocum:

At 6 o'clock on the morning of the 26th instant the following troops and wagons reported to me on the Decatur road: THIRD Brigade, First DIVISION, numbering 1,200 men, under command of Colonel Robinson; THIRD Brigade, Second DIVISION, numbering 945 men, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Van Voorhis; Second Brigade, THIRD DIVISION, numbering 642 men, under command of Major Brant; two batteries of artillery, under command of Captain Bainbridge, and 450 cavalry of the Army of the Ohio, under Colonel Garrard. Wagons as follows: Headquarters Twentieth Corps, 42; First DIVISION, Twentieth Corps, 83; Second DIVISION, Twentieth Corps, 100; THIRD DIVISION, Twentieth Corps, 87; Fourteenth Army Corps, 130; Captain Hade, post quartermaster, 21; ordnance train, Department of the Cumberland, 54; medical supply train, 20; batteries and outside detachments, 115; making the total number of wagons 652, which, with the addition of 20 smaller wagons, made the entire train consist of 672 wagons. At 7 o'clock I moved toward Decatur, which I reached without incidents of note about 10 o'clock. At this place I learned from inhabitants that there was a force of the enemy variously stated as numbering from 2,000 to 4,000, between Stone Mountain and Lawrenceville. I also learned that detachments from this force had been in Decatur on the previous day. These reports of the whereabouts of the enemy, varying only in the estimate of force, confirmed by intelligence received from the scouts of Colonel Garrard's cavalry, induced me to ask General Slocum for re-enforcements of artillery and infantry. To guard against any attack on my train from the right and toward Stone Mountain, I detached the main force of cavalry, 700 infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Van Voorhis, and a section of artillery, the whole under command of Colonel Garrard, to move to Stone Mountain direct and hold the roads and passes at that place. With the remainder of my command and with the train I moved from Decatur on the Lawrenceville road. I moved on this road about six miles, where I passed to the right over a wood road, and struck the main road to Stone Mountain about two miles from that place. At the mountain I was joined by Colonel Garrard. Leaving a strong cavalry guard to hold the village, I moved on the Stone Mountain and Lawrenceville road to Trickum's Cross-Roads, near which I parked the train and camped the troops on the farm of Mr. Bracewell. About 9 o'clock in the evening an aide reported that the Second Brigade of my DIVISION, under Colonel Mindil, and one section of artillery, were four miles beyond Stone Mountain. I ordered Colonel Mindil to push as near the mountain as possible during the night, and to join me on the following morning. Reports of the inhabitants in the vicinity of my camp confirmed those already received at Decatur. During the morning several attacks were made upon the pickets and outposts, by rebel cavalry, in one of which one of my men was killed and another severely wounded. I remained in camp during the day, sending out detachments of the train under strong guards, and succeeded in loading about 300 wagons. In the afternoon Lieutenant-Colonel Way, commanding a regiment of cavalry, reported he had met the enemy near Yellow River, about 400 strong, and that the inhabitants stated that a force of 4,000