in the thickest of the fight. The lists of killed, wounded, and missing have been sent to your headquarters. *

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN R. BROOKE,

Colonel Fifty-third Pennsylvania, Commanding Brigade.

Lieutenant W. G. MITCHELL,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

No. 53. Report of Captain David L. Stricker, Second Delaware Infantry, of skirmish on Antietam Creek and battle of Antietam.

HDQRS. SECOND REGIMENT DELAWARE VOLUNTEERS,
Near Sharpsburg, Md., September 21, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to tender this as my official report of the Second Regiment Delaware Volunteers, from the 15th day of September to the 18th, inclusive.

On the afternoon of the 15th we came up with the enemy on the hills near Antietam Creek, when the skirmishers of our division became engaged with those of the enemy. We were ordered to form forward into line at the bottom of the hill and lie down. We lay there until about 7 o'clock, when I received an order from Major Norvell to move throw out one company as pickets. I moved forward immediately, and detailed Company H as picket, which advanced to the bank of the creek. Everything was quiet during the night.

On the morning of the 16th General Richardson personally ordered me to withdraw my picket and return with my regiment to our former position in rear of the battery. We lay there all day and night, under a heavy artillery fire, losing 1 man killed and 1 wounded.

On the morning of the 17th we moved with the brigade across the creek and took position in a corn-field, where we lay about twenty minutes, losing 1 man killed and 1 man wounded. The brigade was then driving them for some distance. Our loss in killed, wounded and missing foots up as follows: 12 killed, 43 wounded, 2 missing.+

I cannot particularize any one officer under my command, as all of them did their duty well. Their names are as follows: Company A, First Lieutenant John Evans, Second Lieutenant James W. Letherbury; Company B, Second Lieutenant H. Warner Ottey; Company C, Second Lieutenant Ephraim Jordon; Company D, Captain William H. Helmbold, Second Lieutenant John H. Davis; Company E, First Lieutenant George C. Helmbold; Company F, Captain Peter McCullough; Company G, Captain John F. Heishley, First Lieutenant Charles D. Foy, Second Lieutenant Thomas J. Moore (wounded); Company H, Second Lieutenant Henry Smith (wounded); Company I, Second Lieutenant William H. Brady; Company K, Second Lieutenant Charles Lynch, First Lieutenant Lewis Nolen, acting adjutant.

Among the enlisted men I may favorably mention: Company D, First Sergt. John L. Ogden (killed); Company H, First Sergt. Thomas Russell, who, after Lieutenant Smith was wounded, took command of

* Embodied in revised statement, p. 192.

+ But see revised statement, p. 192.