position. This brigade was very much reduced, having suffered terribly on the 17th, and a considerable number of the men being just returned from the hospitals, were without arms, and, without knowing the particulars of the affair, I am satisfied its conduct on this occasion was owing to the mismanagement of the officer in command of it.

Next morning I was ordered to move back to the vicinity of Boteler's Ford with the three brigades which were with me. On arriving there, by orders from General Jackson, these brigades were placed in line of battle in rear of General A. P. Hill's division, in the woods on the right and left of the road leading to the ford, my own and Hays' brigades being placed on the right and Trimble's brigade on the left. In this position they remained until late in the afternoon, while General Hill's division was engaged in front, being in range of the enemy's shells, by one of which Captain Feagin, in command of the Fifteenth Alabama Regiment, was seriously wounded, he being the only regimental commander of that brigade who had not been killed or wounded at Sharpsburg. Late in the afternoon I was ordered to move back, and on the way received orders to continue to move on, following Jackson's division, which preceded me, and did so until I was halted about 12 o'clock at night near the Opequon.

We remained at this position until the 24th, and then moved across the Opequon and camped on the Williamsport turnpike, 6 or 7 miles from Martinsburg.

On the next day my camp was moved to a place near the Tuscarora, about 3 miles from Martinsburg, and on the 27th we moved to Bunker Hill.

This embraces the whole of the operations of this division during the period designated in the order of the lieutenant-general commanding this corps, as far as I am able to give them, and I am sorry that I am not able to do more justice to Lawton's, Trimble's, and Hays' brigades in this report, but my difficulties in making it have already been explained, and it is owing to them, and not to any design on my part, that the report as to these brigades is not so complete as it is in regard to my own.

I submit herewith lists* killed, wounded, and missing, from which it will appear that in the period embraced this division has lost, in killed, 565; in wounded, 2,284, and missing, 70, making an aggregate of 2,919, showing the severity of the conflicts in which it has been engaged. Its loss at Sharpsburg alone was 199 killed, 1,115 wounded, and 38 missing, being an aggregate loss of 1,352 out of less than 3,500, with which it went into that action.

I hope I may be excused for referring to the record shown by my own brigade, which has never been broken or compelled to fall back or left one of its dead to be buried by the enemy, but has invariably driven the enemy when opposed to him, and slept upon the ground on which it has fought, in every action, with the solitary exception of the affair at Bristoe Station, when it retired under orders, covering the withdrawal of the other troops.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. A. EARLY

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

Captain A. S. PENDLETON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*See addenda, following; see also Series I, Vol. XII, Part II, pp. 716, 717.

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