The next afternoon I was ordered by General Hancock to retire, and withdrew to Halltown, where I drew up in line of battle, supporting Thomas' battery.

On Saturday, the 18th, by order, i returned to camp. There were no casualties in my command.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN C. CALDWELL,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Brigade.

Captain HANCOCK,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Hancock's Division.

Numbers 3. Report of Colonel Samuel K. Zook, Fifty-seventh New York Infantry, commanding Third Brigade.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, HANCOCK'S DIVISION,
Bolivar Heights, Va., October 21, 1862.

CAPTAIN: On the morning of the 16th instant, this brigade, except the Fifty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, which was detached as advance guard, marched, at sunrise, under orders received the night before, toward Charlestown. On arriving about 1 mile beyond Halltown, firing was head in front, and the command halted.

Soon after, an order was received to march the brigade, to the front and take position in and near a wood, to the right of the road, and to detach the Fifty-seventh New York Volunteers to Colonel Brooke, in command of the advance guard, on the left of the road. After placing the Fifty-second and Sixty-sixth New York Volunteers in the woods, and the Second Delaware Volunteers in support of Tomkins' battery, to its left, skirmishers were advanced to the farther edge of the timber; and finding this force inadequate, another regiment was asked for, and the Twentieth Massachusetts sent me. After some artillery firing to our left, and halt an hour's delay, an order was given to advance upon Charlestown, which was executed in battalion columns, with deploying intervals.

The enemy having been driven beyond Charlestown, at about 1 p. m. another order was received to place my command in line of battle, to the left and a little in rear of the village. This having been executed so that my command stood in rear of the Irish Brigade, another order was received from the general commanding to place two regiments in support of Captain Pettit's battery, about 125 yards in advance of General Meagher's command. Heaving executed this order, and received instructions till about 5 p. m. in and about a strip of wood, a mile distant. At that hour an order was received, through Lieutenant Mitchell, aide-de-camp, to take a regiment and clear the wood, preparatory to its occupation by our cavalry. This object was effected by the Sixty-sixth New York Volunteers, under the immediate supervision of the colonel commanding the brigade, without loss, and the regiment returned to its former position about dusk, the cavalry having possession of the wood as soon as it was cleared. Part of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteers was then ordered to picket the left and from, half a mile from the battery. The night and following morning were passed without incident, with the Sixty-sixth New York and Second Delaware supporting the battery, and the Fifty-second New York and the