Numbers 67. Report of Brigadier General Regis de Trobiand, U. S. Army, commanding Third Division.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION, SECOND ARMY CORPS,
April 17, 1865.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by this division in the active operations from March 29 to April 10, the first part being simply a resume of the reports of the brigade commanders (herein inclosed) from the 29th of March to the morning of the 6th of April, as Bvt. Major General G. Mott was in command of the division during that period:

PART i.

March 29, in compliance with orders the division broke camp early in the morning, and after crossing Hatcher's Run formed in line of battle on the north side of the Vaughan road and on the left of the Second Division - the Second Brigade (General Pierce) having the right, the Third Brigade (General McAllister) the left, and the First Brigade (General De Trobriand) being held in reserve behind the two others. Three regiments were soon sent forward to reconnoiter. The Twentieth Indiana (Captain Shafer), on the left, did not find the enemy. The Ninety-third New York (Colonel Gifford) and Seventeenth Maine (Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson), advancing to the front, found a small force of the enemy's pickets, protected by a line of breast-works. They were promptly dislodged, and the line of battle was advanced so as to occupy the entrenchments with the addition of two regiments of the First Brigade.

March 30, early in the morning the line of battle was advanced across the Dabney's Mill road and a branch of Hatcher's Run, throwing up a line of breast-works from J. Crow's house toward the Boydton road. The weather was very unfavorable, and the First Brigade furnished strong details during the day to repair the Dabney's Mill road and lay corduroy roads and bridges for the passage of the artillery to the front.

March 31, before daybreak the division moved by the left to the Boydton road, relieving the First Division, the Second and Third Brigades occupying the breast-works, and the First being massed to support General Miles near Rainey's house. About 12 m., General Miles having attacked the enemy and driven it, the First Brigade followed the movement, and soon afterward took position in line to fill a gap opened by the advance, between General Miles' right and General McAllister's left. In the meantime it was deemed expedient to make a diversion in favor of the First Division, and the Second and Third Brigades were ordered to assault the enemy's works on their respective fronts. The attacking force of the third Brigade was composed of the Eleventh Massachusetts Volunteers (Lieutenant Colonel C. C. Rivers), the One hundred and twentieth New York (Lieutenant Colonel A. L. Lockwood), and the left wing of the Eighth New Jersey (Major Hartford), supported by the Eleventh New Jersey (Lieutenant-Colonel Schoonover). The enemy's rifle-pits, although protected by a heavy slashing, were carried, with the capture of some fifteen rebels, but our men were unable to proceed any farther under a cross-fire of artillery sweeping their entire front, besides a brisk firing of musketry, and when ordered to fall back the retreat was found as perilous as the