troops charged a battery and captured two pieces. At this point Colonel Allen, commanding the brigade, while pressing forward with the colors in his hand, had both legs shattered, and Lieutenant-Colonel Boyd received a severe wound. This produced confusion, and the enemy at the same moment throwing forward a strong re-enforcements the brigade was forced back in some disorder. It was rallied by the efforts of Colonel Breaux, Lieutenant-Colonel Hunter, and other officers, and although it did not further participate in the assault, it maintained its position under a fire from the gunboats and land batteries of the enemy. During this time Thompson's brigade, which composed the right of Ruggles' division, was behaving with great gallantry, often driving back superior forces, and toward the close of the action took part in the final struggle from a position immediately on the left of the First Division. Colonel Thompson being severely wounded in a charge, the command devolved on Colonel Robertson, of the Thirty-fifth Alabama, whose conduct fully justified the confidence of his troops. The Louisiana [?] battery, Captain Semmes', was admirably handled throughout.

The First Division, under General Clark, being the Second Brigade, composed of the Fourth and Fifth Kentucky, Thirty-first Mississippi, Thirty-first and Fourth Alabama, commanded by Colonel Hunt, of the Fifth Kentucky, and the Fourth Brigade, composed of the Fifteenth and Twenty-second Mississippi, and the Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-eighth, and Forty-fifth Tennessee, consolidated into one battalion, commanded by Colonel Smith, of the Twentieth Tennessee, together with the Hudson Battery and one piece of Cobb's battery, advanced to the right of the Grenwell Springs road. On the right, as on the left, the enemy was constantly pressed back, until, after several hours of fighting, he was driven to his last encampment, in a large grove just in rear of the penitentiary. Here the contest was hot and obstinate, and it was here the First Division suffered the greatest loss. Colonel Hunt was shot down, and on the fall of that excellent officer, at the suggestion of General Clark and with the consent of the officers concerned, I placed Captain John A. Buckner, assistant adjutant-general on my staff, in command of the Second Brigade. In the management of his command he displayed so high a degree of skill and courage that I commend him especially to the notice of the Government.

General Clark pressed the attack at this point with great vigor until he received a wound which was supposed to be mortal, when, though some misapprehension, the Second Brigade began to fall back down the slope, but without confusion. Captain Buckner, learning upon inquiry from me that I did not desire a retrograde movement, immediately, aided by Major Wickliffe, of the Fifth Kentucky Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel Caldwell, who was injured by the accident of the preceding night, having been obliged to retire), and other regimental officers, faced the brigade about and renewed the attack. At the same time Colonel Smith, commanding Fourth Brigade, composed of the consolidated Tennessee regiments, and the Twenty-second Mississippi, Captain F. Hughes, was ordered forward and moved against the enemy in fine style. In a few moments Captain Hughes received a mortal wound at the head of his regiment.

Observing some troops on the left partially sheltered by a shallow cut in the road (who proved to be the remnant of Thompson's brigade and out of ammunition), I ordered them to advance to the support of the First Division with the bayonet. The order was promptly obeyed and in executing it I happened to observe, as distinguished for alacrity Colonel Crossland, of the Seventh Kentucky; Lieutenant-Colonel Good