No. 11. Reports of Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart, C. S. Army.

DRANESVILLE, VA., December 21, 1861.

We had a hard-fought battle here yesterday. I had four pieces and four regiments, say 1,200 strong. The enemy had from five to ten regiments, six or seven pieces artillery. They said 3,100. Finding heavy re-enforcements arriving, I withdrew my command in perfect order from the field, carrying off nearly all the wounded. The enemy's loss was over 50 killed; our killed 27. They evacuated at dark. I will return to Centreville to-day.

In haste.

J. E. B. STUART,

Brigadier-General.

General D. H. HILL.

HEADQUARTERS OUTPOSTS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, December 23, 1861.

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that on the 20th instant I was placed in command of four regiments of infantry, 150 cavalry, and a battery of four pieces of artillery, viz, Eleventh Virginia Volunteers, Colonel S. Garland, jr.; Sixth South Carolina Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Secrets; Tenth Alabama Volunteers, Colonel J. H. Forney, and First Kentucky Volunteers, Colonel Thomas H. Taylor, making an aggregate force of 1,600 infantry; Sumter Flying Artillery [four pieces], Captain A. S. Cutts; One hundredth [?] North Carolina Cavalry, Major-Gordon, and Fifty-second [?] Virginia Cavalry, Captain Pitzer, for the purpose of covering an expedition of all the wagons of our army that could be spared [after hay] to the left of Dranesville.

I proceeded at once by the nearest route at daylight towards Dranesville, and the accompanying sketch* will show the route as well as the relative situation of other objects of interest in what I am about to narrate.

Knowing the situation of the enemy's advance posts, I sent the cavalry forward far in advance of the infantry, to take possession of the two turnpikes to the right of Drainesville, leading directly to the enemy's advanced posts, so as to prevent any communication of our movements reaching them, and with the main body I followed on to take a position with two regiments and a section of artillery on each turnpike, also to the right of Dranesville, and close enough to their intersection to form a continuous line.

Such a position I knew I could hold against almost any odds, but as my cavalry came in sight of the turnpike, Captain Pitzer discovered the enemy at the point [A] on the ridge and sent me word immediately. I galloped forward at once, and, reconnoitering for myself, found that a portion of the enemy was in possession of the ridge, and I could hear distinctly artillery carriages passing up the Georgetown turnpike in considerable numbers, and presently saw the cannons mounted on limber-boxes passing up towards Dranesville, about 200 yards from the intersection [A]. I knew, too, that the enemy's infantry were in advance, and I at once suspected that he was either marching upon Leesburg or had received intelligence through a spy of our intended forage expedition and was marching upon it. In either case our wagons would have

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*Not found.

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