My surgeon, Dr. B. H. Hoyt, rendered every needful attention to the wounded, and exhibited the highest surgical skill in his operations and treatment.

Inclosed you will find a list* of the casualties in my regiment resulting from the action.

Your obedient servant,

WM. H. BROWNE,

Colonel, Commanding Forty-fifth Virginia Regiment.

Colonel GEORGE S. PATTON,

Commanding First Brigade, Army of Western Virginia.

Numbers 11. Report of Major William McLaughlin, C. S. Artillery.

LEWISBURG, W. VA.,

August 31, 1863.

COLONEL: At your request I submit the following report of the operations of the artillery in the battle of White Sulphur Springs on the 26th and 27th instant:

Having ascertained that the enemy were advancing in force, I ordered up two pieces of Captain Chapman's battery, which were rapidly brought up and placed in position and opened upon the enemy, which, with the assistance of Captain Read's company of the Twenty-sixth Virginia Battalion deployed as skirmishers, succeeded in checking the enemy until the other troops could be put in position. The other two pieces of the battery were soon placed in position in the same neighborhood.

This battery (the only one present) then engaged the enemy's battery of four Parrott and two 6-pounder guns, and at intervals during the day and the morning of the next day continued to fire upon the enemy's artillery and infantry, a more detailed statement of which will be found in Captain Chapman's report.

It affords me great pleasure to bear testimony to the efficiency with which the battery was handled, and to its marked effect upon the enemy, as attested by the destruction of the timber in and around his battery, and by one of his guns being permanently disabled and another dismounted, the carriage of which was left upon the field.

The men of the battery stood bravely and steadily by their guns, though subjected to a steady, hot, and well-directed fire from the enemy's guns, and too much credit cannot be awarded to Captain Chapman for the zeal, gallantry, and energy displayed by him throughout the engagement.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM McLAUGHLIN,

Major, Commanding Artillery, Dept. of Western Virginia.

Colonel GEORGE S. PATTON,

Commanding First Brigade.

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*See addenda to Patton's report, p. 56.

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