burg), with instructions to communicate by signals to headquarters station. This party was bushwhacked by a number of the enemy in ambush.

Lieutenant Denicke accompanied Lieutenant Meigs, of the Engineer Corps, to the ford on the road to the While Sulphur Springs (distance, 3 miles from headquarters), with instructions to inform the general by signals of the practicability of that ford, which was done as desired.

From that time until our arrival at this place, November 17, nothing more was done by the detachment, the march being uninterrupted.

I would here call your attention to the fact that rockets can be made available for day signals by removing the parachute and placing in its stead a blank cartridge open at the lower end. In very hilly country, where signaling with flags is not always practicable, this mode of signaling by day, I think, is very much to be recommended.

Both on our very fatiguing march and during the engagement the men behaved well, especially Privates Alfred Burkhardt and Hodgson, whom I take the liberty to recommend for promotion to the grade of sergeant.

Very respectfully, your humble servant,

E. A. DENICKE,

Captain, and Acting Signal Officer, Commanding Detachment.

Major WILLIAM J. L. NICODEMUS,

Chief Signal Officer.

Numbers 5. Report of Colonel Augustus Moor, Twenty-eighth Ohio Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS INFANTRY FORCES, FIRST SEPARATE BRIGADE, DEPT. OF WEST VIRGINIA,
Beverly, W. Va., November 18, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to forward to the general commanding the following report of the part that the infantry forces of the First Separate Brigade took in the battle of Droop Mountain on the 6th of November last:

In compliance with orders received during the night, I left camp near Mill Point at 6.30 a. m., in command of the Twenty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Tenth [West] Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and Keeper's battery, and halted the column near Hillsborough. About 8 o'clock I received orders to feel the enemy along the Lewisburg pike. Three companies of the Twenty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry were detached, who drove the enemy's pickets, skirmishing through the woods to the foot of Droop Mountain, their (by nature) sufficiently fortified position. Here the skirmishers were halted until further orders. At 9 o'clock I was ordered, with the infantry and Captain Jaehne's cavalry, to make a detour through the mountains, turn the enemy's left, attack them in the rear, and take their position. The most difficult task was to bring the column across the valley without being discovered by the enemy. Before the column emerged from the woods, I ordered every rider to dismount