tain Dieckmann's battery was placed behind an abatis. Colonel von Gilsa's left connected with General McLean's brigade, consisting of the Twenty-fifth, Fifty-fifth, Seventy-fifth, and One hundred and seventh Ohio, and the Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers. This brigade was formed in line of battle on the old Turnpike orad, with one regiment in second line and one detached as a reserve for Colonel von Gilsa. Four pieces of Captain Dieckmann's battery were placed near General McLean's left, on open and high ground.

Immediately east of Talley's farm, where General Devens had his headquarters, General McLean's left connected with my right, consisting of the Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania and the Sixty-first Ohio, of General Schimmelfenning's brigade, deployed in line of battle on the road, having an embankment in their front and the thickest kind of pine undergrowth immediately in their rear; on their left the Sixty-eighth New York, of the same brigade, also in line of battle; the sharpshooters of the brigade in the little piece of woods between the Illinois and the One hundred and fifty-seventh New York behind General Schimmelfennig's left, in second line; the Eighty-second Illinois and the One hundred and fifty-seventh New York behind General Schimmelfenning's left, in second line, connecting with General Schimmelfenning's left; the One hundred and nineteenth New York of my Second Brigade, occupying the southern border of the little piece of woods above mentioned; then Dilger's battery; the Fifty-eighth New York in the church grove; behind the interval the Seventy-fifth Pennsylvania, and farther to the left the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin, in second line, and the Eighty second Ohio still farther back, as above stated. On the left of Captain Dilger's battery commenced Colonel Buschbeck's brigade part of which was deployed in the rifle-pits; Captain Wiedrich's battery, from which two pieces had been detached to General Barlow's brigade, stood near Colonel Buschbeck's right on high ground. On the left of Colonel Buschbeck, General Barlow's brigade, with one section of Captain Wiedrich's battery. Farther to the left, troops of other corps. A rifle-pit was constructed, running north and south, on the west of the eminence east of Dowdall's Tavern. The Reserve Artillery, which arrived in the course of the day, was placed on that eminence.

This position was, in my humble opinion, a good one to move from if the army had followed up the offensive, which, no doubt, had originally been contemplated. As a defensive position it presented a front only moderately strong to resist a parallel attack coming from the south. I say moderately strong, as the line, especially on our right, was very thin, and we had no general reserve. But if this position was intended to protect the right and rear of the army, a look at the map will show that it lacked some of the most essential requisites. Our right wing stood completely in the air, with nothing to lean upon, not even a strong echelon, and with no reliable cavalry to make reconnaissances, and that, too, in a forest thick enough not to permit any view to the front, flank, or rear, but not thick enough to prevent the approach of the enemy's troops. Our rear was at the mercy of the enemy, who was at perfect liberty to walk right around us through the large gap between von Gilsa's right and the cavalry force which was stationed at Ely's Ford, was really the intention that we should act on the defensive and cover the right and rear of the whole army, our right ought to have been drawn back toward the Rapidan, to rest on that river, at or near the mouth of Hunting Run, the corps abandoning so much of the Plank road as to enable it to establish a solid line. As we were actually situ-