brigade, and the enemy's movements were reported by me fully two hours before the battle commenced.

General, I am an old soldier. To this hour I have been proud to command the brave men of this brigade; but I am sure that unless these infamous falsehoods be retracted and reparations made, their good-will and soldierly spirit will be broken, and I shall no longer be at the head of the same brave men whom I have had heretofore the honor to lead. In the name of truth and common honesty; in the name of the good cause of our country, I ask, therefore, for satisfaction. If our superior officers be not sufficiently in possession of the facts, I demand an investigation; if they are, I demand that the miserable penny-a-liners who have slandered the division be excluded, by a public order, from our lines, and that the names of the originators of these slanders be made known to me and my brigade, that they may be held responsible for their acts.

Respectfully,

A. SCHIMMILFENNING,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Major General CARL SCHURZ,

Commanding Division.

Numbers 254. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Edward S. Salomon, Eighty-second Illinois Infantry.

CAMP NEAR BROOKE'S STATION, VA., May --, 1863.

SIR: In regard to the part my regiment took in the action on Saturday, May 2, I beg leave to report:

The regiment arrived with the brigade at place near Hawkings' farm on the 30th of April, between 6 and 7 p. m. On the 1st of May, at 10 p. m., a working party, consisting of 200 men, with a guard of 100 men for protection, under the command of Major Rolshausen, were ordered out to blockade the road in our front and south of the Plank road. This work was completed about 1 a. m. of the 2nd of May, when the major, with his command of Colonel Hecker, and, after it has proceeded in a southerly direction as far as Carpenter's farm, we received your order to join the brigade, which order we immediately complied with. We arrived there between 12 and 1 p. m., and took position in the rear of the One hundred and fifty-seventh New York Volunteers, in column. Between 5 and 6 p. m. the colonel received the order that his men should make themselves comfortable, but soon afterward we heard a heavy fire on our right. The brigade signal to assemble was immediately sounded, and our regiment fell in. At the same time horses, confusion and disorder from the right, and passed in the rear of the regiment. We immediately formed line of battle, facing to the west, during the formation of which 2 of our men fell. We then marched in line of battle and in good order to the top of a little hill in our rear, and there faced the enemy. During these movements, men of the First Division continued to run in the greatest confusion on our right. We commenced firing, and the regiment fired at least 6 rounds from this position. The