Twenty-first Alabama, the Fifth North Carolina, under Lieutenant-Colonel [J. W.] Lea, who had just joined it, and other scattering troops, I ordered it, through Major [H. A.] Whiting, to attack,, moving parallel to the Plank road. [Colonel] Hall immediately attacked the epaulements again with his two regiments, and gallantly carried them; but the troops just mentioned, who had attacked farther to the left, being again repulsed, he again fell back to the breastworks.

While this was transpiring in front, the enemy made an attack in force on my left and rear.

This attack was met by the Twelfth Alabama, Colonel [Samuel B.] Pickens, Colonel [James N.] Lightfoot, of the Sixth Alabama, with a small portion of his regiment, and some troops of Nicholls' brigade, skillfully placed by General Iverson, and sustained against fearful odds until I ordered up Colquitt's brigade, which quickly and handsomely repulsed it. The enemy - being repulsed decidedly here, barely holding his own in the left center, and compelled about the same time by the artillery fire from the right to abandon the epaulements - withdrew all his forces to the hill back of the Chancellor house.

The fighting on the center and left was of a most desperate character, and resulted in the loss of many valuable officers. Among them, and most to be regretted, was Major A. M. Gordon, of the Sixth Alabama, a young officer of great promise and great purity of character.

General Pender, speaking of the first advance of my troops, stated to me that Colonel Christie and his regiment, which he handled in magnificent style, especially attracted his attention, and that the colonel deserved promotion.

While these movements were taking place on the left, Ramseur and Doles pushed forward on the right, passed the first line of intrenchments, which had already been carried, passed the first and second lines of our troops, and became fiercely engaged. Doles, deflecting to the right, passed up a ravine behind the graveyard on Chancellor's Hill, and finally came out in the field nearly opposite the house, driving the enemy before him as he advanced, and actually getting several hundred yards to the rear as well of those troops opposing the rest of my division as of those opposing General Anderson's division. Subsequently he was compelled to fall back, and was directed by General Lee to take charge of a large body of prisoners. Ramseur, after vainly urging the troops in possession of the first line of intrenchments to move forward, obtained permission to pass them, and, dashing over the works, charged the second intrenched line in the most brilliant style. The struggle at this point was long and obstinate, but the charge on the left of the Plank road at this time caused the enemy to give way on his left, and this, combined with the unflinching determination of his men, carried the day and gave him possession of the works. Not being supported, he was exposed still to a galling fire from the right, with great danger of being flanked. Notwithstanding repeated efforts made by him, and by myself in person, none of the troops in his rear would move up until the old Stonewall Brigade arrived on the ground, and gallantly advanced in conjunction with the Thirtieth North Carolina Regiment, Colonel [F. M.] Parker, of Ramseur's brigade, which had been detached to support a battery, and was now on its return. Occupying the works on the right of Ramseur, and thus relieving him when his ammunition was nearly expended, the Stonewall Brigade pushed on, and carried the Chancellorsville heights, making the third time that they were captured. They in turn were forced to fall back,