The highest compliment I am able to bestow upon both officers and men of the entire division is to simply refer to their endurance, fortitude, cheerful obedience, and heroic conduct during the entire campaign and battle.

I respectfully direct attention to the reports of brigade and regimental commanders for the lists of those deserving honorable mention, which I cordially approve.

All members of my staff performed their duties with coolness and ability and entirely satisfactory.

Captain Johnson, division inspector; Captain Hough, Nineteenth U. S. Infantry, assistant commissary of musters; Lieutenant Moody, aide-de-camp, rendered important services. Their gallantry and efficiency are worthy of special mention.

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. S. NEGLEY,

Major-General.

Lieutenant Colonel GEORGE E. FLYNT,

Chief of Staff, Fourteenth Army Corps.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, Chattanooga, Tenn., October 14, 1863.

Brigadier General LORENZO THOMAS,
Adjutant-General, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: Herewith I transmit a special report by Major-General Negley, with accompanying documents, explanatory of the reasons why he left his position on the field of Chickamauga, on the 20th, so early in the day, without orders and without being driven off, while the troops in front and to the left of the position held their ground.

The general has always been an active, energetic, and efficient commander, and displayed very good judgment in an affair at Widow Davis' house in front of Stevens' Gap, where he was attacked by a superior force of the enemy, and successfully extricated his train and command from a perilous position.

But an impression that he left the field on Sunday without orders or necessity having made its way through this army, and statements having appeared in the official reports of general officers appearing to support the impression, I gave General Negley leave to submit this special report of the subject. From a careful perusal of that and the accompanying papers, it seems that he acted according to his best judgment under the circumstances of the case.

But satisfied that his usefulness in this army is lost, at least until these facts can be developed by a Court of Inquiry, I have given him a leave of absence of thirty days, and advised him after this report goes in to ask for a court of inquiry.*

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General, Commanding.

---------------

*See record of Court of Inquiry, p. 1004.

---------------