ing to the field, and received orders from him to report my battery to Brigadier-General Davis, who was in command of the forces then forming upon the right of the road.

At 5 p. m. I received orders from General Negley to march to Rossville, Ga.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

LYMAN BRIDGES,

Captain, Commanding.

[Sub-Inclosure Numbers 8.]

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Chattanooga, Tenn., October 9, 1863.

Major General J. S. NEGLEY,
Comdg. Second Division, Fourteenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: In compliance with your request, I herewith respectfully submit the following statement of what I know concerning the operations of the artillery of the Second Division, and of other divisions, on the 20th ultimo:

When the action of that day commenced, Captain Bridges' battery, of General Beatty's brigade, of which I am an officer, was in battery on the Rossville and Chattanooga road at the extreme left of the Fourteenth Army Corps. General Beatty's line had a short time previously been advanced from the position first occupied and very much extended to the left.

About 9 a. m. the enemy in strong force pressed through the center of our brigade line, cutting off two (possibly three) regiments from the rest, with the evident intention of capturing them. As soon as the enemy appeared in sight Bridges' Battery, with case shot and afterward with canister, opened a galling fire upon them, diverting their attention from the regiments which had been separated from us, and drawing their fire upon the battery and the infantry upon our right. The conflict here was short but sanguinary. The enemy had massed his forces upon this point, and the thin line of the First Brigade, covering a front that a division could hardly have held, was rent and soon overwhelmed. The infantry which had been posted upon the left of the battery could give it no support and that upon its right had fallen back, contesting the ground inch by inch.

The enemy, observing this, made a desperate effort to capture the battery, but before he could accomplish his purpose General Beatty ordered the battery to fall back. At this moment our senior first lieutenant and 4 or 5 of the men were killed, and many others placed hors du combat. The horses of one pieces were all killed and it was therefore abandoned. Of another, but 2 cannoneers were left uninjured, and before they could limber it up, the piece was in the hands of the enemy. After the remaining guns and caissons had fallen back through the woods and brush 200 or 300 yards, finding myself the senior officer present, I retired with the four guns and went into battery upon a high, wooded hill to the rear of our position in the morning.

While retiring, the woods through which I passed and the open fields to the right were filled with terror-stricken fugitives, whom no commands or appeals could halt, much less reform, as the fruitless efforts of mounted officers, with sword in hand, ordering, entreating, begging, too plainly proved. A few guns and caissons of other batteries, which I think at the beginning of the fight were on

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