I collected as many of the men as possible together and reported to you, and with the balance of the brigade moved back to Rossville, where a new position was chose and occupied till the night of September 21, when we were moved to Chattanooga.

Early on the morning of the 22nd Colonel Kirby arrived and took command. Major McDanald, Lieutenants McGraw, Read, and Petticord, were wounded on the 20th. There are with the regiment who were actually engaged 87 enlisted men and 10 commissioned officers. Praise is due officers and men for the prompt manner of doing their duty. For those who have lost their lives we mourn; they died while nobly doing their duty. Bright on memory's pages will remain the many virtues of our comrades, who have laid down their lives for free government and the restoration of the Union.

Respectfully,

LEN. D. SMITH,

Captain, Commanding Regiment.

Captain S. P. VORIS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Second Brigade.

Numbers 97.

Report of Colonel John A. Martin, Eighth Kansas Infantry, commanding Third Brigade.

HDQRS. THIRD BRIG., FIRST DIV., 20TH ARMY CORPS,
Chattanooga, September 28, 1863,

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report the following account of the action of this brigade from the time of crossing the Tennessee River up to the present date, including its participation in the engagements on the 19th and 20th instant.

As I did not assume command of the brigade until the 19th instant, when the brave and gallant Colonel Heg was mortally wounded, and as Captain Henry Hauff, acting assistant adjutant-general of the brigade, was taken prisoner, and none of the official records of headquarters are in my possession, the report of our movements prior to the 19th may contain inaccuracies of memory, which the general commanding will readily correct.

On the 28th of August the brigade was ordered to march from Stevenson, Ala., and at 5 p.m., started, reaching the banks of the Tennessee River at 11 p.m.. We bivouacked for the night, and at daylight next morning were ordered to cross the river in pontoon barges and occupy the other side. The crossing was supposed to be a dangerous enterprise, as the enemy had pickets in plain sight on the farther shore and might be in force. The Pioneer Brigade had during the night unloaded and got the pontoons in order. The regiments of the brigade were divided into squads of 25 men., each commanded by a commissioned officer, and as soon as everything was in readiness the boats were launched down the banks and into the river. They were rapidly filled with men and started across, occupying but a few moments in the passage. As soon as the opposite bank was reached the regiments were rapidly formed, the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-fifth Illinois left on the bank to protect the shore, while Colonel Heg advanced the Eighth Kansas and Fifteenth Wisconsin