berland Army." After the battery had withdrawn and the cloud of fugitives had passed to the rear, the First Brigade about-faced, and halting and fronting every 50 yards, presented a bold and defiant front, effectually checking the enemy. The Eighty-ninth, with the other regiments of the brigade, halted about half a mile to the rear of original position in the morning, confronting the enemy and holding him in check, while the balance of the Army of the Cumberland filed by our rear in full retreat to Chattanooga, some 10 or 12 miles distant.

The First Brigade formed the rear guard of the Army of the Cumberland; the Eighty-ninth Illinois formed the rear guard of the brigade. We marched about three hours, picking up countless stragglers, and forcing them on to chattanooga. The enemy did not molest us. We halted with the brigade about 8 miles from the battle-ground of Chickamauga.

The next morning, September 21, we took position about 4 miles in front of Chattanooga, remaining there in line of battle until 1 a.m., September 22, when we withdrew to within a mile of Chattanooga, formed in line of battle, threw up a temporary breastwork, and are, at the moment of writing, awaiting the enemy. In the above sketch I have endeavored to give a truthful account of the operations of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry from my standpoint, but the operations of the regiment are so mingled and mixed with the brigade, that it is necessarily more or less imperfect, desultory, and obscure. It remains for me but to say the men and officers of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry are, in my judgment- and, I trust, in the judgment of my superiors-worthy to belong to the First Brigade, and to be under the command of such a general as A. Willich. I trust the time will come when we can all sit by our peaceful firesides (when great command shall have been awarded him), and recount the time when he was our brigade commander, standing in front of our regiment, amid the rain of bullets and shells, and drilling us into steadiness and confidence.

Of the officers of the Eighty-ninth, during the memorable two days of historic Chickamauga, I cannot speak in too high praise; of the gallant dead, Captains Rice, Spink, and Whiting, and Lieutenant Adams, they fell gloriously at the head of their companies. Can language furnish a more eloquent epitaph for a soldier's tomb? Of the wounded, Adjt. E. F. Bishop added new laurels to the chaplet won at Stone's River; Lieutenants Warren, Ellis, and Darcy led their commands with distinguished bravery and coolness.

It would ill become me to speak of the merits of such officers as Captain John M. Farquhar, Captain H. L. Rowell, Captain Hobbs, Lieutenants Dimick, Sampson, Young, and Harkness; it would be a feeble and pitiable attempt to "gild refined gold or paint the lily;" their praise should be a general's encomium and a nation's gratitude.

Of the non-commissioned staff, Sergt. Major E. J. Stivers deserves especial mention for brave and intrepid conduct. The men fought like veterans, and proved themselves worthy of the title. I did not see a single enlisted man of the Eighty-ninth flinch from his duty. Where such is the case it would seem invidious to discriminate, yet the conduct of Private Beecher, of Company D, deserves especial notice. All the commissioned and non-commissioned officers present with his company were either killed or disabled in the early

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