and precision which merit the highest praise. So dense was the thicket that I afterward learned that a hand-to-hand fight occurred between some of the Third Kentucky and the enemy, the latter demanding a surrender, by our own troops proved victorious in the short encounter, taking a few prisoners. After changing direction, the Third Kentucky gave the enemy a volley which cleared its immediate front. At this time the Sixty-fifth Ohio Regiment was a little to the rear of the Third Kentucky, with a view of making use of it as circumstances might require.

As what was at first my front line, to wit, the One hundred and twenty-fifth Ohio and Sixty-fourth Ohio, were now some distance obliquely to my right and front, and as from the denseness of the wood I could not have a direct supervision over my entire line, I sent an order to Colonel Opdycke to take command of the Sixty-fourth Ohio Regiment in connection with his own regiment,and to clear his own front of the enemy,as he had previously sent me word that a regiment of rebels was on his front, and I confined myself for the time being to the Third Kentucky and Sixty-fifth Ohio.

Again a more furious attack was made upon the left of the Third Kentucky; again the direction of the latter was changed, and the Sixty-fifth Ohio formed upon its left. My troops were now nearly all on the same general front, making, so to speak, a broken curved line with the convexity toward the enemy, with a short interval between the right of the Third Kentucky, and the left of the One hundred and twenty-fifth Ohio Regiment,and stretching partly across the main road and making an angle of about 60` with it. In this position there was some of the most brilliant fighting that it has ever been my fortune to witness. Though its grandeur surpasses description, its severity may be imagined when i state that every mounted officer in the vicinity of this line except the adjutant of the Third Kentucky was dismounted by the enemy's musketry. Here the gallant Lieutenant-Colonel Whitbeck was most dangerously wounded while nobly commanding his regiment, and 5 officers of the line in the same regiment were stricken down, while in the ranks a great many of the enlisted men fell while bravely fighting. Never discouraged by their losses, they pressed forward most handsomely, and entirely dispersed the foe in front, and taking 204 prisoners. I then sent word to Colonel Opdycke to gain distance to the left and join me. This gallant officer brought up his regiments to me, closing the gap that had heretofore necessarily existed with but slight loss, while he did good service in punishing the enemy.

It will be seen from this hasty description that, from the troops having given way in General Davis' front, there was a wide gap, embracing the distance from the troops under General---; that the rebels were rapidly advancing through this gap; that my brigade by sweeping across this gap checked their progress, and giving the troops on our right time to reform added greatly toward preventing a movement on the part of the rebels similar to that which proved so disastrous to the army on the following day, to wit, breaking through our lines and separating the right from the left.

Being now completely detached from my division, and having cleared everything on my front and left, and having pushed beyond the right of General---, i resolved to rejoin my division, which was now about one-half mile to my right. I moved up and took position on the left and rear of Colonel Buell's brigade, and my