lowing Battery I, Second Illinois, Captain Barnett commanding, as ordered, about 3 o'clock the regiment moved out. Our march lay along the La Fayette road a distance of 5 miles, at which point we struck a road to the left leading to Reed's Bridge. After following this road a mile I was ordered to take position at right angles with the road, the left of the regiment resting near it. The position was not reached until nightfall.

The men were ordered to lie down by their guns and preserve strict silence. I was ordered to send a picket force 300 or 400 yards in front, extending the line beyond the right of the regiment to protect the left of the Eighty-sixth Illinois.

It was sent forward and took the position ordered as nearly as the denseness of the woods and undergrowth would permit in the darkness.

At daylight on the morning of the 19th, I was directed by a staff officer from Colonel McCook to change front to rear on the first company, afterward to move by the right flank 100 paces.

Very soon slight skirmishing commenced with the pickets in front of our original position, and also at the spring some distance to the left of the position then occupied.

About 8 a.m. I was ordered to march my command by the right flank on the left of the battery, as it was then moving toward the La Fayette road. Striking this road I was directed to follow, with the regiment, that portion of the battery moving toward Rossville. At this point the pickets sent out the night before rejoined the regiment. We reached Rossville at noon. In the afternoon the regiment, as directed, took up position on the Ringgold road at the top of Mission Ridge, where it remained through the night.

After passing McAfee's Church early on the morning of the 20th, Company D, Captain Neighbor commanding, and Company B, Lieutenant Duff commanding, were thrown forward as skirmishers, and Company I, Lieutenant Marsh commanding, was deployed to cover the right flank of the regiment. Thus disposed, the regiment moved over a mile toward the Chickamauga, when I was ordered to halt, face it about, and follow the column. The skirmishers and flankers were at the same time ordered to march in retreat.

Upon the hill seized by the brigade immediately afterward, I was ordered to form line of battle 100 paces in rear of the Eighty-sixth Illinois, upon the left flank of the position, 1,000 yards distant.

Later in the day, 10 a.m., the skirmish companies having been ordered in, I was ordered to march the regiment in rear of the Eighty-fifth Illinois, and when the position near McAfee's Church was taken up I was directed with the regiment to take position on the left of the battery in rear of the One hundred and twenty-fifth Illinois. From here, as ordered, I sent two companies to join the skirmishers of the One hundred and twenty-fifth Illinois. They were Company C, Captain Thomas commanding, and Company H, Lieutenant Summers commanding.

At noon, being ordered to have the skirmish companies of the regiment recalled quickly, I directed Adjutant Masury to apprise them of the order to move and conduct them to the regiment. In the march from the church to Cloud's house, according to order, I followed the battery with the regiment.

When suddenly fired upon in the low grounds near that house the