shown to be unfounded, was produced by stragglers, and among them one officer, falling back from some line to the right of my immediate front, that the right of my line had fired into our own friends. So dense was the thicket that it was impossible to ascertain at the moment the exact position of any line, nor was I able to find Brigadier-General Polk's command. My left having been driven back, I ordered the right to cease firing, and retired it and reformed my line under cover of the hill, and reported the facts to Lieutenant-General Hill, who directed me to hold the position which I occupied, guarding well my left, my right and center being then covered by another command, which had fallen back and was reforming very near me.

Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds, Thirtieth Mississippi Regiment, whom but a short time before I had assigned to the command of the Thirty-fourth Mississippi Regiment, fell mortally wounded at his post of duty just before the left of my line gave way under a flank fire, as above stated, and died soon afterward. No braver man or better soldier fell upon the field of Chickamauga than this faithful and accomplished officer, whose loss is deeply deplored throughout this command. In his death the service sustains a heavy loss. Major Johnson, Thirtieth Mississippi Regiment, was wounded about the same time, but his wound being slight, he did not quit the field.

In a short time after my line was reformed I was ordered by the brigadier-general commanding to move my command by the right flank some 400 yards, and then form about half that distance and await orders. The right of my brigade rested in a field near a fence, and the center and left near the woods just in rear of a little prairie.

In this position, with my battery posted near the center of my line and Govan's brigade on my left. I remained until about 5 o'clock, when I received orders from the brigadier-general commanding that the line would advance, and to move my command forward, guiding left. I put it in motion, my brigade being then on the extreme right of the line, and met no opposition, even from the enemy's skirmishers, till I was in sight of the Chattanooga road, near McDonald's house. Here the skirmishers, firing from behind the house and outhouses of the settlement, resisted my advance for a moment, but soon most of them fled, a few surrendering. I moved across the road and into the open field beyond, and was ordered by the brigadier-general commanding to halt about 200 yards from the road and let the men lie down till he could post the batteries of his division on my right, and to this he gave his personal attention. While my line was advancing unopposed a continuous fire was heard to my left, and most of it seemed to be to the left of Govan's brigade, and as the division advanced this firing was continued to its left and rear. In the field in which my line was halted Govan's brigade also halted in extension of my line. Skirmishers were kept 200 or 300 yards in front. The order to lie down had scarcely been given and executed when the whole line was enfiladed from three batteries-one on the hill in the neighborhood of Cloud's house, another within 300 yards of the right of my line, concealed in a clump of bushes [both these on the right], and one to the left of Govan near the Chattanooga road. Some of our pieces were turned upon the batteries to the right and used to the best advantage under the circumstances, but neither was silenced. After enduring a very heavy fire for ten or fifteen minutes from these three batteries, with no enemy to be seen in front, the brigade to my left gave way, and my own soon followed, falling back in confusion under a furious cannonade. The enemy from the woods to the right