support of the picket-line to reconnoiter the enemy's picket-line, and returned to camp. In the afternoon broke camp and marched back to our first reserve position. Starting thence on the 22nd we crossed the Neuse River on the 23rd and arrived at Goldsborough on the 24th.

Of the amount of provisions taken from the country it is very difficult to form an estimate, even approximately accurate. From the 4th of February till the 4th of March, when we reached the Great Pedee, our foragers provided us with an abundance of supplies, so that we could well have dispensed with even the small quantities of hard bread that were issued, and had accumulated a respectable quantity of meat and meal. After that we procured enough, in addition to our savings, to give each man a good ration every day. The whole amount taken from the country may be about as follows: Eight hundred pounds of wheat flour, 4,000 pounds of corn meal, 550 bushels of sweet potatoes, 13,000 pounds of meat, 900 pounds of lard, 150 pounds of dried fruit. How much forage the pack animals, forage animals, and animals proper in the regiment consumed and destroyed, it is still more difficult to tell, but I should put it at about 1,200 bushels of corn. My foragers destroyed about 300 bales of cotton.

Casualties. *

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

FRED. C. WINKLER,

Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding Twenty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteers.

Captain H. G. H. TARR,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, 3rd Brigadier, 3rd Div., 20th Army Corps.

Numbers 204. Report of Major Francis Lackner, Twenty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry, of operations January 24-25.

HDQRS. TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT WISCONSIN VOLS.,
Hardeeville, S. C., January 26, 1865.

CAPTAIN: Pursuant to orders received from the general commanding, I assumed the command of a scouting party of 115 men on the 24th instant, and starting from this place at 8. 30 a. m. pursued the Augusta road toward Robertsville. At a point about two miles beyond Purysburg we began to find the road obstructed, a tree being felled across the same every fifteen to twenty feet. We found these obstructions wherever the sides of the road are wooded up to Kirk's house, and at several places beyond. The road is bad; some portions of it we found under water and others miry. About one mile beyond Ennis' Cross-Roads (Bradham's) we encountered a rebel picket-post of about twenty-five men, belonging, as I was informed, to Wheeler's command. Leaving the advance to engage them in front, I sent a party of twenty-five dismounted men through the swamps on the right of the road, with instructions to strike the road again at a point in rear of the enemy. Before they could strike the road, however, the enemy fled and we pursued them for about three miles, occasionally exchanging shots with them. I was informed that there are some 300 to 500 of Wheeler's men at Robertsville, and other squads of the same number at various points

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*Nominal list (omitted) shows 2 officers and 6 men killed, 15 men wounded, and 1 officer and 10 men prisoners.

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