in greater numbers than on the preceding day, and upon emerging from the timber at a place known as Mrs. Lake's plantation, where we were ordered to open communication with General Morgan's division, our skirmishers were fired upon by a battery of two guns, planted near the white house on Chickasaw Bayou. A section of Hoffmann's battery was placed in position on our front and silenced the enemy's battery, which was quickly retired from the field. Lieutenant Ballou, commanding Company C, Tenth Missouri Cavalry,was then ordered to make a reconnaissance to our right, to discover the force and position of the enemy. About one hour after the battery was silenced by our fire we found that General Morgan had reached the mouth of Chickasaw Bayou and was disembarking his troops. Lieutenant Ballou returned soon after and reported the enemy' beyond the bayou in force. The division of General Morgan L. Smith, which had been ordered to advance on my right, came up about the time the enemy opened on us with his battery, and as all the cavalry under my command had been thrown out on my right to reconnoiter, when we subsequently observed the arrival and landing of the command of General Morgan at or near the mouth of the bayou, General M. L. Smith sent forward his cavalry escort to open communication with him. At the suggestion of General M. L. Smith and by his orders one regiment of my brigade, the Fifty-eighth Ohio Infantry, and one regiment of General Stuart's brigade of the Second Division were sent on our right to skirmish and feel the enemy, reported to be in force beyond the bayou on our right.

The report* of Lieutenant-Colonel Dister, commanding Fifty-eighth Ohio Infantry of my brigade, which I herewith transmit, gives an account of the operations of the regiment under this order.

The heavy skirmishing by these two regiments on our right and by the advance of General Morgan's command at the white house showed the enemy in force and strongly intrenched beyond the bayou. My brigade bivouacked for the night on the ground upon which Hoffmann's battery was put in position and silenced the battery at the white house and forced it to retire.

The orders of the day of the 28th placed my brigade in reserve, while General Morgan advanced from the white house and drove the enemy from this position beyond that point, and the division of General M. L. Smith engaged the enemy on the right. At an early hour of the day General M. L. Smith wa severely wounded, and at 10 or 11 a. m. I was ordered with my brigade to advance, with my right upon his left. Not being able to cross the bayou at that point with my artillery I ordered Captain Hoffmann, under instructions from General Sherman, to cross his battery over the pontoon bridge then being put up by the advance of General Morgan. I pushed forward as fast as the nature of the ground would permit to the left of General M. L. Smith and engaged the enemy, with my entire brigade, in his rifle-pits and intrenchments in my front, beyond the bayou, and a sharp and brisk encounter silenced his sharpshooters.

In this action Colonel Wyman, of the Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, a gallant and most meritorious officer, whose regiment was first engaged, lost his life; and several others were killed and wounded in this and other regiments of my command while thus engaged in aiding to silence the fire of the enemy's batteries and rifle-pits on the other side of the bayou.

I received an order from General Sherman to withdraw my brigade for the purpose of re-enforcing General Morgan, who was hotly engaged

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*Not found.

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