Of Lieutenants McCagg and Young and the men in the command it is needless to use any words of praise. Suffice it that every man in the command feels we did, what we always strive to do, our whole duty. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. P. WOOD,

Captain, Commanding Company A, First Illinois Artillery.

Captain C. McDONALD,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Second Division.

Number 35. Report of Colonel Giles A. Smith, Eighth Missouri Infantry, commanding First Brigade.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, SECOND DIV., 15th ARMY CORPS, Arkansas Post, Ark., January 12, 1863.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the First Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, in the battle of Arkansas Post, on Saturday and Sunday, January 10 and 11 instant:

At 1 o'clock on Saturday, the gunboats having driven the enemy from their first line of intrenchments, under orders from General Stuart to advance the First Brigade, with one regiment deployed as skirmishers, up the river, the left resting on it until we drew a heavy fire from the enemy, I deployed the Eighth Missouri as skirmishers, Lieutenant-Colonel Coleman commanding, and moved forward. The skirmishers had advanced but a short distance into the woods beyond the evacuated works when they met the enemy's skirmishers, who were steadily driven back into their second line of rifle-pits. Our skirmishers, advancing from tree to tree, soon drove them from their works, which were taken possession of, and an immediate advance ordered, driving them into their main fort. Under its guns the brigade was halted, awaiting the arrival of more troops. Our skirmishers were thrown around to the right, encircling their works for more than half a mile, three companies of the Sixth Missouri being deployed on the right to complete the line. This ground I was ordered to hold until the arrival of the columns, which occupied the rest of the day.

At daylight on Sunday morning I was ordered by General Stuart to move around to the right and occupy an open field, about 1,000 yards from the enemy's intrenchments and above the fort. Companies A and B, First Illinois Artillery, commanded respectively by Captains Wood and Barrett, took position on our right and left and did good execution throughout the day, moving up on our left after our advance and assisting greatly in keeping down the enemy's fire.

After a heavy cannonading of about half an hour from our batteries and the gunboats, orders were received for the whole line to advance and assault the works. The First Brigade moved in the following order: The Sixth Missouri on the right, the One hundred and thirteenth Illinois on the left, the One hundred and sixteenth Illinois in the center, and the Eighth Missouri and Thirteenth U. S. Infantry in