commanding the Third Division, to detail a brigade to make the attack. The Second Brigade of the Third Division, commanded by Colonel P. Sidney Post, Fifty-ninth Illinois Veteran Volunteers, was selected for the work.

The necessary arrangements having been made, at 1 p. m. I gave the order for the assault. At the command, as sweeps the stiff gale over the ocean, driving every object before it, so swept the brigade up the wooded slope, over the enemy's entrenchments; and the hill was won. The Second Brigade was nobly supported in the assault by the First Brigade (Colonel Streight's) of the Third Division. Quite an number of prisoners and small-arms were captured int he assault. Previous to the assault I had caused the enemy to be well pounded by the artillery from our lines. This was the first success of the day, and it greatly exalted the enthusiasm of the troops. Our casualties were small compared with the success. Up to this time the Twenty-third Corps, Major-General Schofield commanding, had been held in reserve in rear of the Fourth Corps and Major-General Smith's command; but shortly after the assault on Montgomery's Hill I received a message from the commanding general of the forces to the effect that he had ordered General Schofield to move his command to the right to prolong General Smith's front, and directing me to move my reserves as much to the right as could be done compatible with the safety of my own front.

The order was at once obeyed by shifting the reserve brigade of each division toward our right. the entire line of the corps was steadily pressed forward and the enemy engaged throughout its whole front. The battery accompanying each division was brought to the front, and being placed in short and effective range of the enemy's main line, allowed him no rest. As the troops advanced the skirmishers were constantly engaged, at times so sharply that the fusillade nearly equaled in fierceness the engagement of solid lines of battle. I pressed the corps as near to the enemy's main line as possible without making a direct assault on it. In doing so at the same time swinging to the left, the right of the corps, which had during the previous portion of the day been in rear of General Smith's left to support it, passed in front of it. This movement brought the center of the corps, General Kimball's division, directly opposite a very strongly fortified hill near the center of the enemy's main line. Impresses with the importance of carrying this hill, as the enemy's center would be broken thereby, I ordered up two batteries and had them so placed as to bring a converging fire on the crest of the hill. I will here remark that the enemy's artillery on this hill had been annoying us seriously all day. After the two batteries had played on the enemy's line for half an hour, during which time the practice had been most accurate, I ordered General Kimball to assault the hill with his entire division. most nobly did the division respond to the order. With the most exalted enthusiasm and with loud cheers it rushed forward up the steep ascent and over the entrenchments. The solid fruits of this magnificent assault were several pieces of artillery and stands of colors, many stand of small-arms, and numerous prisoners. The Second Division of the corps (General Elliott's) followed the movement of General Kimball's division, and entered the enemy's works farther to the right shortly after the main assault had been successful. The division in this movement captured three pieces of artillery. Farther to the left the Third Division, General Beatty commanding, had attacked and carried the enemy's entrenchments and captured several pieces of artillery and caissons and numerous prisoners.

9 R R-VOL XLV, PT I