orders to have my command ready to move the next morning at daylight, with three days' rations in their haversacks and sixty rounds of ammunition to the man; also to leave the smallest regiment of the brigade in the works then occupied, to be deployed as skirmishers to hold the same. The above orders were complied with. The Fifty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Captain A. M. Tilton commanding, was left to hold the main line, occupied by the brigade. The movement commenced at 8 a. m. I moved my brigade by the right flank about half a mile, following Lane's brigade. the command was passed to the outside of the line of works. The brigade was then formed in two lines of battle and in reserve, being immediately in the rear of Opdycke's brigade. The first line of battle consisted of the Seventy-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Allen Buckner commanding, on the right; the Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant R. C. Brown commanding, in the center, and the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, Captain George Ernest commanding, on the left. The second line consisted of the Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel E. D. Swain commanding, on the right, and the Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Major Orlow Smith commanding, on the left. The division then moved forward, my brigade conforming to they movements of the other two, more particularly to that of Opdycke's.

The above disposition of the command was maintained throughout the day, the enemy being steadily pressed back until about sundown, when a strong position occupied by the enemy was carried by an assault. From this position the brigade moved by the flank to the left, following Lane's brigade; took up a position on the left of the Granny White pike, and on the right of Lane's brigade, which position was fortified during the right, the of the Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry resting on the pike, the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry on the left of the Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry and the Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the second line, the Seventy-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry on picket covering the whole front of the brigade. My command was not engaged with the enemy during the day. Here the brigade bivouacked for the night.

december 16, orders were sent during the night for the Fifty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry to join the brigade, which it did before day-light. The movement commenced soon after daylight. I was ordered to conform as far as practicable to the movements of Lane's brigade, which was on my left. The Seventy-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry was advanced as skirmishers, covering my front, the Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry on the right, and the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry on the left of the front line, Fifty-first and Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry and Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry composing the second line. My right flank being entirely unprotected, I threw out two companies of the Forty-second Illinois Infantry to cover the right. The command moved forward in the direction of the Franklin pike. Here information was received that the enemy had taken up a new position and fortified it, about one mile to our right. Our skirmishers became engaged with the enemy's pickets a short distance from the pike. Here the Fifty-first Illinois Volunteers were thrown out to cover the right flank, and the brigade made a right wheel, changing direction to the right. Here the command halted for a while. The Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry was moved back out of its proper position to allow a battery, which had taken position in its immediate rear, to open upon the enemy. At this point my

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