admirable performance of the delicate duty in charge of the skirmish line, left on duty and withdrawn at midnight, several hours after the rest of the command had marched.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. D. COX,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Major J. A. CAMPBELL, Asst. Adjt. General, Army of the Ohio.

HDQRS. THIRD DIVISION, TWENTY-THIRD ARMY CORPS,
Columbia, Tenn., December 25, 1864.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of my command in the battle of Nashville on the 15th and 16th instant:

On the evening of the 14th I received orders to withdraw the division before daylight next morning from the line of works crossing the Franklin turnpike in front of Nashville, including Forst Negley and the fortified hill at Block-House Casino, and upon their place being supplied by troops of Major-General Steedman's command, to march to the Hillsborough pike and form as a support to the Fourth Corps, Brigadier-General Wood commanding. My picket-line was ordered to be left in position until relieved by General Steedman. Accordingly, at 5.30 a.m. on the 16th [15th], I withdrew the command from the works, massing them behind the hill slopes in rear from 100 to 200 yards. The picket-line was left under command of Major Baker, Sixty-fifth Indiana Volunteers, division field officer of the day. At 7 a.m. the line was partially occupied by General Cruft's division, of General Steedman's command, and the First Brigade, Colonel C. C. Doolittle, Eighteenth Michigan Volunteers, temporarily commanding, with the Third Brigade, Colonel I. N. Stiles, Sixty-third Indiana Volunteers, temporarily commanding, and Battery D, First Ohio Light Artillery, were marched to the Hillsborough pike. A lively demonstration along the left, leading to a rapid artillery firing from the right of the enemy's line, with some appearance of an advance on their part, led me to order the Second Brigade, Colonel J. S. Casement, One hundred and third Ohio Volunteers, commanding, to remain temporarily in support of General Cruft's line, which was very light. This fact was reported to the major-general commanding, who approved the order and further ordered the Twenty-third Indiana Battery to remain at Casino Block-House, which was done. The two brigades and battery were moved to the Hillsborough pike under cover of a fog, which concealed the movement from the enemy, and were formed one brigade on each side of the road in column of battalions massed, the battery on the road in rear. In this formation the command was gradually advanced as the Fourth Corps advanced, until about 1 p.m., when I received orders from the commanding general to bring up Casement's brigade and move the division, by the rear of General A. J. Smith's command, to the extreme right of the forces engaged with the enemy. The command was moved by the flank, Colonel Doolittle's brigade in advance, by a country road leading diagonally from the Hillsborough toward the Hardin pike, about two miles, thence curving more to the left as the right wing of the army swung forward, about two miles farther, till we reached and crossed the Hillsborough pike again at a point about five miles and a half distant from Nashville, and near where the turnpike enters the high range of hills connected with the Brentwood Heights. During the last mile of the march the brigades moved in parallel lines, the right flanks being equally advanced, and the artillery on the right rear of the division, so