14th. Could I have known the exact nature of the work, the troops would have carried it by a direct assault from the north side, with perhaps less loss than was sustained. During the night of the 15th the enemy retired from our front.

On the 16th my command, by order of General Steedman, crossed the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad the Nolensville pike, and the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad, skirmishing with and driving the enemy. At an early hour in the in the afternoon the command joined the left of Colonel Thompson and confronted Overton Hill. Colonel Grosvenor was ordered to join the left of Second Colored Brigade and conform to its movements. He thus took part in the first assault upon Overton Hill. Colonel Shafter, with Seventeen, was in echelon to rear of Grosvenor; Lieutenant-Colonel Corbin, with Fourteenth, was directed to support and protect the artillery; Colonel Johnson, Forty-fourth, was directed to guard the left. Captain Osborne's (Twentieth Indiana) battery and Captain Aleshire's (Eighteenth Ohio) battery kept up an incessant fire upon the enemy, and did excellent work. Subsequently the Fourteenth U. S. Colored Infantry was deployed as skirmishers in front of the artillery and directly facing the enemy's works, where they kept and received a brisk fire. When the first assault upon the hill failed the assaulting column retired in disorder, passing through my skirmish line without shaking it. At one time I thought and so reported that the line was being forced back, but it was not true. The line remained; did its work amid the confusion that followed the repulse. When the Sixty-eight Indiana struck this line they asked what regiment. Being answered, Fourteenth, they cried, " Bully for you; we'll stay with you," and they did. I assisted Colonel Thompson in reforming his broken lines. When the final assault was being made upon Overton Hill the forces under me moved forward and joined in the pursuit of the enemy, which followed as far as Franklin, Tenn. Subsequently the First Colored Brigade, as part of Second Provisional Division, accompanied the expedition toward Tuscumbia, Ala., going as far as Leigton, Ala. On its return it joined General Cruft's forces in the fruitless chase after General Lyon's rebel cavalry. The brigade was disbanded January 12, 1865.

Colonel Shafter, Seventeenth, acquitted himself well,is cool and brave, and a good disciplinarian. Lieutenant-Colonel Corbin, Fourteenth U. S. Colored Infantry, does not possess sufficient courage to command brave men.* Captain Baker in reality commanded the Fourteenth U. S. Colored Infantry in the battle of the 15the and 16th, and acquitted himself with great credit. He is brave, cool, untiring, and deserves promotion. Lieutenant-Colonel Grosvenor obeyed every order with promptness, and is a good soldier. To each member of my staff, Lieutenants Cleland and Hall, Forty-fourth U. S. Colored Infantry, Wadswort and Dickinson, Sixteenth U. S. Colored Infantry, and Wyrill, Fourteen the U. S. Colored *Infantry, I am indebted for the promptness with which they carried out my desires, exposing themselves, cheerfully to necessary danger. The wounded of the First Colored Brigade were faithfully for by Surgeon, Clemons, Seventeenth U. S. Colored Infantry, and Assistant Surgeon Oleson, Fourteenth U. S. Colored Infantry.

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* Colonel Corbin was subsequently tried before a general court-martial on the charge of "cowardice" and "misbehavior before the enemy," &c.; was found not guilty, and "most honorably" acquitted. Vide General Orders, Numbers 6, headquarters First Separate Division, Army of the Cumberland, March 14, 1865.

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