enemy was enabled to make his escape. The pursuit was necessarily discontinued, men and horses being worn out and hungry. The corps bivouacked for the night-Knipe, Croxton, and Hatch on the Granny

White pike, and Johnson on the Hillsborough pike near the Harpeth River. Before daylight they were in motion again-Knipe, in the advance, marched through the country to the Franklin pike; Croxton crossed and marched through the fields to its left; Hatch marched by the Granny White pike and a country road to the Franklin pike, and then followed Knipe; while Johnston pushed to the Harpeth River, forded it, and moved rapidly toward Franklin. General Knipe, with Hammond's brigade, came up with the enemy at Hollow Tree Gap, furor five miles north of Franklin. After a sharp fight, in which General Hammond with a part of his command passed around the enemy's right and struck them in flank, the position was handsomely carried. Three colones and 413 prisoners, including 2 colonels and 2 lieutenant-colonels, were captured. The rebels rear guard then fell back rapidly to Franklin, crossed the Harpeth, and prepared to defend its crossing; but General Johnson, with Harrison's brigade, having marched at 4 o'clock and crossed the river on the Hillsborough pike, moved rapidly to Franklin, struck them in flank, and compelled them to retreat to a new position, south of the town. Knipe crossed by the ford and entered the town almost simultaneously with Harrison's advance; Hatch and Croxton crossed soon after at the fords above the town. At Franklin the enemy's hospital with about 2,000 wounded fell into our hands; 200 of our own wounded, left there on the retreat to Nashville, were also recovered, together with 17,000 rations. The pursuit was immediately continued, Knipe and Hatch moving in parallel column along the Columbia pike, Johnson down the Carter's Creek pike, and Croxton on the Lewisburg pike. The flanking columns were directed to push rapidly forward and endeavor to pass round the flanks of the enemy's rear guard, composed almost entirely of infantry, while a strong force of skirmishers across the pike should press it continually and compel it to form line as frequently as possible. By these means I hoped to break up their last organized force and disperse the disorganized and flying mass they wee covering. My orders were obeyed with great alacrity, but the enemy, finding his flanks so much endangered, retired as rapidly, but skirmishing heavily with Hatch and Knipe. Late in the evening, apparently exhausted with rapid marching, the rebels took a strong position in open fields about a mile north of the West Harpeth. It was then almost dark from fog and approaching night.

The men of General Hatch's advance, by their rapid movements, had become so intermingled with the sullen and disheartened enemy, he began to doubt that the force in his front were really those of the rebel rear guard. The momentary hesitation caused by his uncertainty gave the rebels an opportunity to put their battery in position and reform their line. I immediately gave orders for Hatch and Knipe to collect their line. I immediately gave orders for Hatch and Knipe to collect their men and charge both flanks of the enemy, and directed my escort, the Fourth U. S. Cavalry, about 200 strong, Lieutenant Joseph Hedges commanding, to charge their center, on the pike. These orders had scarcely been given before the enemy opened a rapid fire from their battery, not over 300 yards from us. Hatch's battery promptly replied. Lieutenant Hedges, thinking that I simply wished him to ascertain the real character of the force in our front, hastily moved his regiment about and to the side of the road and out of the range of the rebel guns, but, at my order, as promptly resumed his original formation, in "col-