Numbers 239. Report of Major General Carter L. Stevenson, C. S. Army, commanding division, of operations September 29 - December 17, 1864.

HEADQUARTERS STEVENSON'S DIVISION,
In the Field, January 20, 1865.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of my division during the recent campaign in Tennessee:

The march from Palmetto to the front of Columbia was without incident worthy of mention, except perhaps the demonstration upon Resaca, Ga., in which my command acted with spirit in the skirmishing which resulted in driving the enemy within their works. My loss was numerically insignificant at this point, but among the killed was numbered the gallant soldier and genial gentleman, Colonel F. K. Beck, Twenty-third Alabama Regiment. By his fall my division lost a chivalrous soldier and his native State one of her worthiest sons.

Upon our arrival in front of Columbia my position in line was assigned from the right of Mount Pleasant pike, the front of the division in line of battle. The investment was characterized by nothing of interest as far as my division was concerned. A desultory skirmish fire was kept up most of the time. My losses here were few.

On the night of the 27th of November my scouts reported that there were indications that the enemy were evacuating Columbia. I immediately increased the number of scouts, and about an hour before day sent forward the Eighteenth and Third Tennessee Regiments (consolidated), under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. R. Butler. He found the reports of the scouts to be correct, and occupied the town without opposition. I then moved forward my division, except Cumming's brigade (commanded in the campaign by Colonel E. P. Watkins, Fifty-sixth Georgia), which, by General Lee's order, was sent down the river to press those of the enemy who had taken that route, and endeavor to save the railroad bridge, which, however, had been fired before their arrival. In the fort at Columbia we secured a large amount of howitzer and small-arm ammunition and two siege howitzers. Colonel Butler had, immediately upon gaining possession of the town, sent a force to the ford of Duck River. The enemy's skirmishers were found to be in large force on the opposite bank, and the enemy in position behind works about three-quarters of a mile from the river. He immediately moved down his command and skirmished with them briskly. The Sixtieth North Carolina, coming up soon after, was sent farther up the bank of the river to a point from which they obtained a flanking fire upon the enemy. This drove them back from the immediate bank of the river. Orders were soon after received to discontinue the skirmishing.

On the night of that day General Hood, with Cheatham's and Stewart's corps and Johnson's division, of Lee's corps, crossed Duck River some miles above Columbia and pushed for the enemy's rear, leaving General Lee with Clayton's and my divisions to occupy the enemy in front until he should have reached his position, then to force a crossing of the river and attack the enemy as he attempted to extricate himself. The greater part of the next day was spent in preparations for this movement. The bank of the river was quite steep on the side held by the enemy. A pontoon boat in charge of Captain Ramsey, engineer, was taken down the river, under a galling fire, launched, and could then, under the cover of our artillery and skirmish fire, be used without much exposure in ferrying our troops. This was done with practicable rapid