as a gentleman, the loss is no less to the service than to the friends who survive him. He fell, where the brave always fall, at his post, in the manful discharge of his duty.

Respectfully submitted.

M. A. STOVALL,

Brigadier-General.

Captain J. M. MACON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 242. Report of Brigadier General Randall L. Gibson, C. S. Army, commanding brigade, of operations December 15-17, 1864.

HEADQUARTERS GIBSON'S BRIGADE, Near Tupelo, Miss., January 11, 1865.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor, in compliance with orders from division headquarters, to submit the following report of operations before Nashville and along the line of our march to Columbia:

About 2 o'clock on the 15th of December I was directed by Lieutenant-General Lee to move my brigade to the extreme left of his corps and to deploy it in one rank, so as to cover as much space as possible. A little while before sunset the troops in line at right angles to the line in which I was posted--a line extending along the left flank of the army--a line extending along the left flank of the army--gave way, and soon those immediately upon my left fell back, the whole moving rapidly in some confusion to the rear. The enemy advanced, and seeing that my left flank was exposed and likely to be involved, I withdrew my brigade from the trenches and formed a line of battle at right angles to them, my right resting upon them. I also threw forward a strong line of skirmishers under Lieutenant A. T. Martin, who at one attacked the enemy, but the showed not disposition to advance. By this time it was twilight, and in a few minutes night closed operations.

The next day, the line having been retired about two and a half miles, my skirmishers were attacked early in the morning, but not ordered in until near 1 o'clock, when it was discovered that preparations were being made to charge us in force. The enemy assaulted my brigade either with one large or two small brigades, and after several attempts only came up to within seventy-five yards, and remaining there a few minutes broke and fled. We killed and wounded a great many for the time they were under fire and the force engaged. I estimate his loss at 200 killed and from 700 to 900 wounded. Observing just before sundown troops and ambulances passing into the Franklin turnpike from the left, and double- quacking toward the rear, I at once dispatched my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Cartwright Eustis, to say to Brigadier-General Pettus that I would co-operate with him in any plan to arrest the progress of the enemy, who had evidently broken the line somewhere to his left. Scarcely had my aide reached me and informed me of the intentions of General Pettus, when the enemy was observed already upon our rear and our troops upon all sides breaking and striving to reach the line of retreat, which was nearly covered. I had ordered Lieutenant Colonel R. H. Lindsay, commanding Sixteenth Louisiana Volunteers, to get ready to deploy his regiment as skirmishers along the trenches, while I withdrew the brigade and attempted to