No. 7. Report of Lieutenant John H. Hull, One hundred and first U. S, Colored Infantry.

HDQRS. COMPANY E, 101ST Regiment, U. S. COLORED INFTY.,
Scottsborough, Ala., January 8, 1865.

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor to report that in compliance with received, I proceeded to Larkinsville and reported to Captain Givens, commanding post, with fifty-four men, consisting of a detachment of Company E, One hundred and first (twenty-nine men), and Company E, One hundred and tenth, of U. S. Colored Infantry (twenty five men), commanded by Second Lieutenant David Smart. On the evening of the 7th instant I was ordered by Captain Givens to proceed with my command to Scottsborough immediately, to guard water-trans and Government property. On the 8th instant, at 4 p. m., Colonel Harrison passed through Scoottsborough, informing me that the rebel General Lyon was morning on the railroad with a force of from 1,000 to 1,500 men, ordering to patrol the road for two miles and a half, both east and west, which order I promptly obeyed. At 5 p. m. one of my scouts returned, reporting the enemy advancing in force. I immediately forwarded a request to Colonel harrison, at Bellefonte Station, for re-enforcements, which did not arrive until 10 o'clock, after the fighting after. At 5.30 o'clock the enemy attacked my pickets, wounding and disabling one of them. After shooting him they stabbed him three times, twice in the neck and once in the back. I immediately sent Lieutenant Smart with a squad, who drove the enemy off, bringing the wounded man, the enemy taking with them his musket and accouterments.

At 6 o'clock the enemy attacked in force, from all information I could obtain 1,500 strong, with two 12-pounder howitzers. They massed their force on the north side of the depot, making an assault, which I repulsed after ten minutes almost hand-to-hand encounter. Again they assaulted on the south side, coming up and laying hold of the muzzles of my men's guns, attempting to wrest them through the loopholes of the depot building, in which we were stationed. This assault last about fifteen minutes. Again they were repulsed, when all was quiet for about twenty-five minutes, when they made their third and last assault on the south side and west, and which was the most severe and closely contested of all, lasting some thirty minutes before they were driven back. They then fell back beyond the range of my muskets and opened on me with artillery, compelling me to abandon the depot. I fell back to the mountain, some 450 yards, where I halted my men (the enemy pursuing me about that distance), intending to renew the fighting; but hearing the there were three sections of cars loaded with our troops lying at the water-tanks one mile and a quarter west of Scottsborough, I marched my command down to them, making my report to the commanding officer Colonel-, who order me to Larkinsville to report to Brigadier-General Cruft, who order me to bring my command up to Larkinsville. On my arrival there I made application to General Cruft for medical aid for my wounded men. He ordered two surgeons from Colonel Salm's command to attend my wounded men. They came sand looked at them, but left without doing anything for them; consequently, my wounded did not get their wounds dressed until the afternoon of the 12th instant.

I am under lasting obligations to Colonel Morgan, of the Fourteenth U. S. Colored Infantry, and his surgeon for their attention to my