and so well acquainted with the details of the office I scarce know how to replace him.

My thanks are due to Captains Condon, Cartwright, and Gleeson and Lieutenants Dwyer, more fortunate than their comrades, for the conspicuous part they performed in conducting the regiment through and out of so severe a contest.

With much regard, I am, very respectfully,

R. C. BENTLEY,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Regiment.

Lieutenant JOHN J. BLAKE,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

No. 66. Report of Captain Patrick J. Condon, Sixty-third New York Infantry.

NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., December 24, 1862.

SIR: In compliance with a verbal request from division headquarters (Hancock's), I have the honor to report, as accurately as my memory and the very few notes I penciled at the time furnishes me, with the action of my regiment in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13.

We leave camp at about 9 a.m. Thursday, December 11, under command of Major Joseph O'Neill, Colonel Fowler being yet, I believe, in hospital, from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Antietam, and Lieutenant-Colonel Bentley, who was also wounded at Antietam, and recently returned, suffering from indisposition, remaining sick in camp. We bivouac for the night, with the other regiments of the brigade, on a small hillock, surrounded by trees, about 1 mile this side of the river.

Friday, December 12, cross on pontoon bridge early this morning, without loss or accident, the regiments of the brigade in the following order, viz: Sixty-ninth New York Volunteers, Eighty-eighth New York Volunteers, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, Sixty-third New York Volunteers, and the One hundred and sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers. Arriving in Fredericksburg, the head of the column file to the left along the southern bank of the river, and form by battalion closed in mass on the dock, where we stack arms for the night, without fire.

Saturday, December 13, all quiet, until 9.30 o'clock this morning, when heavy cannonading is heard on our left. At 10 a.m. my regiment is ordered by General Meagher to exchange positions with the One hundred and sixteenth Pennsylvania, and bring up the left or rear of the brigade. This movement was effected while we were drawn up in line of battle on the first regular street next and parallel to the river, immediately after losing 2 men, where the center of our regiment halted on a cross street. Between 11 a.m. and noon the brigade is ordered into action. We are addressed by General Meagher, who informs us we are to support French's division. A few minutes after, the brigade moved by the left flank, filing to the right and left around half a dozen streets, until we top over the crest of a hill under a heavy cannonade from the enemy. The march, still by the right flank, is continued along the right-hand sidewalk to the mill-race or canal. The fire on us here is galling and destructive.

I see General Hancock riding along on the left-hand sidewalk opposite me, hunting up stragglers (4 or 5), who were sheltering themselves by a house on the left. We cross the canal, some dashing through,up