Return until after dark, when I ordered it to the position it held in the morning. The Third Corps having advanced far beyond the original line of battle, and Caldwell's division having been detached, a large intervals remained on the left of the Second Division without troops. To remedy this in part, General Gibbon extended his lint to the left by adding to it his reserve brigade. The right of the Third Corps rested near the brick house, near the Emmitsburg road, a considerable distance in front of Gibbon's division, the general direction of the line being parallel to that road. To strengthen the point between the right of the Third Corps and his left, General Gibbon sent two regiments of General Harrow's brigade (the Fifteenth Massachusetts, Colonel G. H. Ward, and the Eighty-second New York Volunteers, Colonel Huston) to occupy a crest on the right of the brick house, which position was considerably strengthened by a slight breastwork of such materials as the adjoining fences afforded. Brown's battery (B, First Rhode Island) occupied a position in rear and somewhat to the left of these two regiments. Owing to the advanced position of the Third Corps, a very considerable gap was made between its left and the right of the Fifth Corps, through which the column of the enemy which turned the right flank of Caldwell's division appears to have padded. About this time, General Meade informed me that General Sickles had been wounded, and directed me to assume command of the Third Corps in addition to that of my own. By this arrangement, the immediate command of the Second Corps devolved again upon General Gibbon, and that of the Third upon General Birney. I had just before received an order from General Meade to send a brigade to the assistance of General Birney (whose division had occupied the extreme left of Sickles's corps), and to send two regiments to General Humphreys, who commanded the right of that corps. I immediately led the brigade (Third Brigade, Third Division, under Colonel Willard) intended for General Birney toward the left of the original line of battle of the Third Corps, and was about proceeding with it to the front, when I encountered General Birney, who informed me that his troops had all been driven to the rear, and had left the position to which I was moving. General Berney proceeded to the rear to collect his command. General Humphreys' small command yet remained in position. The force which had turned General Caldwell's right and driven the left of the Third Corps now approached the line of battle as originally established. Humphreys' command was forced back, contesting the ground stubbornly. The two regiments sent from the Second Division to General Humphreys' assistance (Nineteenth Massachusetts, Colonel Devereux, and Forty-second New York, Colonel Mallon, both under command of Colonel Mallon) had not arrived on the ground, though under musketry fire, when, observing that General Humphreys' command was rapidly retiring, they formed line of battle, delivered a few volleys at the advancing enemy, and themselves retired in good order to their position in line in the Second Corps, having suffered a heavy loss. The enemy pushed them so closely that a number of prisoners were captured by these regiments. The two regiments and battery referred to above as having been advanced by General Gibbon to the vicinity of the brick house did excellent service in protecting the flank of General Humphreys' command and in preventing it from being cut off from the line of battle. The enemy's attack being on their flank,