orchard. He also informed me that a division from the Second and one from the Fifth Corps had been ordered to be in readiness to support me. My line was formed with Ward on the left, resting on the mountain, De Trobriand in the center, and Graham on my right in the peach orchard, with his right on the Emmitsburg road. Smith's battery of rifled guns was placed so as to command the gorge at the base of the Sugar Loaf Mountain; Winslow's battery on the right of Ward's brigade, and a battery from the Artillery Reserve; also Clark's and Ames' batteries to the right, in rear of the peach orchard, supported by Graham's brigade, and the Third Michigan, from the Third Brigade, and the Third Maine, from the Second Brigade. Randolph's, Seeley's, and Turnbull's batteries were placed near the Emmitsburg road, on the front, parallel with it. I immediately sent an aide to Major-General Sykes asking for the division promised to support my left. I now opened [say at 3. 30 p. m.] with Clark's and Smith's batteries upon the columns of the enemy moving toward our left, parallel with the Emmitsburg road. At 4 o'clock the enemy returned the artillery fire on my entire front, and advanced their infantry en masse, covered by a cloud of skirmishers. Major-General Sykes reached my left opportunely, and protected that flank. A portion of his command, under General Barnes, had been placed in rear of the right of De Trobriand's brigade, but during the fight he withdrew his force, and formed some 300 yards farther in the rear. As the fight was now furious, and my thin line reached from Sugar Loaf Hill to the Emmitsburg road, fully a mile in length, I was obliged to send for more re-enforcements to Major-General Sickles, and Major Tremain, aide-de-camp to the commanding general, soon appeared with a brigade of the Second Corps, which behaved most handsomely, and, leading them forward, it soon restored the center of my line, and we drove the enemy from that point, to fall with redoubled force on Ward's brigade. My thin lines swayed to and from during the fight, and my regiments were moved constantly on the double-quick from one part of the line to the other, to re-enforce assailed points. I cannot estimate too highly the services of the regiments from Burling's brigade, Second Division [the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh New Jersey Volunteers and Second New Hampshire
. These regiments were sent to me during the contest, and most gallantly did they sustain the glorious reputation won by them in former battles. Graham's brigade was subjected at the point of the angle of the line on the Emmitsburg road to a fearful artillery fire, enfilading his line, but this brigade, with the assistance of the Third Maine, from the Second Brigade, and the Third Michigan, from the Third Brigade of this division, held the peach orchard until nearly dusk, when, finding the right unsupported, it fell back to the next ridge. At 6 o'clock I found Major-General Sickles seriously wounded, and, at his request, took command of the troops. I immediately visited Humphreys' division, and, finding that the enemy, advancing through a gap in the line of my division, would take it in reverse, I ordered a change of front. General Humphreys accomplished this promptly under a most effective artillery and musketry fire, and, advancing his division rapidly, recaptured several batteries that the enemy had temporary possession of. Major-General Hancock reached me about 7. 30 o'clock with a bri-