drawn by its colonel, who stated that the was ordered so to do by his general. This withdrawal placed the right of Greene`s brigade in a critical position. Greene`s brigade now behaved with the most unflinching gallantry, sustaining their desperate position during an incessant attack of two and a half hours from vastly superior numbers. During this time the noble brigade repelled four separate and furious charges on their entire line without losing a foot of ground. The heaps of rebel dead and wounded in front of their lines afterward attested their desperate determination. As soon as the attack commenced, Generals Wadsworth and Howard were petitioned by General Greene for support, to which they promptly responded-the Sixth Wisconsin, Colonel Dawes, Fourteenth Brooklyn, Colonel Fowler, and One hundred and forty-seventh New York Volunteers, Major Banta* (in all, 355 men), being sent from Wadswoth`s division, and the Eighty-second Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Salomon, Forty-fifth New York Volunteers, Colonel Amsberg, and the Sixty-first Ohio, Colonel McGroarty (in all, about 400 men) from the Eleventh Corps. These regiments rendered good service, relieving temporarily regiments of Greene`s brigade whose ammunition was exhausted, and by whom they were again in turn relieved. The enemy, meeting with so determined a resistance, discontinued their attack at about 10p. m., and remained in occupancy of the ridge formerly held by the First Division, General Greene still holding all his original position, with the One hundred and thirty-seventh New York Volunteers placed in line perpendicularly to the rest of the brigade, its left resting on the entrenchments and its right near a stone wall, which extended parallel to Generals Ruger`s and Kane`s entrenchments and about 200 yards in rear of them. This stone wall was occupied by a force of the enemy as a protection against attack from the direction of the turnpike. At 9 p. m. I ordered Kane`s brigade to return to its original position and Candy`s to follow it. On entering the woods, and when within 200 yards of the breastworks, Kane`s brigade was met by a sharp fire, which in the midst of the surrounding darkness, was at first supposed to be from General Greene`s troops. Without replying, the brigade was withdrawn to the turnpike, taken in past the rear of Greene`s brigade and past Greene`s right, when it was again met with a volley, thus proving that the enemy still occupied the ground to Greene`s right; a fact of which in the dark night there remained some doubt. It being injudicious to attack the enemy in the night in their new position. I formed the Second Brigade in double line perpendicular to the Third Brigade and joining its right, thus relieving the One hundred and thirty-seventh New York Volunteers, which had so long and so well held that position. Between this new line of the Second Brigade and that of the enemy in their front was a shallow ravine. The whole ground was very rough and rocky, affording some shelter on both sides for infantry. I devoted the rest of the night, after consultation with Major-General Slocum and Brigadier-General Williams, to such an arrangement of my troops as, by a vigorous attack at daylight, to drive the enemy from the ground they had gained. At 1 a. m. the 3d, the First Brigade, which had been held in readiness on the turnpike, was placed in position on the right of Kane`s brigade, in extension of Kane`s line, its right resting on an

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* Reference is probably to Major Harney.

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