command after advancing 800 or 900 yards was ordered to halt. We were then marched by flank some half mile or farther in the direction the enemy had taken, when we were again formed in line of battle and ordered to advance on the position the enemy occupied when last seen before night came on, and which was distinguishable by the camp-fires they lighted and left burning. Upon reaching this point it was found the enemy had retreated. The troops were ordered to halt for the night, and Major Gist was also ordered to send six companies forward to picket the Knoxville road. Companies A, C, B, K, E, and H, under Captain J. B. Davis, were ordered to perform this duty.

Resumed the pursuit early next morning, coming up with the enemy's rear guard some 5 miles from Knoxville. General Kershaw ordered Major Gist to move with his regiment, along with Colonel Henagan, who was ordered to make a detour to the right, and if possible get in the enemy's rear and attack him, while the rest of the brigade pressed him in front. Owing to the distance we had to go to get in the rear of the enemy, they were driven off by the troops that assailed them in front before we had arrived in the position desired to be occupied, and which would have cut off the enemy's retreat had we succeeded. The regiment then marched to rejoin the brigade, which it succeeded in doing shortly before the column was halted in sight of Fort Loudon.

On the 19th instant, when the brigade advanced on the enemy's position at Armstrong's house, the regiment occupied the extreme right next the Holston River. Owing to the nature of the ground in our front, when near our picket lines the regiment was marched by a flank along the river bank until the right reached the position occupied by Colonel Henagan on the picket line. Major Gist halted the regiment here and ordered the men to close up, and moving down the line to see that the order was promptly obeyed, he was shot by one of the enemy's sharpshooters concealed behind their breastworks in front, and instantly expired. The command then devolved upon Captain J. B. Davis, the senior officer present. Just at this moment Lieutenant Doby, of General Kershaw's staff, gave Captain Davis orders to charge the hill in his front. The order was given and the hill carried with a rush and with but little resistance from the enemy, who were posted behind the trees and in the houses about Armstrong's premises. The regiment continued to press on rapidly until ordered to halt and fall back to Armstrong's house, where we threw up a sort of breastwork of rails, to be used in case the enemy should attempt to regain the position.

The regiment lost in that affair its brave and intrepid commander, Major William M. Gist. Company K, of the regiment, which was on picket duty during the day, had 2 men killed and 4 wounded.

During the siege there were no other casualties in the command, and nothing occurred in which the regiment was engaged worthy of mention until the afternoon of December 4. The regiment was on picket that day.

Late in the afternoon the enemy advanced three companies against our right, where the line was weakest and least protected, evidently with a view to discover our number and strength. The companies on the right gave them good information by several well-directed volleys, which seemed to check their curiosity rather suddenly, and sent them back to their intrenchments with more haste than is prescribed by tactics for movements of the kind.