March 26.-I received orders to be ready to move at daylight, but did not march until 8 a.m., and then in the rear of the Second Brigade. The march was very slow and irregular, but the road was good except at the crossing of two streams, the banks of which were very high and caused much delay in getting the trains across. Marched eight miles. At 3 p.m. I came up with the First and Second Brigades, First Division, and found them in line of battle with a skirmish line covering the front, which was engaged with the enemy. I was ordered into position in the rear of the above-mentioned brigades as a reserve or supporting line, parallel with and 100 paces in rear of the front line. The brigade remained in this position until 6 p.m., when I received orders from Brigadier General James C. Veatch to send out 200 men to the left of the skirmish line of the First Brigade to extend the line to D'Olive's Bridge and connect with Colonel Bertram's line. Six companies of the Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteers were accordingly sent. I soon afterward was ordered to send a regiment to the front to relieve the Ninety-ninth Illinois Volunteers, which was on duty supporting the skirmish line of the First Brigade, and the One hundred and sixty-first New York Volunteers were sent forward. At 10 p.m. five companies of the Twenty-ninth Illinois Volunteers were ordered out to the extreme right of the line of the First Division to connect it with the line of Third Division, Thirteenth Army Corps.

March 27.-I received orders to be ready to move at daybreak, as an advance was contemplated. In compliance with these orders I collected the different detachments of the brigade and formed in line, the left of the brigade resting near and in front of the Wadsworth house, on the ridge near D'Olive's Bridge. A line of skirmishers was deployed in front, the right of the line connecting with the left of a aline which had been deployed from the First Brigade, First Division, and my left resting on D'Olive's Creek. These dispositions having been made, Brigadier General J. C. Veatch ordered me to move my command forward, which I accordingly did, over very rough and broken ground. After moving half a mile to the front the skirmish line camp out to the clearing in front of the works of Spanish Fort, and were warmly engaged with the enemy's skirmishers. I pushed forward the skirmish line and moved the command forward to a position under cover of a ravine, 1,200 yards from the main rebel works. I here halted and reported to the general commanding that the right of my brigade was up with and connecting with the left of the line of battle of the First Brigade, First Division, and my left in close proximity to and connecting with the right of Colonel Bertram's brigade, which filled up the interval between the left of the Third Brigade and the Bay of Mobile. I received orders to remain in this position. The skirmish line of my brigade was withdrawn at dark, as they and the skirmishers of Colonel Bertram's brigade were occupying the same line. Two men of the One hundred and sixty-first New York Volunteers were wounded in line, and two of the Twenty-ninth Illinois Volunteers by a shell while in camp. At 10 p.m. a fatigue party of 150 men was sent to the front line to throw up rifle-pits.

March 28.-In obedience to orders from headquarters First Division to send a regiment to report to Colonel Wilson to repair the road and bridges leading to Starke's Landing, the One hundred and sixty-first New York Volunteers, Major Willis E. Craig commanding, was ordered to report for said duty. At 7 p.m. the Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteers was sent out to the front on skirmish duty to relieve the Twenty-third Iowa, of Colonel Bertram's brigade. The Twenty-ninth Illinois