General Forrest's command, which are regarded as their best troops in the West. According to General Forrest's own statement, under a flag of truce, to the brevet major-general commanding Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi, his force exceeded the assaulting force in numbers. My entire force in the charge was 1,550 officers and men. The carrying of these works and the town by my division did not stop or take time to pick them up or gather them together, and only between 600 and 1,000 were collected by the provost-marshals, their guards, and other officers and men not otherwise occupied. We captured no less than twenty pieces of artillery in position, including one 30-pounder Parrott, and a large number of small-arms were taken and destroyed. When within 150 yards of the works on the Summerfield and Selma road I was wounded and carried off the field, a short time after which General Wilson was riding by, and inquired of my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Deering, if we had carried there works. I had the satisfaction of hearing the answer in the affirmative.

The Chicago board of Trade Battery, commanded by Captain George I. Robinson, occupied a position on the hill in the rear of my line. Their rapid and effective firing contributed greatly to the demoralization of the enemy. It was afterward reported to me that this battery did good and efficient service in assisting the driving of the enemy through and beyond the town. Although not personally cognizant of the part it took throughout the entire action, I have no doubt from the manner in which it had always executed its work hitherto that it did everything possible to be done. Our loss, although slight compared with the work accomplished, would have ben much less had the Fourth Michigan Cavalry charged, as I ordered, on the left of the line in front of the battery, and thus covered a work which enfiladed our whole line instead of remaining, as it did, through some mistake of the regimental or brigade commander, with and in support of the battery. I cannot in justice to the division refrain from stating, what the brevet major-general commanding the Cavalry Corps must know to be a fact, that this was the decisive fight of the campaign; that the crushing and demoralizing defeat here given to the Confederate forces opposing us contributed in no small degree to the success of our expedition, and, in fact, by defeating them so badly as to render any further resistance on their part out of the question, made the latter portion of the campaign comparatively a work of ease. In this affair the entire division did their whole duty, than which no greater praise can be given to a soldier. The First Brigade, commanded by Colonel A. O. Miller, Seventy-second Indiana Volunteers, owing to longer practice and being more accustomed to fighting on foot, probably kept a better line than the Second Brigade, but so far as courage is concerned and the time that different regiments and portions of the division approached the works, no appreciable difference could be seen or was reported to me. When it is remembered that it was a depot of ammunition which supplied a large portion of the so-called Southern Confederacy, the importance of its capture cannot well be magnified. Where all portions of the command have done their duty so faithfully and well during the entire march it would seem unjust to make special mention of individuals, but I feel compelled to mention a few instances of gallantry in action where the persons mentioned here had a favorable opportunity to distinguish themselves, and whose conduct in action came under my own personal observation. Of this class I must mention Captain T. W. Scott, Ninety-eighth Illinois Volunteers, my acting assistant adjutant-