No. 14.

Report of Capt. Percival P. Oldershaw, U. S. Army, Assistant Adjutant-General, Tenth Division.

HDQRS. 10TH DIV., 1ST CORPS, ARMY OF THE OHIO, In Camp near Crab Orchard, Ky., October 15, 1862.

I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by this division in the action near Perryville, on Chaplin Heights, on the 8th instant:

At 8 a. m. the division, under the command of Brigadier General. James S. Jackson, consisting of the Thirty-third Brigade, Brigadier General William R. Terrill commanding, viz: One hundred and fifth Ohio, Colonel Hall, 645 enlisted men; Eightieth Illinois, Colonel Allen, 659 enlisted men; One hundred and twenty-third Illinois, Colonel Monroe, 772 enlisted men; detachment, Colonel Garrard's, 194 enlisted men; light battery, Lieut. C. C. Parsons, 136 enlisted men, making a total of 2,406; and the Thirty-fourth Brigade, Col. George Webster commanding, viz: Ninety-eighth Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Poorman, 822 enlisted men; One hundred and twenty-first Ohio, Col. W. P. Reid, 814 enlisted men; Fiftieth Ohio, Col. J. R. Taylor, 655 enlisted men; Eightieth Indiana, Lieutenant-Colonel Brooks, 738 enlisted men; Nineteenth Indiana Battery, Capt. S. J. Harris, 142 enlisted men, making a total of 3,171, and a grand total of 5,577 enlisted men, left Mackville, on the road to Perryville, distant about 9 miles.

The One hundred and first Indiana, Colonel Garver, also belonging to the Thirty-third Brigade, was detached as guard to the train ordered that morning to Springfield, and consequently did not participate in the action.

We had not proceeded far before we heard the booming of cannon in the distance, and when about 3 miles on the road Captain Bartlett, of the artillery, and for the day acting as aide to General Terrill, met our front, with orders from General McCook to move up without delay, and to throw one regiment as skirmishers to the left of our line of march. Having to keep our column in rear of skirmishers, who were traveling on a very rough and broken country, we were delayed in our progress nearly an hour. The general, with his staff, rode forward to where temporary headquarters for the corps was established, and which afterward proved to be about the center of the scene of action.

At this time some batteries, I believe of General Rousseau's, were in action at long range on the right, and General Jackson, not then contemplating a general engagement, ordered me back to bring up the troops and to place the two brigades at rest on the right and left of the road. The Thirty-fourth Brigade, Colonel Webster, soon came up, and in my absence and delay in clearing the road of ambulances and ammunition wagons, to enable the Thirty-third Brigade to come up, the battery of Captain Harris was moved across the main road to the left and put in position on the right of a high, level ridge. It soon opened fire at long range, no enemy then being visible, and the regiments belonging to the same brigade were placed in position in the rear and left of the battery under the crest of the hill, as will be seen by the report of Lieut. E. E. Kennon, acting assistant adjutant-general, herewith submitted. Here I rejoined General Jackson. A few rounds having opened the enemy's batteries, a 12-pounder shot came within a foot of anticipating the fatal stroke our general received soon afterward.