Riding toward our left and a little in advance of Harris' battery we came upon an open knob, where we found General McCook and all his staff watching some beautiful artillery practice by Stone's battery farther on our left, which was firing up a wide ravine upon the enemy's cavalry moving up a road to our front.

Here Captain Parsons was located soon after, and by 2 p. m. opened with round shot and shell. The one hundred and twenty-third Illinois had been previously brought on the field forming our extreme left and angling toward the rear of the battery. Soon after the battery was in position the One hundred and fifth Ohio, Colonel Hall, came up and took position to the left and rear of the battery, and the Eightieth Illinois, Colonel Allen, through misdirection of the guide, came up later and formed in the valley near the edge of the woods, as will be seen by the report of Capt. William P. Anderson, assistant adjutant-general, herewith submitted.

This battery had fired but a few shots when we heard rifle-shots below in the woods, when the enemy soon advanced and came in sight in the edge of the woods fronting our troops. No sooner was this seen by General Terrill and Lieutenant Parsons, then directing the fire of the guns, than they changed the direction of the fire, and opened at short range (about 90 yards) on the flank of the enemy with grape with deadly accuracy. It checked the advance of the enemy, and after a few more rounds they changed front and faced the battery, which then flanked our left. General Terrill, seeing this, ordered the advance of the One hundred and twenty-third Illinois, Colonel Monroe, and to charge bayonets. It advanced bravely, but unfortunately the enemy had not then left the woods, and there was a rail fence on its edge, which prevented their advancing promptly. The regiment fired a volley and fell back, when almost immediately afterward General Jackson, who was standing on the left of the battery, was killed, two bullets entering his right breast. At the moment I was standing on the right of the battery, watching the gallant defense then being made by the troops on our left. Returning to the general to report the same, I found him on his back, struggling to speak, but unable to do so. He died in a few moments. His staff officers at once removed his body from the crest of the hill some 50 yards. Mr. Wing, one of the general's volunteer aides, went for an ambulance, and while I was absent, notifying General Terrill and Colonel Webster of the general's death, instructing the latter to take command of his entire brigade until he received further orders from General Terrill or myself, the battery had been taken by the enemy and the troops driven back from the open ground on the knob to the skirt of the woods, thus extending our left, and it was impossible to recover the body of our fallen general.

From this time up to 5 p. m. the battle raged with great fury and varied success on both sides. Two regiments, the Second and Ninety-fourth Ohio, belonging to General Rousseau's division, had come into our lines between the two batteries and behaved most gallantly.

Finding no enemy in front of Colonel Webster's brigade, which never lost a foot of ground up to this time, Colonel Webster rode off with me a little to the rear, where we found General McCook. He rode with us up to Colonel Webster's command and reported that his right was being heavily pressed and falling back. He and all of us then saw the progress of the enemy on Colonel Webster's right, as evidenced by the steady approach through the corn of a flag with a black ball in the center of a white ground, and he had hardly time to change the front of Colonel Webster's command (which was then all on exposed ground)