The fire at this moment was terrific beyond description, and the running through my line of a six-horse team drawing a caisson created some disorder in my center. At almost the same moment of this repulse of the enemy a determined assault was made by them on our left. A battery opened on us from the enemy's right, and from the form of the ground nearly enfiladed my line. Parsons' battery was stationed on a sharp crest of open ground about 80 yards from a wood occupied by the enemy. From this crest the ground descended to the woods and then ascended, so that the enemy delivered us the fire of consecutive battalions in rear of each other. The battery was also on a crest which abruptly terminated on the left a few yards from the guns, exposing the support to a cross-fire from the enemy's extreme right, of which the enemy, as before described, promptly availed themselves.

Thus at the distance of 80 yards, in an open field, did Parsons' battery and the One hundred and fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry deliver to the enemy a most terrible and destructive fire, receiving in return the fire of an enfilading battery and of a rebel brigade concealed in the woods. The battery becoming disabled, and the rebel battery on our flank making our position untenable, by the order of General Terrill in person I moved my regiment 60 yards to the rear and formed on the line of an old fence, then much broken down. The enemy followed the movement, and when he reached the crest (our former position) received a fire that opened their ranks with the wildest havoc. But the position of he ground was such that we were still under the fire of their battery, and the quick eye of General Terrill discovering a movement of the enemy in a ravine to turn our left, again ordered the regiment to retire into a corn field in our rear, which was done in good order and promptly formed. In this field, being much exposed to the artillery and musketry of the enemy and hidden from each other by the corn, some irregularity occurred in the line, while a movement by the flank, then ordered by General Terrill, who could not be seen or heard distinctly by the command, tended still more to divide and scatter the regiment. The most of the living, however, followed the movement promptly, and formed in the rear of Bush's battery, by General Terrill's order, and there remained in its support until the close of the engagement. At this last position, in the rear of Bush's battery, our brave and beloved Terrill, who had stood by my side and moved with my regiment from the moment it was engaged, fell mortally wounded by the fragment of a shell. At this moment the disability of the general threw the command of the Thirty-third Brigade upon me. Turning over the command of the One hundred and fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry to Lieutenant-Colonel Tolles I proceeded to collect the brigade.

In the early part of the engagement and before the Thirty-third Brigade became engaged Lieutenant-Colonel Tolles with eight companies, by order of General Terrill, was sent to the left of the road a mile in rear of the line of battle to protect the rear. He joined me at Bush's battery, having come forward and joined in the engagement with the Eightieth Illinois Regiment. Of the bravery manifested by the officers and enlisted men of the One hundred and fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry I can speak with the highest satisfaction. Not an officer and but few of the enlisted men flinched from the hail of death or left their positions until ordered by their proper officers. In the engagement at Perryville they have covered themselves with imperishable honor. Citizen soldiers, with not twenty days' drill, they have exhibited the coolness and efficiency of veterans. Of the mortality and of our wounded I speak with choking sorrow. Capt. L. D. Kee, Company I,