[CHAP. XXVIII.

formed, I was ordered to move my brigade in conjunction with the right wing by changing my front obliquely to the left. By this means the enfilading fire of the enemy's battery was avoided and my right moved forward until it came under the fire of the enemy's skirmishers near the first farm-house. It was at the same time under the fire of two of the enemy's batteries, one enfilading from the right, the other on the left, which was throwing balls and spherical case shot. The Thirty-seventh Tennessee Regiment responded to the fire of the enemy's skirmishers and drove them beyond the creek. The Forty-fourth Regiment here suffered from these batteries and from sharpshooters behind the stone wall at the creek.

The first casualties in the brigade occurred here in the Thirty-seventh and Forty-fourth Tennessee Regiments. The Forty-fourth Regiment lost several men by shells from the enemy's batteries on our left. Under the conviction that the change of front first ordered in my brigade was for the object of moving on this battery, three of my regiments, the Fifth Confederate, Twenty-fifth and Forty-fourth Tennessee Regiments, continued to wheel rapidly to the left and speedily advanced to the height the enemy appeared to occupy, fixing their bayonets for a charge. Upon reaching that height it was found that General Adams had occupied that position. The Fifth Confederate Regiment was then promptly moved by Colonel J. A. Smith upon the enemy behind the stone fences. The Twenty-fifth and Forty-fourth Regiments took a position,at the request of General Adams, in support of the battery placed in position on the height to which they advanced. Colonel Fulton, of the forty-fourth, reports to me that when he moved with a view to unite his regiment with the brigade which had been advanced and driven the enemy from the stone fence beyond the creek, General Adams found his position so threatened by a column of the enemy that he thought it necessary to detain these regiments. He also reports that they were afterward put in position under cover of woods and in support of a battery by the major-general commanding the division. The remaining four regiments, the Thirty-seventh, Seventeenth, Twenty-third, and Fifth Confederate Regiments, advanced down the slope of the hill and under fire from artillery and infantry, driving the enemy from their strong defensive positions behind the stone walls and into the open field beyond the farm houses on the north of the Doctor's Fork. These regiments then occupied the stone wall above the farm-house. A portion of the Thirty-seventh Regiment took position along the Mackville road, partly flanking the position of the enemy in the field and protected by the side slope of rock. The Twenty-third Regiment moved to a position to the left of the farm-house and in the open field.

The conflict continued here for about two hours, and was maintained with remarkable vigor and stubbornness on both sides and with heavy loss on the part of the enemy, who for a long time maintained their position in the open field exposed to the deadly aim of the regiment behind the stone fence. Early in this part of the conflict the houses in advance of the upper stone fence took fire and were consumed. The fire of the Fifth Confederate Regiment was particularly destructive, plainly thinning the enemy's ranks at every volley. Three times the flag of the enemy was cut down, and finally they were beaten back, utterly whipped.

The command of the enemy opposed to my brigade was that of Colonel Lytle, of the Tenth Ohio Regiment commanding the Seventeenth Brigade, which consisted of the Tenth Ohio, the Fifteenth Kentucky, the Thirty-second Indiana, and perhaps the Third Ohio.