Numbers 1.

Report of Colonel William B. Haze, Forty-first Ohio Infantry, commanding Nineteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio..

COLUMBIA, KY., November 1, 1862.

SIR: In compliance with orders received from Headquarters Fourth Division, Army of the Ohio, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my brigade in the advance of the army from Perryville to London, at which point the van-guard retraced its steps:

On the 10th of October the brigade, consisting of the Ninth Indiana Volunteers, Colonel W. H. Blake; the Forty-first Ohio Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel George S. Mygatt; the Sixth Kentucky Volunteers, Colonel Walter C. Whitaker; the Twenty-seventh Kentucky Volunteers, Colonel C. D. Pennebaker; the One hundred and tenth Illinois Volunteers, Colonel T. S. Casey, and Captain Cockerill's battery of the First Ohio Artillery, in all 2,530 effective men, was put en route with the division in the direction of Danville, encamping 3 miles from that place in line of battle.

On the morning of the 11th, agreeably with orders, I moved forward to Danville to reconnoiter the position of the enemy. I was accompanied by Wolford's cavalry and Throckmorton's battery of artillery. My orders were explicit and prevented my moving in any manner that would bring on a general engagement. The Ninth Indiana Volunteers was deployed as skirmishers and supported by the Sixth Kentucky and Forty-first Ohio, marching through the fields in double column, with the cavalry disposed on the flanks as effectively as their limited acquaintance with military maneuvers would admit.

The enemy was found drawn up in line of battle at the Fair Grounds, 1 mile from Danville, with cavalry and artillery. The latter opened without effect upon the skirmishers, who, pushing forward persistently had no difficulty in driving the enemy through the town. My artillery and cavalry were both used in the skirmish, which at times was quite brisk, the enemy dismounting his cavalry and posting them as infantry. The Ninth Indiana pushed through the town and about 2 miles beyond, skirmishing with cavalry and artillery all the way, when they were recalled, and the brigade in obedience to orders returned to the encampment of the division.

I would mention the universal good conduct of all the troops of the command, except the cavalry companies of Captains Coppage and Fishback, of Wolford's regiment, who at the first discharge of the enemy retreated in disorder some half mile to a piece of wood and were with difficulty found by one of my staff officers. The entire regiment seemed greatly deficient in anything approaching military drill, and it was with difficulty that my orders, given in the simplest military language, were understood.

We found nearly 400 rebels sick in hospital and captured 30 able bodied. The enthusiasm of the people upon our entrance was beyond anything I ever before witnessed. Several of the enemy were killed and wounded. Our own casualties were 4 slightly wounded.

On the 12th the brigade, with the division, was moved forward near Camp Dick Robinson, returning to the Harrodsburg pike 3 miles from Danville, where it bivouacked until the morning of the 14th, when it took up its march on the Stanford road, bivouacking near that place until 12 o'clock at night, when it was again put in march in the direction of Crab Orchard, reaching that place about midday of the 15th,

72 R R-VOL XVI