No. 10. Report of Capt. James St. Clair Morton, U. S. Engineers, commanding Pioneer Brigade.

HDQRS. PIONEER BRIGADE, FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Camp,3 miles north of Murfreesborough, Tenn., January 5, 1863.

MAJOR: According to your order, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken in the late battle by my brigade, which is composed of three battalions of Pioneers and Stokes' (Chicago Board of Trade) battery:

On the march hither from Nashville, my brigade constructed two bridges over Stewart's Creek between the hours of 4 p.m. and 4 a.m. December 29 and 30, arriving here on the 30th.

On the morning of the 31st, the brigade was engaged in improving the fords of Stone's River, in which the right battalion sustained the fire of some rebel cavalry, when I was ordered to take position in the line of battle, and formed my brigade, by the orders of the commanding general in person, fronting toward the right, where the enemy appeared on a rise of ground in front of us, from which they had driven one of our batteries. I immediately opened fire with canister from Stokes' battery and drove them back. I then, by order of the commanding general in person, advanced to the said rise, and held in under the fire of three rebel batteries. I supported the battery by the First Battalion of Pioneers on the left, posted in a thicket, and by the Third Battalion on the right. The Second Battalion was placed in a wood still farther to the right.

Shortly after I had formed my line, the enemy appeared across the field, preparing to charge upon some of our troops, who were retiring, but had been rallied by the commanding general. I opened fire upon these from Stokes' battery, which played over the head of the commanding general and our troops, and arrested their advance. My right battalion was soon after attacked, the object of the enemy being to penetrate through the line under cover of the woods. Said battalion changed front so as to obtain a flanking fire, and by a single volley repulsed the enemy, composed of the Eleventh and Fourteenth Texas Regiments. In this the battalion was aided by the Seventy-ninth Indiana, which had rallied on its right.

Toward sundown, the enemy appearing on my left, I brought two sections of Stokes' battery to the left of my First Battalion, and repulsed a brigade of the enemy which attacked that battalion in the thicket. They left their dead with 50 paces of my line. In this affair both the battalion and the battery behaved very creditably.

The brigade slept on their arms the night of the 31st. Early on the 1st instant the enemy appeared on my left, apparently to advance through gap between it and the pike. I changed my front and occupied the gap, and sustained and returned their volleys of musketry, playing upon them from the battery and preventing their advance beyond the edge of the woods. We held this position till after nightfall, when the brigade was relieved and formed in reserve.

On the morning of the 2nd, part of the Pioneers were engaged in making road crossing over the railroad, when the enemy opened a cannonade, which reached our camp. I brought out Stokes' battery and returned the fire. The battalions advanced, supporting it under a fire of solid shot and shell. The cannonade having ceased, I received orders to fall