found where the fight was thickest, ready to carry orders, assist in taking out and putting in horses, &c. I must also give great credit to Private Frank Williams, who, with great courage and skill, saved my five remaining caissons, which were at one time cut off and in the rebel lines.

My loss of men was 6 killed, 17 wounded, 2 paroled, and 1 missing.

I remain, sir, your obedient servant,

A. K. BUSH,

Captain, Commanding Fourth Indiana Battery.

Captain HESCOCK,

Chief of Artillery, General Sheridan's Division.

No. 54. Report of Col. Nicholas Greusel, Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry, commanding First Brigade.

HDQRS. FIRST BRIGADE, THIRD DIVISION, RIGHT WING, Camp on Stone's River, Tenn., January 15, 1863.

SIR: Not being in command of the brigade until General Sill's death, Wednesday morning, December 31, 1862, I am unable to give a very correct report of its operations previous to that time, but have succeeded, from what I observed myself and by reports of other regimental commanders, in getting very near, if not quite, a correct report of the movements of the brigade.

In obedience to orders from General Sill, the brigade was under arms from 4 a.m. Tuesday, December 30, till 8 o'clock, on the Wilkinson pike, about 5 miles from Murfreesborough, and at 9 o'clock we moved forward, this brigade being the center of the division. Skirmishers were deployed and soon were engaged with the enemy's skirmishers.

When within about 2 miles from Murfreesborough, the brigade was ordered by General Sill to the right of the pike, and formed the first line of battle on the edge of the timber, in the following order: The Thirty-sixth Illinois on the right, Eighty-eighth Illinois on the left, Bush's Fourth Indiana Battery in the center, the Twenty-first Michigan supporting the Eighty-eighth Illinois, and the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin supporting the Thirty-sixth Illinois.

Sharp skirmishing was kept up until 3 p.m., when General Sill ordered an advance, and the brigade moved forward [changing front to the left], the regiments keeping their relative positions across a corn-field, and the battery was advanced into the woods beyond, supported by the Thirty-sixth Illinois and five companies of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin. Soon after the advance into the woods, a battery of the enemy opened on us from the low ground across a cotton-field, and in the edge of a strip of timber, scarce 500 yards distant, and then ensued a terrific artillery duel between our battery and the enemy's, which finally resulted in their battery being silenced and withdrawn. It now being near dark, our battery was moved to the rear, just out of the woods, and the brigade formed in nearly the same relative positions as at first, and lay upon their arms all night, with strong lines of skirmishers out as pickets.

Soon after daylight, on the morning of the 31st, the enemy advanced out of the woods on the opposite side of the cotton-field [referred to before] in great force immediately on our front, but were met by such a