The Fifteenth Missouri Volunteers and Forty-fourth Illinois Volunteers had a position assigned to them, about 30 yards in rear of General Sill's brigade, when, after a short interval, Lieutenant-Colonel Weber received orders to advance in double-quick. The order was promptly executed, and Lieutenant-Colonel Weber found himself in front of the enemy, the artillery previously stationed there having retreated, leaving one Parrott gun, supposed to belong to Carpenter's battery, Davis' division, behind. The two mentioned regiments kept up a strong firing, and even when one regiment on their left broke and ran, they held their position until attacked from the flank and front at once. Lieutenant-Colonel Weber then retreated in good order, keeping up a constant firing until he, being heavily pressed by the enemy, reached a corn-field, where he halted.

Soon afterward our troops on the left advanced again on the enemy, when Lieutenant-Colonel Weber also rapidly advanced to a place about 50 yards in advance of his previous position, and formed in line of battle. He had the gun above referred to dragged by his men to the rear of his column, from where it afterward was removed to a safer place. Lieutenant-Colonel Weber contested his ground admirably until the enemy advanced six columns deep, and the ammunition of the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteers gave out, the Forty-fourth Illinois Volunteers having previously withdrawn. Then the order to retreat was given and carried out, without improper haste, until the edge of the timber was reached, when the pressure by the enemy was so hard that it became necessary to resort to the double-quick. By the time the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteers and Forty-fourth Illinois Volunteers rejoined the brigade, orders were given to retreat across the pike toward a piece of cedar woods, and two companies of the Second Missouri Volunteers were deployed as skirmishers to retard the rapid advance of the enemy.

The whole brigade, with the exception of the First Battalion of the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteers, under temporary command of Captain Bergan, and being a short distance from the main body, arrived safely at the woods above mentioned, at the edge of which the Second Missouri Volunteers, behind natural and very favorable fortifications off huge and deeply cut rocks, opened a brisk fire on the enemy, which kept him at bay for a considerable length of time. The First Battalion of the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteers was at the same time attacked by the enemy, but repulsed them. When in the attempt to join the brigade, the battalion was, by the advance of General Rousseau, separated, but keeping up a constant firing, crossed the pike and took a position in the cedar grove. Here Captain Bergan, commanding the battalion, withstood three different charges of a whole rebel cavalry brigade, and was shortly afterward enabled to join his brigade. By this time the ammunition of the Second Missouri Volunteers had given out, as well as that of the rest of the brigade, and they were ordered into the thicket of the cedar grove.

After the lapse of one hour, the brigade was enabled to receive ammunition, and had a new position assigned to them on the Chattanooga Railroad. Colonel Schaefer ordered the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteers to deploy in a corn-field, while the balance of the brigade held the railroad and kept up such a galling and well-aimed fire that the enemy, though of a strength to which our force was hardly comparable, and fighting with the utmost desperation, was again and again repulsed, retreated toward the position of the brigade, and it was at that moment, when about giving orders to said regiment, that the true soldier and