Saturday, January 3, nothing of interest occurred. January 4, was on picket. Relieved in the evening. January 5, came on through Murfreesborough, since which time we have been encamped in our present camp.

I am, colonel, your obedient servant,

G. F. ELLIOTT,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Comdg. Sixty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Colonel T. R. STANLEY,

Commanding Second Brigade, Second Division, Center.

No. 88. Report of Colonel John F. Miller, Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry, commanding Third Brigade.

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTH BRIGADE, EIGHTH DIVISION,
Murfreesborough, Tenn., January 6, 1863.

SIR: In compliance with your request, the following report of the operations of my command before Murfreesborough is respectfully submitted:

On the evening of December 29, my command took a position in a field on the right of the Nashville pike, in the rear of General Palmer's line, and bivouacked for the night.

At daylight on the 30th, by order of General Negley, I took a position on the right of General Palmer's division, on the edge of a dense cedar woods fronting to the south, and deployed skirmishers from the Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania and Thirty-seventh Indiana in front, across, and to the left of the Six-mile pike, to act in conjunction with the skirmishers of Colonel Stanley's brigade, on my right. A brisk fire was kept up between the skirmishers and the enemy's sharpshooters, in the open field to the left and in the woods in front, until the arrival of General Sheridan's division on the right, when our skirmishers were withdrawn for Colonel Roberts' command.

During the day General McCook's forces advanced on the right, so that his left rested on our right flank, when a change of front to the left was made by General Negley's division.

The enemy had remained quiet on the open field (now almost directly in my front), in his intrenchments, which were plainly visible, and had kept a battery of four pieces in position at his works all day without firing.

Marshall's and Ellsworth's batteries, attached to my brigade, and posted in a small open field, fired an occasional shot into the works without eliciting reply. My command lost about 20 men, killed and wounded, during the day.

Skirmishers were kept out well to the front during the night, and two regiments of my command, with the batteries, were posted in the open field.

On the morning of the 31st, skirmishing was resumed along our line, and heavy firing was heard on the right along General McCook's line. The firing on our right gradually increased and neared our position, until a continuous roar of artillery and musketry was heard directly in our rear, and the advancing columns of the enemy were seen on our right and front.