[CHAP. XXXII.

The men and officer under my command acted with the greatest gallantry during the whole time and discharged their duties without a murmur.

The number of killed and wounded has heretofore been reported.

Very respectfully,

O. F. STRAHL,

Colonel, Comdg. Fourth and Fifth Regiments Tennessee Vols.

Colonel [Captain] W. M. REED,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Stewart's Brigade.

Numbers 203. Report of Colonel Francis M. Walker, Nineteenth Tennessee Infantry.

SHELBYVILLE, TENN., January 10, 1863.

About sunrise Monday morning, December 29, the Nineteenth Tennessee Regiment, under my command, moved on the left of your brigade to a position previously selected on the north bank of Stone's River, where we were posted in line of battle as the extreme left regiment of the brigade. The regiment numbered in line 348 privates and non-commissioned officers, 30 company officers, 3 field officers, and adjutant; aggregate, 382. We remained at the point above mentioned in line until 9 a.m. Wednesday, uninterrupted except by the occasional explosion near us of a stray shell from the enemy's batteries, when we moved forward in line with the brigade to the attack, in support of the front line of the corps, we being in the second line. On our way we met many stragglers and wounded men from the front lines retiring to the rear, the former demoralized, the latter disabled. The first we tried to turn back, urging them to renew their efforts; the last we could but pity.

Some 400 yards from our first position, we came to the position previously occupied by the front or first lines the day before, and where they had thrown up a temporary breastwork of loose stone and timber. At and behind this the regiment halted for half an hour or more under a heavy fire from some unseen batteries in our front. At this point, while my men were lying behind the loose wall of rock, a shell struck the latter near the center of my left wing, wounding, by the fragments of shell and shattered rock, 6 of my men, all of whom were disabled and 1 of whom soon after died. Moving from this point we came to the Wilkinson pike, up which we moved by the left flank near 300 yards, when, again resuming the movement to the front, we moved forward through a field to the to of a slight elevation, where the battery which had been playing on us is believed to have been posted. But just when we were resuming the march to the front and crossing the Wilkinson pike we could distinctly see by the action of the men in the front line (for we had now come in sight of them) that they were on the eve of being driven back, if, indeed, they had not already entirely given way. Many of them were falling back, and all seemed disorganized. But our line promptly moved up to their support and crossed the field to the elevation. Here, for the first time, we could see the evidences of the conflict in the field beyond the elevation. Numbers of dead and wounded were lying [about], both Confederate and Federals, horses, and arms, and equipments, and here we first felt the fire from the small-arms of the enemy. Pushing forward, we crossed the field and entered the thick cedar woods in which the enemy had taken shelter. In the edge of this woods we came up