WARRENSBURG, November 3, 1864.

GENERAL: Permit me unofficially to place in your hands a copy of the report of the movements of the First Brigade from the time the army was engaged at Independence until I was relieved and placed under arrest. The report will be officially forwarded through the proper channels in due time. I have requested of Major-General Pleasonton permission to forward to him as an explanation, but he declined granting it.

In addition to the facts stated in the report, in order to show how the brigade had been depleted, I will say that the efficient field officers of my staff, many of the best company officers, and four companies, had been detailed on detached service; 100 men had been sent to Fulton, Callaway County, and 100, under your order, to Wellington, and the detachments of the Third and Ninth Missouri State Militia, and one battalion of the Seventh Illinois (part of Brigadier-General Fisk's command) Volunteers Cavalry, had never joined the brigade, though constituting a part of it under the order brigading the division; that the brigade, having been in Saline County, near Marshall, when the movement was begun, had a longer distance to march than either of the others in the division; that the men had been in the saddle constantly for four days and nights, and at the time I was placed under arrest had been on the road thirty hours without forage or food (except a day's rations of hard bread), and, as shown in my report, part of the time fighting on foot. I desire to state further that in the skirmishing at Independence the evidence of my officers is that it fought harder and more persistently than any other had done up to that time, or subsequently up to the time of the final rout of Price's army, except at the battle of Big Blue. Under the circumstances I cannot believe that General Pleasonton would intentionally do me such great injustice unless he had been incited by false reports. Your uniform kindness and confidence induces me to come plainly to you and place in your hands such a relation of the facts as will show that I have done nothing to forfeit either.

I am, very truly, your obedient servant,

E. B. BROWN,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS,

Saint Louis.

WARRENSBURG, November 3, 1864.

LIEUTENANT: I respectfully call the attention of the major-general commanding to the following extract from an order dated October 23, 1864, 4 a. m., and received by me the same day at 5.30 a. m., while on the Independence and Fort Scott road, signed by N. Cole, chief of artillery. After directing the movements of the First Brigade the order continues:

As your brigade has yet done no fighting, he general expects you to push them (the enemy) vigorously to-day * * * as the other brigades have done so well.

An examination will show the major-general commanding that this statement is not sustained by the facts, and that whoever made it to him was ignorant of the action of the brigade or willfully made a false report. He will also learn that from the time the pursuit of the enemy