No. 16. Report of Colonel William H. Raynor, Fifty-sixth Ohio Infantry, commanding Second Brigade, of operations April 6-8.

HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, THIRD DIV., 13TH ARMY CORPS,
Grand Ecore, La., April 11, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to respectfully report the part taken by this brigade on the march from Natchitoches to and during the action near Mansfield, on the 8th instant: The brigade (composed as follows, Twenty-eighth Iowa, Colonel John Connell commanding, aggregate, 493; Twenty-fourth Iowa, Major Ed. Wright commanding, aggregate, 388; Fifty-sixth Ohio, Captain M. Manring commanding, aggregate, 224; total, 1,105) left Natchitoches on the morning of the 6th instant, and after a march of 35 miles arrived at Pleasant Hill, La., about 1.30 p.m. on the 7th. Soon after having been assigned a camp-ground the brigade was ordered forward to support a portion of the cavalry command, which was heavily skirmishing with the enemy about 2 miles in our front. We were led forward by General Cameron (commanding division) in person. After marching about 1 mile we were informed that the enemy had fallen back, and the men were allowed to return to camp. On the morning of the 8th instant the march was resumed. Soon after starting upon the road, the occasional sound of cannon and the continued dropping fire of musketry told us that the advance were sharply skirmishing. This brigade was soon detached from the division and ordered to the front. The enemy, though stubbornly, fell back before our cavalry and a portion of the Fourth Division, Thirteenth Corps d'Armee, and we had not reached the extreme front when we arrived at the first branch of Bayou Saint Patrick, where the brigade was ordered to encamp in line of battle. This was about 11 a.m. Mean time, the large train belonging to General Lee's cavalry passed to our front, and our own arrived with the remainder of the division. About 3 p.m. the firing at the front became brisk, and we were soon after ordered forward, five companies of the Twenty-fourth Iowa being left with our wagon train. The division hurried forward, marching 6 miles, mostly at the double-quick. Upon nearing the Moss plantation the brigade was directed to form in the thick woods on the left side of the Mansfield road, in the following order: The right of the Fifty-sixth Ohio resting on the road, and the Twenty-eighth Iowa on their left, while the Twenty-fourth Iowa formed a second line in the rear of the two other regiments. In this order we moved steadily forward until the open fields of the plantation were reached. Here we found two guns of the First Indiana Battery and a few men of the Fourth Division, Thirteenth Army Corps, on the right of the road, hotly engaged with a heavy force of the enemy, who occupied a rising piece of ground in the center of the field, and another heavy mass with artillery posted on the extreme farther side. By direction of General Cameron the line pressed on into the open field, taking advantage of a slight elevation, and at once opened fire upon the enemy, whose force more than quadrupled our own. I soon after moved the Twenty-fourth Iowa from their position in the rear to the front, on the left of the Twenty-eighth Iowa. Under a heavy fire the men lay for over an hour, not daring to advance against an enemy who numbered thousands to our hundreds, and until their