6, by order of Colonel Vance, commanding Second Brigade, our position immediately behind the Eighty-third Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was the first regiment of our brigade, the First Brigade of our division being in advance; marched 16 miles and went into camp at 4.30 p. m. in pine woods. Left camp April 7, at 6 a. m., our regiment in front of the division, by order of Colonel Vance, commanding Second Brigade, the Third Division, Thirteenth Army Corps, in advance; reached Pleasant Hill and went into camp at 2 p. m., having marched 19 miles. Left camp at Pleasant Hill at 6 a. m. the morning of the 8th, our regiment in rear of brigade, by order of Colonel Vance; marched 5 miles; were halted, and our regiment ordered to remain behind and guard the ammunition train and Mercantile Battery, and advance with them when ordered forward. About 12 m. the regiment was ordered to the front by Captain Dickey, assistant adjutant-general to General Ransom. After advancing rapidly about 4 miles, an order came from the rear from Captain White, chief of artillery on General Ransom's staff, to halt the regiment and guard the battery as ordered by General Ransom. Upon the return of Captain Dickey from ordering up the Eighty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry we moved forward again under his orders, he assuring Lieutenant-Colonel Brown that Captain White was acting under former orders, and for us to be in front at the earliest moment practicable. Arriving in front we were assigned our position by General Ransom in person, upon the left of the Nineteenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. In about twenty minutes the Eighty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry arrived and was put in position on our right, with the Sixteenth Indiana Cavalry* in front. After remaining in that position a very few moments after the arrival of the Eighty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry we were ordered by General Ransom in person to advance, with skirmishers in front, to a fence in front of the cavalry. A few moments after our arrival at the fence the enemy in immense numbers made their appearance in our front. The regiment at once opened fire upon them, and after two attempts on their part to carry our position, drove them entirely from the field before us. In about fifteen minutes, and when the enemy had disappeared from our front, we were ordered to fall back by Colonel Vance, commanding Second Brigade, and had moved in good order about 150 yards to the rear, when a large body of the enemy that had turned the right flank of our first line were seen advancing rapidly to intercept us. The regiment at once formed a line to confront them, delivered an effective volley, and was reloading, when an aide-de-camp gave peremptory orders to withdraw beyond the enemy's advancing flank at double-quick, as the regiments on our left had already been cut off. This movement was carried out in as good order as the uneven ground would admit of, though for the entire distance we were exposed to an enfilading fire. At the crest of the hill we faced about on the line separating the cleared land and timber, and as Colonel Vance had received a severe wound in the breast and fallen into the enemy's hand, Lieutenant-Colonel Brown assumed command of the brigade. Under his direction the further progress of the enemy was stubbornly disputed, and a battery considerably advanced from our lines, having become unserviceable and its safety endangered by the enemy's near approach, was successfully removed under cover of our fire. It being evident that the rebels were

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*Mounted infantry.

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