right and center. You replied that I should have them if they could be spared from other points. I held my position until you returned, when seeing your horse fall I gave you mine for the purpose of going to the Eighteenth Iowa to form them in a favorable position for my line to fall back upon, Agreeably to your order to hold the ground at any and all events until this could be done, I encouraged the men to renew their exertions and repel the coming charge, intending, if I succeeded, to take that opportunity of falling back instead of being compelled to do so under fire. My right succeeded in checking the advance, but my left being outflanked at the same time that my left center was sustaining the attack of ten times number, I ordered to fall back slowly toward the train, changing front toward the left to prevent the enemy from coming up in my rear. We here made a stand of about ten minutes, when I perceived that the enemy had succeeded in flanking my extreme right, and that I was placed in a position to receive a cross-fire from their two lines. I was then compelled, in order to save even a fragment of the gallant regiment which for nearly tow hours had, unaided, sustained itself against Price's whole army, to order a retreat.

Although a portion retired precipitately, the greater portion of them kept up a continual fire the whole length of the train. I ordered the men to retire behind the line of the Eighteenth Iowa and form, but, alas! four companies had lost their gallant commanders and were without an officer. By your aid, and the assistance of a few unharmed officers, I succeeded in collecting a few of the command and placing them on the left of the Eighteenth Iowa. As they were slowly forced backward others took position in the line, and did all that could be done to check the advance of the overwhelming forces of the enemy. I sent a small force to assist Lieutenant Haines in his gallant and manly efforts to save his guns, and had it not been for the worn condition of the horses I believe he would have succeeded. Accompanying this I send the reports of company commanders of the losses sustained by their respective companies. It will be noticed that the heaviest punishment was inflicted upon Company G, from the fact that it was worse exposed to the galling cross-fires of the enemy.

You will see that I went into action with about 450 enlisted men and 13 officers of the line. Seven out of that gallant 13 were killed or wounded. Five* are reported dead on the field: Captain A. J. Armstrong, Company D; Lieutenant B. Hitchock, Company G; Lieutenant Charles J. Coleman and Joseph B. Samuels, Company H, and Lieutenant John Topping, Company B. The cheerful offering of the lives of such noble men needs not the assistance of any studied panegyric to bespeak for it that spirit of lasting admiration with which their memories will ever be enshrined. Four companies fought their way to the rear without a commissioned officer. One hundred and seventeen men are killed and 67 wounded, some of them mortally. I cannot refrain from mentioning the names of Captain B. W. Welch, Company K, and Lieutenant E. Q. Macy, Company C, both of whom were wounded, as among the number of sufferers who have earned the thanks and merit the sympathy of the loyal and generous everywhere. Any attempt to mention the name of any soldier in particular would be unjust unless I mentioned all, for every one, as far as

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*Captain A. J. Armstrong and Lieutenant B. Hitchock were afterward found to be captured.

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48 R R-VOL XXXIV, PT I