No. 41. Reports of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel B. Marks, Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, of expedition to Mount Elba.

HDQRS. EIGHTEENTH Regiment ILLINOIS VOL. INFY.,
Pine Bluff, Ark., April 2, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on the evening of March 27, 1864, I received orders to have my regiment in readiness to march at 5 p.m. of that day, with two days' rations in haversacks. In compliance with said orders I reported with my command at headquarters commander of the post of Pine Bluff, at the time specified, and received orders to take command of the infantry and march out on the Mount Elba road. I proceeded 8 miles out and camped for the night; started early next morning, and arrived at Mount Elba about sundown of the same day. We were preceded into camp by Colonel Powell Clayton with the cavalry. The next morning I was left in command of the camp by Colonel Clayton. I immediately took precautions to guard against surprise, placing picket guards on all the roads leading into camp, and built a bridge across a bayou on the opposite side of the Saline River. The forces left under my command consisted of a detachment of the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry of 7 commissioned officers and 230 enlisted men, commanded by Captain Davis, same regiment; a detachment of the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry of 5 commissioned officers and 260 enlisted men, commanded by Captain Smith, same regiment; 30 of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry, commanded by Captain Moore; Sergeant Davis and 23 men of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry, with two pieces of artillery, and Corporal Galamout and 11 men of the First Indiana battery* with one steel gun. Nothing unusual occurred during the 29th.

Early on the morning of the 30th of March, Captain Barnes reported to me with a detachment of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry. I sent him out on the Monticello road with instructions to scour that road for some distance and report to me before night. He returned about 7.30 a.m., with the intelligence that he had encountered a body of the enemy's cavalry of about 100 men, advancing. I immediately prepared for a vigorous defense; a barricade was formed of rails and logs of the negro huts; skirmishers were sent to the front to engage the enemy and watch his movements. About 9.30 a.m. our skirmishers came into closely followed by the enemy, who made a spirited attack. About the time our skirmishers were driven in and the attack became general, Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins arrived upon the field and assumed the command. The enemy made but one advance and were speedily repulsed, the engagement not lasting over forty minutes. About 30 of the enemy were killed, about 60 wounded, and a number of prisoners were taken. Our loss was 2 men killed of Twenty-eight Wisconsin Infantry, and 2 men of the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry missing, supposed to have been taken prisoners on picket guard.

The officers and men acquitted themselves in a manner becoming soldiers. Sergeant Davis and the men in charge of the artillery deserve praise for the manner in which they handled the pieces. Colonel Clayton arrived on the field shortly after the close of the

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*Attached to First Indiana Cavalry.

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