picket guard March 30, 1864, is worthy of honorable mention for the manner in which he held the enemy in check with his picket guard several times during the advance of the enemy back as far as the advance picket-post, and skirmishing in a manner highly creditable to him and his men.

L. J. SMITH,

Captain, Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infy. Vols., Commanding Regiment

Lieutenant JOHN HARDING,

Post Adjutant.

No. 43. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Edmund B. Gray, Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry, of expedition to Mount Elba and operations October 26, 1864-May 13, 1864.

HDQRS. TWENTY-EIGHTH WISCONSIN INFY. VOLS.,
Pine Bluff, Ark., --- --, 1864.

SIR: The Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry remained in camp at Little Rock, Ark., until the 26th of October, 1863, when their brigade marched in pursuit of the Confederate forces under General Marmaduke, which had been defeated by Colonel Powell Clayton's forces at Pine Bluff on the 25th. Arriving at Benton, on the Saline River, the night of the 26th, the Second Brigade relieved the cavalry force stationed there, which was sent in pursuit of the enemy. More troops coming up from Little Rock on the 29th, the Second Brigade was put in motion and encamped at Rockport, on the Washita River, that night. The next day the expedition started on its return, and marching through Benton on the 31st, arrived at Little Rock on the 1st day of November, having performed a march of 100 miles. On the 7th of November the regiment was detached from the Second Brigade and ordered to join the command of Colonel Powell Clayton at Pine Bluff, where it arrived on the 10th, after a march of 60 miles down the north bank of the Arkansas River. Here the regiment prepared comfortable winter quarters, and was employed in post and garrison duty until the 27th of March, when six companies (A, D, F, G, H, and I), under the command of Captain L. J. Smith (Lieutenant-Colonel Gray being left in command of the forces remaining at Pine Bluff), joined with the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry and three regiments of cavalry, under Colonel Clayton, in an expedition intended to destroy the pontoon bridge at Long View on the Saline River. The expedition arriving at Mount Elba, on the Saline, the 28th of March, the infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Marks, of the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, was left to guard the bridge at that point, while the cavalry crossed and proceeded down the river to Long View. On the morning of the 30th, the infantry forces (six companies of the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteers and the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry), less than 500 men, were attacked at Mount Elba by a force of 1,500 rebels, under General Dockery. Companies A, F, G, H, and I of the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry deployed as skirmishers, held the enemy back for nearly two hours, when they were recalled to receive a charge made by the enemy, in which he was handsomely repulsed, leaving 100 killed and