and acted like veterans. During this time my command was subjected to a brisk artillery fire, which, however, did very little harm. The enemy commenced feeling all along the lines, and the firing increasing in the woods to the right of the Second Brigade, I sent a staff officer to inquire the cause of it. He returned with word from Brigadier-General Pierce that it was only a few stragglers that General Crawford's pickets were driving. The firing increasing, I ordered General Pierce to strengthen his picket-line, when he sent the First U. S. Sharpshooters and the One hundred and fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers. The enemy finding there was no connection between us and the Fifth Corps must have immediately taken advantage of it, for at 4 p.m. they attacked my Second Brigade, with on overwhelming force, and with great vigor, driving back the regiments on the right, and striking the balance of the brigade on the right flank and rear, which caused it to fall back in some little confusion. I immediately rode out with a part of my staff and succeeded in rallying them again. Seeing the danger of being cut off from the road up which we had advanced, and the necessity of having a force there as soon as the attack commenced, I sent Major Willian, of my staff, to General De Trobriand for at least a regiment for that purpose. The Seventeenth Maine Volunteers was selected and taken on the double-quick to that point, when it was faced to the left and marched into the woods, striking the attacking force on the flank. I also sent word to General De Trobriand to take up a new line with the balance of his command along this road to hold it at all hazards. About the time it was formed a charge was ordered by the major-general commanding the corps, and gallantly responded to by Fortieth New York, Twentieth Indiana, Ninety-ninth and One hundred and tenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by General De Trobriand in person, driving the enemy and clearing the open fields from which they had been pressing us. At the same time the First Maine Heavy Artillery, with a portion of the One hundred and tenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, was led by Major Mitchell, aide-de-camp to the major-general commanding the corps, across the same field to the left of General De Trobriand. These troops with portions of the Fifth Michigan and First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery recaptured a section of Battery C, [Fifth] U. S. Artillery, which had been taken from us at the first onset of the enemy. The firing on my left now increasing, and as it was only held by a skirmish line, I recalled General De Trobriand and the troops he had with him, excepting a line of skirmishers, to the road from which they started on the charge. This line of my left extended on the right along the White Oak road, with the center and left along the edge of a dense pine woods, and refused to connect with the cavalry. The enemy being posted on the opposite side of a large open field now made a vigorous attack on this line, but were handsomely repulsed. Some portion of the line was thrown into slight confusion for a few moments, but the exertions of the officers and steadiness of the veterans soon reformed it, and the enemy fell back to their original position, baffled in their attempt to break through, and as they thought, to destroy us. These regiments consisted of the One hundred and twenty-fourth, Eighty-sixth, and Seventy-third New York Volunteers, and Second U. S. Sharpshooters. This line was held until dark, when, by some misunderstanding of orders, two of the regiments came in. I attribute this to the fact that the One hundred and twenty-fourth New York Volunteers had its two field officers and two senior company officers wounded, leaving it with so few officers to command it that in the extreme darkness