efforts, inflicting on him severe losses and firmly maintaining his ground till dark, capturing over 700 prisoners and several colors, and suffering no losses beyond killed and wounded, of whom he had quite a number. The fight was in an open field, and is represented to have been for the time very sharp and severe, the enemy being baffled by Major-General Hancock in all his attempts to flank or turn his position. This decided success is due to the personal exertions of General Hancock and in a great measure to the conspicuous gallantry of Brigadier-General Egan, temporarly commanding a division in the Second Corps. The lateness of the hour at which this attack was made and at which the information reached me, prevented General Crawford being sent to re-enforce General Hancock; indeed, the distance and difficulties of moving through the dense thicket, together with the fact that Crawford was engaged with the enemy, induced me to put Ayres' division in motion, but it was dark before he could be crossed over the run at Armstrong's Mill.

The position of the enemy being seen, holding, as it were, a ridge formed by his intrenched line in front of the run and the run in rear, and forcing a separation of my flanks of over six miles when he had only two miles to move, deterred me from keeping Hancock in position and re-enforcing him with another corps, as it would leave only one corps to meet the attack of the enemy if he should choose to move over. I therefore directed the withdrawal of Hancock and Crawford, who both recrossed the run by 7 a. m. to-day. About 12 m., having withdrawn all the impediments of the army, the several corps were, in accordance with the lieutenant-general's orders, withdrawn and are now moving into their former positions in the intrenched lines. In addition to the 700 prisoners taken by the Second Corps, there were nearly 200 taken by Crawford. No prisoners are reported as lost by us, except the stragglers, whom it is always difficult to collect when withdrawing. No return of the casualties has yet been made. In the Second Corps the losses, owing to the severe fighting, are believed to be heavy. I regret to report that, owing to the want of transportation and the character of the cases, some of the most severely wounded were left in charge of surgeons in some houses on the field.

Respectfully, yours,

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General.

YELLOW TAVERN, October 28, 1864 - 11.20 a. m.

General HUMPHREYS:

There are at this point 530 prisoners of war, sent in from Second Corps, fully representing Mahone's, Cooke's, and MacRae's brigades. There are about twenty cavalry from Young's, Dearing's, Dunovant's, and Davis' brigades. These all were taken by the Second Corps. There are also at this point 148 prisoners of war, sent in by the Fifth Army Corps, taken last night; all from Mahone's old brigade, save a very few stragglers from Cooke's brigade. No prisoners taken from any other brigade than the above. There are at general headquarters eleven prisoners of war and four deserters, all from Cooke's and Mahone's (old) brigades. Total number of prisoners of war, 689.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNumbers C. BABCOCK.