The transportation arrived during the night of the 8th under guard from the First Brigade, and with two brigades (Adam's and Rice's) and Brunner's battery we moved out about 9 a. M. on the 9th to obtain possession of the cross-roads and try to open communication with the rest of the corps by way of King's Bridge. The trains, with the exception of a few wagons for ordnance, were left with the Third Brigade at the canal. The two brigades moved out, Adams' in advance, covered by a line of skirmishers from the Sixty-sixth Illinois Volunteers, and the flanks well protected by the Seventh Illinois Infantry. The battery moved in rear of Adams, followed closely by Rice in column. Not until the pickets were driven in and the skirmishers quite warmly engaged did Adams deploy his regiments to their support. The dense undergrowth rendered the movements in line exceedingly difficult, and the advance of the line soon developed the artillery of the enemy, one section of which swept the road on which we were advancing. The reserve were massed on either side where open space could be secured, and one section of artillery under Lieutenant Brunner pushed as near the enemy as the blockaded condition of the road would permit. It was impossible to see through the dense woods, and the enemy's artillery swept the road so as to the render it untenable, compelling Brunner to play on their works from a field separated from their position by a dense forest and to fire altogether by the sound of their guns. At this time information was brought that a column of the enemy was moving on my right, and I pushed Rice, with two regiments, toward the King's Bridge road, and ordered Adams to push to with vigor. The increased volleys of musketry and sudden cessation of the enemy's artillery, with the significant yelling of our men, indicated that the assault was in progress, and before I could reach the center, or Rice could make the road, our troops were in the enemy's works with quite a squad of prisoners and one piece of artillery as a trophy. The enemy were pursued for four miles, and the Seventh Illinois Mounted Infantry swung around on Adams' right, struck for the Gulf railroad, arriving there in time to tear up a rail and capture a locomotive and eighteen cars, with about forty prisoners. The brigade left at the canal with the supply and ordnance trains was then brought up, and before dark, by order of General Howard, we went into camp near the main branch of the Little Ogeechee River, with a good line of defense. King's Brigaruins. By means of a boat communication was opened with General Osterhaus, who had crossed the Cannouchee with a portion of the First and Second Division and struck the Gulf railroad west of the Ogeechee. The Third Division had arrived at the canal, near Dillon's Bridge, with a pontoon train, and we received information that the pontoon could be thrown across the Ogeechee early, placing again the Fifteenth Corps in close communication.

The morning of the 10th General Osterhaus went with the advanced brigade, commanded by Colonel Hurlbut, until we struck the north branch of the Little Ogeechee, where we found the enemy apparently in heavy force and so separated from us by the swamps and rice fields as to render an assault impracticable till the arrival of re-enforcements. The artillery of the main fort occupied by the enemy mounted guns of so much larger caliber than our light field pieces as to induce the general to order up a battery of 20-pounder Parrotts before opening. The skirmishers were pushed as close as mud and water would permit, and thus we lay until the subsequent day: Colonel Hurlbut's brigade in line, covered by skirmishers; Rice's brigade in column in reserve, and beyond range of the enemy's ordnance. The Second Brigade, Colonel