As the evening closed in, and it was ascertained that, from the unexpected severity and protraction of the fight, the ammunition of some of the regiments was almost completely exhausted, I endeavored in person to get a supply of cartridges to the men, and had three wagon loads taken some distance up the Staunton road for that purpose, but the only way it could reach them up the steep mountain side was to be carried by hand or in haversacks. I ordered up the road also the Fifth Regiment West Virginia Infantry, Colonel Zeigler commanding, of my brigade, to the relief of the other troops, if needed, and they most promptly and actively moved to the field, but it was not necessary to bring them into the action. The troops that were engaged, after fighting with a coolness and order and bravery which it is impossible to excel, and after pressing back the enemy over the mountain crest and maintaining unflinchingly and under the most galling and constant fire their ground until darkness set in, were then withdrawn under the immediate order of Colonel McLean, of the Seventy-fifth Ohio, leaving, as I believe, not a prisoner behind, for the 3 men reported missing are supposed to be among the killed.

We took 4 prisoners of the enemy. His loss in killed is thought by all engaged to have much exceeded ours. From prisoners since taken I have ascertained that his killed on the field was admitted to be not less than 30 and his wounded very numerous.

Among the rebels wounded I learn was General Johnson himself and at least one of his field officers. The colonel of a Virginia regiment is known to be among the slain.

Too much praise cannot be awarded to General Milroy himself; to Colonel McLean, of the Seventy-fifth Ohio; Colonel Cantwell, Eighty-second Ohio; Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson, commanding the Twenty-fifth Ohio; Major Reily, Seventy-fifth Ohio; Lieutenant-Colonel Swinney, commanding Thirty-second Ohio; Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, Third West Virginia Infantry, and the officers and men of their several commands for their steady gallantry and courage manifested through out the whole affair. No veteran troops, I am sure, ever acquitted themselves with more ardor, and yet with such order and coolness, as they displayed in marching and fighting up steep mountain side in the face of a hot and incessant fire.

From McDowell I fell back by easy marches on the 9th, 10th, and 11th to this place, the enemy cautiously pursuing.

On a commanding ridge of ground 13 miles from McDowell, at the intersection of the road from that place with the turnpike to Monterey, I stopped from 8 a.m. on the 9th, and made my dispositions to receive and repulse the attack of the rebels, who appeared in our rear, but they declined the undertaking.

While awaiting the arrival of the general commanding with re-enforcements at this point on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, the rebel army having advanced to within 2 miles of our position, we were kept constantly engaged in watchful preparation for an expected assault. I had my batteries and the forces so disposed as to feel confident of repelling any attack; but we had no collision, except so skirmishing with my pickets and portions of the infantry advanced on the range of hills to my right as I confronted the enemy's approach, and which resulted only in the loss of 2 men-1 of the Fifth West Virginia Regiment on the 11th, and 1 of the Third Regiment Potomac Home Brigade on the 12th-on our side, and 4 or 5 of the enemy killed by our shells.

The approaches were so guarded as to prevent the enemy from getting