arriving in said field General Bohlen ordered the battery to take position near and to the left of a road on high ground and shell a piece of wood in front and to the right of the battery. After forming in battery Captain Schirmer arrived, and ordered the battery to the right side of road to assist his battery, and after coming to action front again Captain Schirmer ordered the battery to its former position, but a little farther ahead. After coming to action front again the battery fired a few rounds in the woods in front by order of General Bohlen.

Presently, after firing those few rounds, a regiment made its appearance in front of us in a wheat field, when Captain Schirmer ordered the battery to limber to the rear and take the position first selected by Generals Blenker and Bohlen. The Fifty-fourth Regiment was then ordered by General Bohlen to the left in the woods, to keep up said regiment from outflanking us. Having arrived at our old position we came in battery again and continued our fire, without one man flinching, until Captain Schirmer ordered us to limber to the rear and retire, as Lieutenant Jahn, commanding Schirmer's battery, was obliged to retreat. When the battery was limbering to retire General Bohlen came up and ordered me to stay and keep up the fire, but Captain Schirmer insisted on retiring, and as I had received orders from General Blenker a few days before that all orders from Captain Schirmer should be obeyed the same as before, I withdrew with my battery, against the protest of General Bohlen.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. WIEDRICH,

Captain, Commanding Battery I, First Regiment N. Y. Arty.

Numbers 44. Report of Colonel Eugene A. Kozlay, Fifty-fourth New York Infantry, of the battle of Cross Keys.

FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT NEW YORK STATE VOLS., June 11, 1862.

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that on the 8th of June, about 3 or 4 miles on the other side of Harrisonburg, I was ordered to deploy my regiment into double columns and to proceed on the right of the road leading to Port Republic, parallel with the Fifty-eighth Regiment, who were marching on the other side of the road. Arriving in a small open field I was ordered to cross the road and to proceed with my double columns and take position on a small bare hill on the left of the Seventy-fifth Regiment, which was posted there in double columns. Before I occupied the position assigned to me (and having many difficulties in marching on account of fences and morass which lay before me and which I had to cross), I rode myself on the top of the hill to choose a suitable position for my columns. When on the top of the small hill on my right the Seventy-fifth Regiment already began to move backward, as the fire of the enemy was very severe upon us. Under these circumstances I could not bring my forces on the top of the hill without an unnecessary great loss, and I had ordered them to stay in a little valley, as it is seen in the annexed diagram,* on the side of the same hill, ordering my men to stand for a minute on the side of the hill which

---------------

*Not found.

---------------