the road to Winchester on the 23rd and 24th ultimo I have the honor to make the following report:

On the 23rd, at dawn, we left camp near Luray, Page County, and marched toward Front Royal. As my command was not engaged at the letter place it is unnecessary to say more that that we bivouacked for the night northeast of Front Royal.

On the morning of the 24th I moved from bivouac at 8 a. m., and marched with the brigade on the Winchester road about 3 miles, where we were halted.

About 12 m. we again moved, taking the Middletown road. Arriving at this place, where the enemy made a brief stand, I was ordered into a woods on the west of the Valley turnpike, immediately in rear of the Twenty-seventh Virginia, and some 400 yards to the left of I think, Poague's battery.

After remaining quiet for an hour or more I again, pursuant to order, took up the line of march toward Winchester in front of the brigade, except Poague's guns.

About 10 or 11 p. m., when some 2 miles or more beyond Newton, the enemy was discovered in a woods at Barton's Mill, and I was ordered to send two companies to drive them out. Company A, Captain P. T. Grace, and Company F, Captain A. Spengler, were ordered forward. After a moment or two had elapsed the skirmish began, and at the first shots of the enemy, whose fire enfiladed the road, the few cavalry in front rushed to the rear by the battery and through my ranks, riding over and injuring several of my officers and men and creating for the moment a scene of most mortifying confusion. With the assistance of my field officers I soon gathered the men who had broken ranks and took them forward to support my skirmishers; but support was unnecessary, as they had already driven the enemy off and the Twenty-seventh had advanced beyond me.

My loss in the skirmishers was: From Company A, 2 wounded, and from Company F, 6 wounded.

I avail myself of this opportunity to express my high appreciation of the gallant manner in which Captains Grace and Spengler, with their men, behaved in this little affair, as they have invariably done in the frequent engagements in which I have observed them.

We continued the march all night, excepting a halt of two hours at Kernstown, and at daylight on Sunday morning, May 25, it was my privilege to aid in the attack upon General Banks at Winchester.

Having already submitted my report for that day, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. F. NEFF,

Colonel, Commanding Thirty-third Regiment.

Captain J. F. O'BRIEN,

Assistant Adjutant-General, First Brigade.

HDQRS. THIRTY-THIRD REGIMENT VIRGINIA VOLS.,
Bivouac near Winchester, Va., May 27, 1862.

GENERAL: In obedience to an order from Headquarters First Brigade, Army of Virginia, requiring reports from the several regiments and batteries of this command of the part taken in the action of the 25th instant, I have the honor to make the following report:

About 4 a. m. of the 25th the command was aroused from a short repose at Kernstown, where my men had thrown themselves upon the