second being in the front line, with the One hundred and tenth on its right and the One hundred and twenty-sixth Ohio on its left. Being ordered to take the hill near General Sheridan's headquarters, the line moved forward and my regiment crossed the creek and began to ascend the opposite slope. A part of the Nineteenth Corps passing to the rear in a mass struck the right of my regiment and the left of the One hundred and tenth at the white house near General Wright's headquarters, and the brigade became divided in two parts. The order for the advance was countermanded and I recrossed the creek, and, following the direction taken by the One hundred and twenty-sixth Ohio, formed on the right of that regiment in line with the First Brigade behind the crest of the hill north of headquarters Third Division, Sixth Corps, but immediately advanced to the crest of the hill, driving back the enemy, who had followed us closely. He fell back in haste and disorder across the ravine and beyond the opposite hill, leaving several prisoners in our hands. Retaining for a time the position thus gained,a nd having no enemy on our front, we directed our fire with some effect upon a column of rebels then marching through our camp-ground in the direction of the extreme right. Meanwhile, another body of the enemy advanced on the left and appeared on a ridge to our left and rear. Observing the remainder of the Second Brigade in good line, several hundred yards to the right and a little to the rear of our then position, we faced about, and marching to the left oblique, passed through a heavy cross-fire, that occasioned many of the casualties hereinafter reported, and rejoined the brigade. The brigade then moved under orders and with steadiness to the rear and found a line formed along a lane and protected by hastily piled rails, and shortly before 9 a. m. took position on the left of this line a wood.

About 9.30 a. m. the whole line was marched near a mile to the rear, then to the right (that is, toward the turnpike), we being faced to the rear, forming a connection with the Second Division, Sixth Corps, and then to the front again, taking position about 10 a. m. about one mile and a quarter north of Middletown. Here the Sixth Maryland was on my left and the Ninth New York Heavy [Artillery] on my right. No firing occurred on or from my line from about a quarter before 9 a. m. until the general advance in the afternoon. About 3.30 the line advanced, but the guide being to the left, before the extreme right was felt by the enemy he had detected our movement and we received a heavy fire of both musketry and shell from a force posted in a wood on our right. Under this fire a portion of the troops on the right belonging, I suppose, to the First Division were somewhat disordered, being most exposed to the cross-fire, and part of the Second Division, on our left, began to move rapidly to the rear. This caused first, hesitation; next, a retrograde movement of our line; but order was almost immediately restored and the advance resumed. The enemy endeavored to hold fast to a stone fence on our front about three-quarters of a mile north of Middletown, and succeeded in delaying us for from twenty to thirty minutes, but advantage being taken of a transverse fence and a sudden and very heavy fire opened on him from the front and partially from the flank he fled with precipitation, and notwithstanding several efforts to reform his line under cover of the well-directed fire of a battery placed near Middletown he was carried steadily backward until night-fall found us on the bank of Cedar Creek with our foe fleeing in utter rout before our cavalry. Pursuant to orders, my regiment at once reoccupied its camp.

A leave of absence for Captain Gilber H. Bargar had arrived on the evening of the 18th and was given him on the morning of the 19th