(shot through the head), and 2 wounded seriously, Corpl. G. C. Richards, Company E (in the thigh), and Private J. F. Ames, Company K, Forty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (in the cheek). One man, Corpl. [William D.] Leatherby, Company K, of the Forty-fifth,received a slight wound in the third, and Captain Murdoch, also of the Forty-fifth, acting on the staff of Colonel Amory, received a contusion from a glancing ball. Four of the enemy's dead were found behind the breastwork. The number of his wounded cannot of course be ascertained.

The conduct of the troops throughout this affair was perfectly good. Where all behaved well it would be invidious to particularize. I will only say that I am much indebted to Lieutenant-Colonel Fellows, commanding Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteers, for judicious advice and hearty support.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHARLES R. CODMAN,

Colonel Forty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia.

Lieutenant PARKINSON,

A. A. A. G., First Brigadier, First Div., Eighteenth Army Corps.

Numbers 6. Reports of Colonel J. Richter Jones, Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry.

HDQRS. FIFTY-EIGHTH Regiment PENNSYLVANIA VOLS.,
Camp at Batchelder's Creek, N. C., May 1, 1863.

SIR: In reference to the forward movement ordered on Tuesday, April 28, with a view to strike any force of the enemy on Sandy Ridge and vicinity on the Dover road, I have the honor to report that I marched at the time designated by you, with the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, the twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, one company of the Forty-fourth Massachusetts, and two companies of the Third New York Cavalry. Expecting to find, as on all previous occasions, an enemy on Sandy Ridge, I moved cautiously, a line of skirmishers in the advance, composed of one company of the Fifty-eighth and one company of the Twenty-seventh, supported by two other companies of the same regiment, the cavalry 300 yards in rear of the first line, the main column 400 yards farther to the rear.

Finding no enemy on the Ridge, which ends about 5 1/2 miles from Core Creek, I advanced beyond, on the road through the pocoson. That road runs principally through swamps, with an occasional oasis of dry ground, and, being chiefly covered with water or very wet mud, is heavy and difficult. it was thus late before we emerged on the drier country toward the railroad crossing. When approaching that point, on the supposition that the column which you had ordered to move on the railroad some two hours earlier than I started must be already in position at the crossing, I allowed my main column to halt and rest, and proceeded with my advanced line and the cavalry. When less than 100 yards from the crossing a sharp fire, converging on the Dover road, was opened from beyond the railroad. My advanced line immediately took cover and began to return the fire; but, supposing our friends necessarily at the crossing and that it must be them firing under misapprehension, I ordered all whom my voice could reach to cease firing, and also ordered the guidon of the cavalry to be brought forward and waved, so as to manifest our true character beyond mistake. The volley