Prisoners..................................... 165

Horses........................................ 28

Ambulances and teams.......................... 3

Baggage wagons................................ 2

Muskets and equipments........................ 80

12-pounder howitzer with limber............... 1

Rounds of ammunition..........................11,000

Numbers 2. Report of Colonel J. Richter, Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, of skirmish at Gum Swamp.

CAMP AT SWAMP, EIGHT MILES FROM KINSTON,

May 22, 1863-12 m.

SIR: I have the honor to report that my attempt to cut off the enemy's troops at Gum Swamp has partially succeeded.

I made the detour successfully with the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts, and attacked the enemy in the rear; but, owing to my defective knowledge of the ground, he was able to defend himself some time under cover of a swamp, and when finally broken his men mostly escaped.

However, we captured 165 prisoners, and almost took General Ransom himself, who was accidentally at the post. The enemy's regiments engaged were the Fifty-sixth North Carolina and Twenty-fifth North Carolina, and on our part the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts. Our loss is small-2 wounded, of the Fifty-eighth. Of the enemy, I have 6 wounded reported to me.

Our [I] propose reconnoitering Wise's Cross-Roads this afternoon, and to-morrow returning to our old lines. A particular report hereafter.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. RICHTER JONES,

Commanding Outposts.

Lieutenant Colonel SOUTHARD HOFFMAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Eighteenth Army Corps.

Numbers 3. Itinerary of the First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps, Brigadier General Innis N. Palmer commanding, May 20-23.*

May 20.-The Twenty-fifth and Forty-sixth Regiments, of the Second Brigade, which were commanded by Colonel Peirson, of the Fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, in accordance with orders from Headquarters Eighteenth Army Corps, moved at midnight to Batchelder's Creek, the commanding officer of the detachment reporting to Colonel J. R. Jones, of the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania, commanding outpost.

May 21.-The remainder of the Second Brigade (accompanied by Lieutenant Horton, acting commissary of musters, and Lieutenant Allen, aide-de-camp on the division staff), consisting of the Twenty-seventh

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*From Return for May, 1863.

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