and construct a cover for themselves on the crest of the open ground facing directly into the embrasures of the rebel batteries. Having no artillery with me, Captain Hubert Dilger of the First Ohio Artillery, belonging to the First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, volunteered to bring up his guns, and, placing them upon the line where my men were intrenching, opened fire and maintained them there throughout the afternoon, displaying a splendid courage not often witnessed. The coolness and bravery displayed by my own men exceeds all praise, and by dark they had constructed a line of rifle-pits in open ground confronting the finished works of the enemy and within 500 yards of them. I had obtained a magnificent position and lost 40 men in so doing. June 19, the earliest dawn revealed to us another evacuation and falling back of the rebel army, this time to the lines of Kenesaw Mountain. My division, pursuing, came up in front of the central knob of the mountain, near Kirk's house, and after a sharp skirmish, got into position close to the base of the mountain. June 20, the lines of the division were rectified and the works for protection strengthened and improved. During the day we lost 30 men, killed and wounded by shells and by sharpshooters firing from the side of the mountain. From this time until the evening of the 26th our position was not materially changed. Under direct fire from the rebel skirmishers no man could expose himself without being a mark for their bullets. They kept our men closely confined to their trenches, and the only variety we had was the constant succession of artillery duels between our batteries and those upon the mountain top, which might be looked for at any time of the day or night. At times these displays assumed a degree of magnificence, as particularly the cannonade from our batteries on the afternoon of the 21st. My average daily loss of men killed and wounded in their camps and behind their works was about 20 men. June 26, the division of Brigadier-General Davis having been sent to the right of the Fourth Corps to unite with a division of that corps in an assault of the enemy's works, I was ordered there likewise to support him, and, being relieved after dark by Brigadier-General Osterhaus' division, of the Army of the Tennessee, I marched at once and by midnight got into bivouac near department headquarters. June 27, at an early hour my division was formed in rear of the assaulting columns of Brigadier-General Davis to support him in case of disaster, and after his repulse went forward into the line on his right, relieving, Brigadier-General Geary's division, of the Twentieth Corps, which was next to us upon that side. On the 27th, Colonel F. Van Derveer, commanding my Second Brigade, who had long been suffering from disease, was compelled to go North for relief, and turned over the command of the brigade to Colonel N. Gleason of the Eighty-seventh Indiana Volunteers, who has since retained it. In losing Colonel Van Derveer, my command, and the service generally, was deprived of one of its most gallant and best officers and most accomplished gentlemen. Always prompt, judicious, and brave, he had distinguished himself on many fields, and his promotion had been strongly urged upon the Government but unaccountably overlooked. June 28, from this time until the 3rd of July the locality of the division was not changed. Our works were at this time so close to those of the enemy that no man on either side dared show his head during the day, and the only advantage which we gained was in the constant pushing forward of our trenches toward theirs, done under the cover of night. To ex-