position it occupied during the 11th and 12th of May. While at this point the command was joined by the Twelfth Illinois, Second and Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry Volunteers, with the supply train, which they had been detached to guard. On the morning of the 13th of May the command moved out upon the Calhoun Ferry road, one mile directly south, and thence across to the Resaca road, following the same two miles and a half, and then turning to the right, pursuing a cut road until it came to the Fourth Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, when, in compliance with instructions from Brigadier General G. M. Dodge, commanding corps, it was thrown in line of battle, with the Second Brigade on the right, Third Brigade on the left, and the First Brigade as a reserve, and thrown into a position on the right and rear of the Fourth Division as a support, acting as a reserve during the afternoon, shifting its position to conform with the movements of said division, but not becoming engaged with the enemy, except Battery I, First Missouri Light Artillery, which obtained a position from which its shells could for a time reach the enemy's skirmish line. The command bivouacked for the night upon the field two miles from Resaca, having marched a distance of seven miles and stood for several hours in line of battle.

At 9 a. m. on the 14th of May, in compliance with instructions from the major-general commanding Department and Army of the Tennessee, this command moved from its position on the right of the army of the Tennessee, out upon the Calhoun Ferry road, a distance of one mile and a half, thence to the right on the Lay's Ferry road, leaving Calhoun Ferry to the left a distance of two miles and to within half a mile of Lay's Ferry, across the Oostenaula River, where the command was halted until a pontoon train and two battalions of an engineer regiment, under Colonel Buell, arrived, when the pontoons were immediately unloaded and put together, and the Second and Seventeenth Iowa Infantry detailed to carry them to the mouth of Snake Creek, in which stream they were to be placed, loaded with soldiers and pushed across the Oostenaula River. During the time employed in carrying the pontoons to the point designated, Battery H, First Missouri Light Artillery, Lieutenant Blodgett commanding, took position on a hill about 400 yards from the river, opening upon the enemy, who replied briskly with artillery upon our battery, and with musketry upon our skirmishers, which had been thrown out from the First Brigade, near the north bank of the river, under cover of the heavy timber, to attract the enemy's attention from the placing of the boats one mile below the ferry. At 4.15 o'clock the pontoons had been fenced and loaded with six companies of the Eighty-first Ohio Infantry Volunteers and one company of the Sixty-sixth Illinois Infantry of the Second Brigade, and the remainder of the brigade deployed upon the river bank, skirmishing briskly with the enemy upon the opposite side, while the First Brigade was above and near the ferry, to cover the passage of the troops below, the Third Brigade, being held in reserve with Battery B, First Michigan Light Artillery, the other two batteries taking position and opening upon the enemy's rifle-pits. At this time, and before the pontoons had moved out of Snake Creek, an officer of Colonel Murray's division of cavalry (name not ascertained) sent information that the enemy was constructing a bridge over the river, near Calhoun Ferry, four miles above Lay's Ferry, which, if true, would permit the enemy to throw a large force across in our rear, entirely isolating this command from the enemy at Resaca. In con-