proper command, the Sixteenth Corps,to go into position in an open field about 500 yards to the rear. While moving at a trot, with pieces in front,on a narrow road through the woods, running nearly perpendicular to our main front line, the enemy suddenly appeared at the head of the column and took Lieutenants Murray and Breckinridge prisoners. Before the officers in command of the other sections had time to unlimber and reverse their pieces or put them in position the enemy had possession of the battery. Lieutenants Murray and Breckinridge were captured while giving the necessary orders to get off the other pieces. I would respectfully state, for the information of General Barry, that Lieutenant Murray was acting entirely under orders in taking that particular road, and that there was no infantry whatever within supporting distance when the battery was captured. Twenty-nine of the men were transferred next day, by orders from headquarters Left Wing, Sixteenth Corps, to Fourteenth Ohio Battery; by the same order myself and remainder of men (forty-eight) to Battery H, First Missouri Artillery, Second Division, Sixteenth Corps. The ordnance property I turned over, by order, to Battery C, First Michigan Artillery, and ordnance officer at Marietta. Of eight horses left, hour were turned over to Captain Giesy, assistant quartermaster, Fourth Division, Sixteenth Corps, for use at division headquarters, and four to commanding officer of Fourteenth Ohio Battery.

The following is the loss in commissioned officers, enlisted men, horses, and material: Commissioned officers taken prisoners, 2. Enlisted men - missing, 12; killed, 2; wounded, 2. Aggregate, 18. Horses killed and captured, 100.

Captured: Guns and limbers, 6; caissons, 1; caisson-limbers, 2; ammunition (rounds), 352; ambulance, 1.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. SMITH,

Second Lieutenant 5th U. S. Arty., Commanding Battery F, 2nd Arty.

Captain JOHN E. MARSHALL,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. Military Div. of the Mississippi.

No. 572.

Report of Major General Frank P. Blair, jr. U. S. Army, commanding Seventeenth Army Corps.

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Rome Ga., June 5, 1864.

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that I left Cairo on the 11th ultimo, as I telegraphed you, with a fleet of thirteen steamers and three barges convoyed by two gun-boats which joined us at Paducah. I proceeded up the Tennessee River without accident, and reached Clifton on the 14th. The troops were disembarked without delay. There I found a detachment of this corps under Brigadier-General Force, which had been detained from want of transportation. Transportation had been sent up, but did not get farther than Paducah, as no convoy could be obtained for the steamers. On the 16th I moved with the detachment, consisting of about 8,000 men, 30 pieces of artillery, and 400 wagons, also 2,300 beef cattle, and reached Huntsville on the 22nd and 23d, having marched a distance of 120 miles