us here amounted to 43, including Lieutenant Edward Krebs, who commanded the company guarding the pieces.

While my animals and men were resting as already stated, word came to me of the attack upon our rear and the taking of the guns. I immediately ordered the First Alabama Cavalry, Captain Cameron, to move down the road to our rear and attack the rebels, and recapture, if possible, the guns. Ordering the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, Major Gilbert, and Captain Bruns' squadron of the Tenth Missouri Cavalry to follow, and leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips' command and the remainder of the Tenth Missouri Cavalry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Bowen, to protect the front, I moved out on the road, and soon came in sight of the enemy, with the two guns, when I ordered a charge by the First Alabama Cavalry, which, I am sorry to say, was not obeyed with the alacrity it should have been. After charging to within short musketrange of the enemy, they halted for some cause I cannot account for, and the enemy escaped to the woods with one of the pieces and limber of the other, it having been previously thrown down the railroad excavation. Here Captain Cameron was killed, and a private of the Tenth Missouri Cavalry and one of the First Alabama Cavalry, but not until after they had desisted from the charge, when the enemy turned and poured a perfect hail of lead into our ranks. About this time 6 men of the Tenth Missouri, that I had stationed, by order of General Dodge, to guard the house of one Mr. Goodloe, were taken by the enemy. The enemy, having fled to the woods, kept up such a constant fire upon us that I ordered Captain Bruns, with his squadron and the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, into a field, with instructions to move toward the edge of the woods, and return the fire. I also ordered the howitzer squadron into the same field to shell the woods, which was done with great credit to the officers and men, doing fine execution. In order to prevent any movement of the rebels from dividing my command, as they outnumbered us nearly three to one, I ordered that portion of my command which I had left on the front to close in on the balance, and moved back down the road nearly a mile, so placing the enemy once more on my front. Here I halted, and ordered my command to move into a field in column of squadrons. This had hardly been accomplished when the enemy was seen in line of battle on the brow of a hill about a mile distant from us, and moving toward us. I at once ordered out my force into a field immediately to the east of the one occupied by us, with orders to form and wait the demonstrations of the enemy. Here allow me to say that it has been erroneously reported that at this juncture I sent back for re-enforcements. I did not do so, for at no time did I feel that my force was inadequate to beat the rebels, and, on the contrary, I had the fullest confidence in my officers and men, and felt that I could hold my ground, and even drive the enemy with them should I choose to do so.

At this juncture of affairs, Colonel Bane arrived with a portion of his brigade, when I requested him to order Captain Welker, First Missouri Light Artillery, to open on the rebels with a section of his battery, my own guns being of too short range to reach them. While getting his guns into position, Captain Welker's movements must have been observed by the enemy, for he immediately began to move to the right and left. A portion of my command immediately charged them and drove them to their usual shelter - the woods. All my command was moved simultaneously toward the enemy, the mounted infantry on the north side of the railroad and the cavalry on the south side. Here a brisk firing was kept up by musketry on both sides, until I ordered the mountain howitzers to move up in range and shell the brush, which