[CHAP. XXXV.

instant, the Fifteenth Ohio Regiment being in advance of the column, Companies A and B, by order of the general, were deployed as skirmishers on the right of the road, the left of Company B resting on the road, Company A supported by Company F in reserve, and Company B by Company G. Company D was afterward, by order of the general, deployed to protect our right flank. We had moved forward but a short distance when our skirmishers encountered the pickets of the enemy, and drove them back on to the brow of the hill on the right of the gap where they met their reserves, protected by a dense forest, which crowned the hill and extended some distance down to a fence, having before them, and between us and them, open fields for the distance of 600 or 700 yards. Their position was a very strong one, as the face of the hill on the summit of which the enemy was posted was very steep and rocky, and was of a convex shape, the convexity toward us, so that their line being extended around the brow of the hill they had the protection of the woods and fence, and their flank was perfectly protected. Our skirmishers were halted, and I was ordered by the general to extend our line to the right, and see if we could find the left flank of the enemy; in pursuance of which, Company D, which had been on the right flank, was swung around into the line on the right of Company A, Company I deployed on the right of Company D, Company E on the right of Company I, and Company K in rear of the right of the line, in reserve. After making his disposition, we moved forward a short distance, and found the enemy's left extended farther than our right, and that they were posted with all the advantages of their strong position. I sent information of this to the general, when the Twenty-ninth Indiana was sent to be deployed on our right flank, their line extending perpendicularly to the rear. We had to wait until they had swung around into line with us. In the mean time the left of our line had swung around, and under a galling fire had gained the fence and the edge of the woods, Company B losing in this 2 men killed and 5 wounded; Lieutenant Smiley, of Company A, received a mortal wound, and 5 men of Company A wounded, 1 man of Company F killed, and 1 man of Company D killed.

When the Twenty-ninth Indiana had got into position on our right, the supporting companies were deployed on the line, and the whole line moved forward across the open field and up the steep face of the hill at a double-quick, the enemy fleeing before them, Companies E and K capturing 2 of the enemy. After reaching the top of the hill, we moved forward some distance past Liberty Church, but did not again encounter the enemy, when we were relieved by the Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania.

In the affair of the 25th instant, the Fifteenth Ohio was in reserve to the Thirty-second Indiana, which was on picket duty. About 3 p.m., Lieutenant Blume, of the general's staff, informed me that the enemy had driven in the sentinels of the Thirty-second Indiana, and was then pushing forward on to the line. I immediately deployed the battalion as skirmishers, and moved forward to the line of the Thirty-second Indiana, which extended across the valley through which the road runs, through the wheat-field, on the side of the hill on the right of the road, and into the woods on the top of the hill. We opened a fire on the enemy, who were posted opposite our left on the hill across the valley and along a fence, around a corn-field, and about the house in the valley near the road. We had a good position, and our men were mostly under cover, so that the enemy did us little damage on the left of our line, although they kept up a brisk fire from their line and from a battery posted on a hill a short distance in rear of their line, and also from a mountain howitzer posted in the road near the house in our front. The