left, moved into position without difficulty. The
Forty-second Indiana (Lieutenant-Colonel McIntyre), on its right, met
with considerable opposition in advancing through the woods, but
finally reached the ridge. The One Hundred and Fourth Illinois
(Lieutenant-Colonel Hapeman), and Fifteenth Kentucky (Colonel Taylor),
on the right, became engaged almost immediately and advanced slowly. The
enemy in strong force pressed them heavily in front and on the right
flank.

At this time I sent an aid to request General Baird or General King to
throw a force in the interval between my right and their left, and
dispatched Captain Wilson to the rear to hasten forward General Negley
to my support. My regiment on the right was confronted by so large a
force that it was compelled to fall back, which it did in good order,
contesting the ground stoutly. About this time a column of the enemy,
_en masse_, on the double quick, pressed into the interval between the
One Hundred and Fourth Illinois and Forty-second Indiana, and turned
with the evident intention of capturing the latter, which was then
busily engaged with the rebels in its front; but Captain Bridges opened
on it with grape and canister, when it broke and fell back in disorder
to the shelter of the woods. The Forty-second Indiana, but a moment
before almost surrounded, was thus enabled to fight its way to the left
and unite with the Eighty-eighth. Soon after this the enemy made another
and more furious assault upon the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois and
Fifteenth Kentucky, and, driving them back, advanced to within fifty
yards of my battery, and poured into it a heavy fire, killing Lieutenant
Bishop, and killing or wounding all the men and horses belonging to his
section, which consequently fell into rebel hands. Captain Bridges and
his officers, by the exercise of great courage and coolness, succeeded
in saving the remainder of the battery. It was in this encounter that
Captain LeFevre, of my staff, was killed, and Lieutenant Calkins, also
of the staff, was wounded.

The enemy having now gained the woods south of the open field and west
of the road, I opposed his further progress as well as I could with the
Fifteenth Kentucky and One Hundred and Fourth Illinois; but as he had
two full brigades, the struggle on our part seemed a hopeless one.
Fortunately, at this juncture, I discovered a battery on the road in our
rear (I think it was Captain Goodspeed's), and at my request th