Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/278

268 continued uninterruptedly until the morning of the 9th, when the enemy drove in our pickets and advanced in force to within two hundred and fifty yards of our position. We opened upon him with artillery and musketry, and in a very short time drove him back with considerable loss. On the afternoon of the same day, in the attempt to re-establish our picket line, the enemy was found in the wood on our right within a hundred yards of the railroad. After severe fighting for about two hours, he was driven off and our line re-established. On the next morning it was ascertained that he had fallen back to his original position, and our picket line was advanced four or five hundred yards beyond its former position.

The casualties amounted in all to four killed, one commissioned officer and thirty-one men wounded, many of them very slightly.

Judging from the unburied dead, the graves and other evidences found upon the field, the enemy must have suffered a loss of not less than two hundred and fifty in the fighting of the 9th, and not less than fifty in that of the 7th, making in all a loss of not less than three hundred (300).

Respectfully submitted,

, Colonel Commanding.

I omitted to mention, in enumerating the force under my command on the 7th instant, the three pieces of Captain Bachman's battery, which, owing to the character of the country, it was found impracticable to use in the action.

Respectfully,

, Colonel Commanding.