The Genesee companies, while recruiting and until the organization of the regiment was completed, were known as the "Thomson Light guard," in honor of Col. E. H. Thomson, and the "Wolverine Guard." The former was recruited to more then the maximum strength by Capt. Charles E. McAlester and Lieutenant Stewart in about three weeks' time, and the latter, recruited principally by the Rev. J. S. Smart, filled its ranks in about two weeks from the beginning of enlistment. The Wolverine Citizen of August 9, 1862, mentioned that "Colonel Thomson and the Rev. J. S. Smart are addressing the people at different places in the county, to raise the quota of Genesee for the Twenty-third Regiment,' and about the same time a Flint correspondent of the Detroit Free Press said, "The Rev. J. S. Smart, presiding elder of this district, lately felt it his duty to o to the wars, so he told his family and friend to 'stand clear,' for he was going that way. He immediately started a recruiting office, and the fact soon spreading through the city and county, in four days afterwards the elder had a full company of one hundred men on his rolls. He then posted off to Detroit, got his commission as captain, and ia now here, organizing and straightening out matters preparatory to leaving for the camp of the Twenty-third at Saginaw. The captain is very popular and could have had another hundred men if he had been authorized to accept them. He is now called here the 'Fighting Parson.' This correspondent was decidedly in error to the time in which he company's ranks were filled and other portions of his communication were too highly colored; but it was not an exaggeration as to the height of the patriotic enthusiasm which then existed among the people of the county in regard to the furnishing of their full quota and the promotion of enlistments, particularly in the companies that were to join the Twenty-third Regiment.

The two Genesee companies left flint early in August and proceeded to he rendezvous at East Saginaw, where on the 30^th of that month they were reported respectively as one hundred and nine and one hundred and twelve strong, the former number representing the strength of Captain McAlester's company. The Rev. Mr. Smart, after seeing his company filled, retired from it and accepted the chaplaincy of the regiment. The command of the company then devolved on Capt. Damon Stewart, previously first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment, and still earlier a non-commissioned officer in the Second Michigan Infantry, serving with that regiment in the campaign of the Peninsula.

In the organization of the regiment, the "Thomson Light Guard" was designated as C company, under the following commissioned officers: Captain, Charles E. McAlester; first lieutenant, George W. Buckingham; second lieutenant, William C. Stewart; the "Wolverine Guard" was designated as K Company, its commissioned officers being: Captain, Damon Stewart; first lieutenant, Samuel D. Randall; second lieutenant, John Rea.

The field-officers of the Twenty-third at its organization were: Marshall W. Chapin, colonel; Gilbert E. Pratt, lieutenant-colonel; Benjamin F. fisher, major; daring from August 23, 1862. The regiment, nine hundred and eighty-three strong, was mustered into the service of the United States at the rendezvous on the 11^th and 12^th of September, and it being understood that the command would be immediately ordered to the front, preparations for the movement were at once commenced.

On the 16^th of September orders were issued for company C, H and k to take up their line of march for Detroit, preparatory to departure for the theatre of war. Pursuant to these order they broke camp in the morning of the 17^th and were transported on the cars of the Flint & Pere Marquette railways, which was then the southern terminus of the road; thence were moved across the country by way of Flint to the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad over which they proceeded by train to their destination. At Flint a bountiful repast had been provided for them and they were received by the citizens with great enthusiasm--the more so, no doubt, because this first detachment included the two Genesee companies, and for the same reason the adieux which were waved to them here and everywhere in their passage through the county were the more sad and tearful. The memory of that occasion was long fresh and vivid in the minds of surviving soldiers and relatives and friends of those who never returned. "The incidents of that first movement," write an officer of the regiment, "were no doubt similar to those of the remaining companies over the same route--flat cars, rain, sunshine, tears, smiles, feasting at Flint, transportation by variety of vehicles, hilarity, airs, boisterous mirth, and much good cheer."

On the following day the remaining companies left the rendezvous and moved by the same route to Detroit, where they arrived in the evening and were hospitably entertained by the patriotic citizens. With but little delay the ten companies were embarked on steamers, which landed them at Cleveland the next morning; the weather was rainy and dismal and the condition of the men anything but comfortable. From Cleveland the regiment moved by rail across the state of Ohio, to Cincinnati, where after a stop of some hours it again proceeded by railroad and on Sunday morning, September 21, reached Jeffersonville, Indiana, on the north bank of the Ohio river opposite Louisville, Kentucky. In the afternoon of the same day the command moved to "Camp Gilbert" near by, and that night for the first time, the tired men of the Twenty-third slept upon a soldier's bed--the bosom of mother earth.

At this time the Southern general, Buckner, was reported to be approaching Louisville, and in consequence of the panic thus caused, many of the people were crossing to the north side of the river. large quantities of government stores were also being transferred tot he Indiana side, by order of the general then in command at Louisville. The Twenty-third was placed on duty, guarding the public property and ferry landing at Jeffersonville, and remained so employed for two days and nights, at the end of which time it crossed the river and camped in the southwestern suburbs of Louisville. Here the situation of the men was not the most comfortable and it was made worse by their almost complete ignorance of the methods by which veteran soldiers mange to force something like comfort out of the most unfavorable surrounds. A few hours later they were ordered to move to another camping-place, and while on their way thither they passed a brigade or division of the army of General Buell, which had them just entered the city after a fatiguing forced march from Nashville in pursuit of the Southern army under General Bragg. As the Twenty-third marched past the dusty and battle-scarred veterans of Shiloh, and Farmington and Iuka, the latter indulged, as veterans are apt to do, in many a joke at the expense of the fresh troops, few of whom had yet heard the whistle of a hostile bullet. The officer before quoted says of this incident, "the contrast of their duty, tattered and torn garments with our men was a matter of much comment." We were surprised that they jeeringly hinted at out greenness and inferiority which a few months' experience in marches and on battle-fields would change. In time we learned that they had not been mistaken in their estimate of our relative merits as soldiers."

The camp to which the regiment was moved at this time will be well recollected by those who occupied it as "the Brick-yard Camp," a dreary and comfortless place where the command remained without tents or other shelter until the afternoon of the 3^rd of October, when the thirty-eighth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, composed of the One Hundred and Second and One hundred and eleventh Ohio, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth and Twenty-third Michigan, all under command of General Dumont, marched away from Louisville on the road to Shelbyville, Kentucky. The weather was very hot, the road dusty, water almost impossible to obtain, and the men, not having yet learned the meaning of "light marching order," were overloaded with the cumbrous outfits which they brought from home. When late at night they halted on the bank of a muddy stream known as Floyd's Fork, the exhausted and footsore troops were glad enough to lie down upon the ground, with no shelter but their blankets, and no thought but that of rest from the fatigue of this their first severe march.

Late the next morning they arose stiff and sore in every joint and soaked with the rail which was still falling. Coffee was made from the muddy water of the stream, in which hundreds of mules were stamping and wallowing. The rations were neither very good nor plentiful, but these were on this occasion supplemented by supplies take from a mansion which stood near by, from which the occupants had fled on the approach of the troops the soldiers, impressed with the idea that all food, raiment and other movable found in the enemy's country belonged to Uncle Sam's elect, proceeded to ransack the premises, bringing off meat, meal, vegetables, sauce, honey, jellies, preserves, and some pretty good stock for the stable--a portion of which were recognized the next spring grazing in the valley of the Saginaw."

Early in the day the rain ceased and the command moved out towards Shelbyville, which was reached the same evening. The Twenty-third encamped in the vicinity of the village. Here the brigade remained until the morning of October 9, when it moved through the village and on towards Frankfort, arriving in the neighborhood of that town the same night. The advance guard of the force had already entered the city after a skirmish with the cavalry of the enemy, who had succeeded in destroying the fine bridge of the Lexington & Frankfort railroad, and had attempted the destruction of the turnpike bridge.

On the march from Louisville to Frankfort, large numbers of negroes had fallen in with the column, some engaging as servants to the officers, but more accompanying the force without any definite object; among the dusky crowd were found "the names or lineal descendants of every prominent gentleman in the rebel army." A considerable number of Kentucky horses had also "fallen in," on the line of march and were being ridden by officers and privates. But on arrival at Frankfort there came for these a host of claimants. The day was one of reckoning for those in whose possession they were found. "A court-martial was instituted, and held a protracted session at Frankfort. It must have made sad havoc among the wolverines but for the fact that our fighting companion, Captain Walbridge, who rode on the best captured steed into the town on the at eventful morning, October 10, was the honored judge advocate of the court."

With the exception of an expedition in pursuit of the guerrilla chief, John Morgan, the Twenty-third remained at Frankfort thirteen days. It was at this time under command of Major B. F. Fisher, the colonel being in command of the brigade and Lieutenant-Colonel Pratt being absent. It was while the regiment lay at this place that the death occurred of Lieut. John Earle, of E company, On Sunday, October 19, 1862. His remains were sent home to Michigan in charge of Sergeant Lyons. At about the same time the regiment received the sad news of the death of Captain Norville, of fever, at Saginaw City, October 3.

At a little past midnight in the morning of the day of Lieutenant Earle's death, the men of the Twenty-third wee started from their sleep by the thrilling sound of the "long roll." At one o'clock a. m. they were marching rapidly away in pursuit of the redoubtable Morgan, who was reported to be at Lawrenceburg; two companies of the regiment, however, K and G were left in a guard at Frankfort. The pursuing column was almost as a matter of course too late to overtake the main body of Morgan's force, but succeeded in capturing a few men and horses belonging to his rear guard. With these trophies, the command returned the same evening to the camp at Frankfort, having marched twenty-six miles under the usual disadvantages of choking dust and great scarcity of water.

The regiment took its final departure from Frankfort late in the afternoon of the 21^st of October and encamped that night in an oak grove a few miles down the road towards Lawrenceburg. On the following day it passed through that town, and made its camp for the night at Big Spring, some miles farther on. the weather had suddenly drown cold, and many of the men suffered for need of the blankets which had been foolishly thrown away as incumbrances in the heat and dust of previous marches. In the morning of the 23^rd he Kentucky hills and vales were white with hoar-frost. The regiment was early in line; during this day's march it passed through Harroldsburg. Here the men was not permitted to make a free exploration of the town, on account of their rather damaging record as indiscriminate foragers. About noon of the 24^th they passed through the little village of Perryville in the outskirts of which the armies of Buell and Bragg has fought the battle of Chaplain Hills sixteen days before. Many of the Union and Confederate wounded from that engagement were still in the village and in the farm-house hospitals of the vicinity. That night the weary men of the Twenty-third made their bivouac on the banks of an abundant and tolerably clear stream of water called the Rolling Fork.

In the march of the following day, this stream was crossed and recrossed many times in its meandering Late in the day the regiment reached the little half-burned village of Bradfordsville. The latter part of the day's march had been made ina cold, drenching rain, which a night fell turned to snow, and on the following morning, Sunday, October 26, the arctic covering lay six inches deep over the ground. This was considered a remarkable event for that latitude and brought remembrances of Northern hones to the minds of many whose eyes would never again look upon the whitened expanse of the Michigan hills and valleys. During all that Sabbath day the tired men enjoyed a season of rest and recreation around their comfortable camp-fires. While they rested the snow disappeared, so that their march of the following day, while over bare roads, was free from tormenting dust. In the evening of the 27^th the brigade arrived at Newmarket, Kentucky, where several commands of he rear guard of Buell's army we found encamped; there the Twenty-third and its companion regiment also went into camp and remained for eight days, engaging in recuperation, drills and the preparation of muster-rolls, to be used upon a pay-day which all hoped might come in the near future.

On the 4^th of November the brigade again moved forward, and on the 5^th passed through Munfordsville, where a Union force of ten thousand men lay encamped. On the 6^th it reached Dripping springs, where it remained one day, and in the afternoon of the 8^th arrived at bowling Green, Kentucky, a town which "had the appearance of having been visited by pestilence, famine, and the besom of destruction," as was remarked by some of the officers of the Twenty-third. "A large force had wintered there, and remained until driven out by the Union forces under General Mitchell, and they had made of the whole visible creation one common camping ground." This place was destined to be the home of the Twenty-third Regiment for a period of more than six months. Its camp, which was afterwards transformed into substantial and comfortable winter-quarters, was pitched near the magnificent railroad-bridge crossing the Big Barren river, and the guarding of this bridge formed a part of the duty of the regiment during the winter of 1862-83; is other duties were camp routine, drill, picket, provost and railway guard, and the conveying of railroad trains of stores over the road from Bowling Green to Nashville. While here, the Twenty-third with its brigade formed part of the Tenth Division of the Army of the Cumberland, and they were successively under command of Generals Granger, Manson and Judah, as commandants of the post during the six months hat they remained here.

The period of the regiment's stay at bowling Green was marked by many notable events, some pleasant, some painful and others ludicrous. Near the town was a pleasure-ground many acres in extent with a magnificent spring of clear cold water in its center. This seems to have been a favorite resort for both citizens and soldiers and we are told that "here, upon many a happy occasion, the beauty and the chivalry of Bowling Green, and many Yankees assembled to enjoy the scene of unequaled hilarity and mirth." It was several times the case that snow fell to a sufficient depth for sleighing and these opportunities for pleasure were improved to the utmost. Private entertainments, too, were sometimes given by the citizens, and "there were, in several instances of strong indications of attachments between some of the boys in blue and the air damsels of bowling Green. * * * * these wee oases in the dreary Sahara of the war." On the morning of the momentous 1^st of January, 1863, the artillery on College Hill fired a salute, which was afterwards changed to target practice, and during a part of the time of its continuance the camp of the Twenty-third Michigan seemed to have been the target, for several sold shots wee thrown into it, doing some damage to quarters and creating no little consternation. This was the first time the regiment has been actually under fire.

On the 6^th of April, 1863, occurred one of the most distressing events in the experience of the regiment at Bowling Green. This was the sudden death of Lieutenant-Colonel Pratt. He had mounted a powerful and restive horse, but was scarcely seated in the saddle when the fiery animal plunged, crushing and killing him instantly. He was a good and popular officer and was sincerely mourned by the men and officer of the regiment.

When spring had fairly opened, it began to be rumored that the troops occupying Bowling Green would soon be moved from there and enter active service. The men of the Twenty-third Michigan did not regret this probability of a change, for, although their experience had been in some respects as pleasant as any which soldiers in time of war have a right to expect. Yet they had been terribly reduced in numbers by sickness while there and it was believed that this evil would be aggravated by the coming of warm weather. Besides, they had grown tied of the monotonous duty which they were called to perform and were, as soldiers almost always are, inclined to wish for a change. About the 20^th of May, orders were received to make all preparations for a movement and to hold the commands in readiness for the march; on the 29^th of the same month the regiment broke amp and moved with its brigade on the road to Glasgow, Ky., which point was reached on the 30^th. here the Twenty-third remained until the 13^th of June, when it was ordered in pursuit of a force of guerrillas, said to be at Randolph, about twelve miles distant. Almost as a matter of course, nothing resulted from this expedition, and the regiment returned to Glasgow on the 16^th after a most severe and exhausting march. On the 22^nd it again moved with Mason's brigade, to Scottsville; thence, on the 26^th, to Tompkinsville; and, July 4, back to Glasgow. Here, however, it made little stay, but marched out, now in full pursuit of John Morgan, to Munfordsville, reaching there July 7, then to Elizabethtown and Louisville by rail, reaching the latter city on the 11th. Morgan was now reported across the Ohio river in Indiana. The twenty-third as part of the command of General Judah, crossed to New Albany, Indiana, but, making little stop there, proceeded to Jeffersonville and thence up the river by steamer to madison, Indiana, reaching Cincinnati in the evening of the 13^th. From that city the fleet, on which was the Twenty-third with the other regiments under command of General Judah, passed up the river to Maysville, concord and Portsmouth, Ohio; at the latter place they remained until July 20, when they returned to Cincinnati and disembarked the troops. From there the Twenty-third was transported by railroad to Chillicothe, and thence to Hamden Junction, where it encamped for a few days. Within the camp-ground of the regiment in this place there remained a rude rostrum, from which, on a previous occasion, the notorious Vallandigham had set forth his peculiar views to the populace of southern Ohio. But now the same rostrum was occupied by the chaplain of the Twenty-third, the Rev. J. S. Smart, who most eloquently "consecrated it to the cause of freedom, while the regiment made the welkin ring with shouts for liberty, and the Union."

There was no occasion to continue longer in the pursuit of Morgan, for that daring leader and his band had already been destroyed or captured. The regiment then returned to Cincinnati, crossed the Ohio to Covington, and moved thence by rail to Paris, Kentucky, arriving there on the 28^th, just in time to assist the small Union force stationed there in protecting the town and an important railway bridge at that point against an attack by Pegram's rebel cavalry. This affair occurred on the 29^th, and in it, the first actual engagement in which the Twenty-third took part, the conduct of the regiment was most creditable. It remained here until the 4^th of August, when it moved, by way of Lexington and Louisville, to Lebanon, Kentucky, and thence to New Market, where it arrived on the 8^th of August, and was incorporated with the Second Brigade, Second Division, of the Twenty-third Army Corps, then organizing at that point.

On the 16^th, marching orders were received, and on the 17^th of August, at two o'clock p.m., the regiment, with its division, moved out and took up the long and wearisome march for East Tennessee. The camp of that night was only seven miles out from New Market on Owl Creek, where the command rested during all of the following day and night, but moved forward again at daybreak in the morning of the 19^th, and camped that night on Green river. the march was resumed on the following morning, and two days later, August 22, the regiment forded the Cumberland river, and began to ascend the foot-hills of the Cumberland mountains. In the evening of the 25^th it made its camp at Jamestown, the county seat of Fentress county, Tennessee.

On the 30^th the command reached Montgomery, Tennessee, where were

Generals Burnside and Hartsuff, with the main body of the army, commanded by the former officer. In passing thought this little settlement "an enthusiastic old lady harangued the corps upon the glory of its mission, alternately weeping and shouting, invoking the blessing of heaven upon the troops, and pouring our volleys of anathemas upon the enemies of the country."

On the 1^st of September, the men of the Twenty-third had passed the gorges of the mountains, descended their southeastern slope tot he valley of the Tennessee, and camped late t night on the right flank of the clinch river, a tributary of the larger stream. Fording the clinch in the forenoon of the 2^nd of September, the corps marched forward and passed Kingston, a considerable town of East Tennessee, near which the waters of the clinch join those of the Holston and form the Tennessee river. The camp of the Twenty-third was pitched for the night about two miles beyond Kingston.

At five o'clock in the morning of the 3d the troops were inline ready for the march, and then, for eight long, weary hours, the Twenty-third Michigan and its companion regiments of the brigade waited for the order to move. At nine o'clock in the forenoon the brigade was formed in square four lines deep, and while standing in that formation was addressed by its commander, General White, who read a dispatch just received from General Burnside, announcing the capture of Knoxville by the Union forces. General white then congratulated his command, and called on Colonel Chapin, of the Twenty-third, for a speech. The colonel responded in an address which, being brief and comprehensive, is given here entire. He said, "Boys, the general calls on me t make a speech. You know that I am not much of a speaker, and all I have to say is, that you've down d---d well! Keep on doing so!"

Long and loud acclamations greeted this vigorous harangue; then the brigade resumed is previous formation, and after another tedious delay, moved out on the road to Loudon, which was reached early in the afternoon of Friday, September 4. The enemy had hastily evacuated all the strong works which they had built at this place, but had succeeded in destroying the great and important railroad bridge across the river. here the brigade remained for about ten days.

During the latter part of the march across the mountain, supplies had become so much reduced that rations of corn in the ear were issued to some of the troops, and after their arrival at Loudon this situation of affairs was but little improved until Tuesday, the 8^th of September, when the first railroad train reached the town from Knoxville and was hailed with wild delight by the weary and hungry soldiers. Before this, however, their necessities had been partially relieved by repairing and putting in running order a grist-mill which the enemy had dismantled before his evacuation. The advance of the wagon-train also came up at about the same time that the railroad was opened for use.

At two o'clock in the morning of September 15, the men of the Twenty-third were roused from their slumbers to prepare for a march; one hour later they were moving on the road to Knoxville, twenty-eight miles distant. This march was performed with all possible speed and late in the afternoon the regiment bivouacked within a short distance of that city. the next morning it entered the city, bit soon after proceeded by rail to Morristown, a distance of about forty miles. Only a short stay was made here, and on the 19^th it returned to Knoxville and went into camp at the railroad depot. The next day was the Sabbath and here, for the first time in months, the ears of the men were greeted by the sound of church bells. They passed the day in rest and quiet, little dreaming of the furious battle that was then raging, away to the southward, upon the field of Chickamauga, or of the rout and disaster to the Union arms which that days' sunset was to witness.

At four o'clock Monday morning the brigade took the road towards Loudon and arrived there the same night. Here the Twenty-third occupied a pleasant and elevated camp in a chestnut grove, and remained stationed at Loudon for about five weeks, engaged in picket duty and scouting, and during the latter part of the time frequently ordered into line of battle, continually harassed by reports of the near approach of the enemy under Longstreet, who had been detached from the army of Bragg in Georgia, and was pressing northward with a heavy force towards Knoxville.

This advance of Longstreet decided General Burnside to retire his forces from Loudon and on the 28th of October the place was evacuated; the Twenty-third Michigan was the last regiment to cross the pontoon-bridge which was then immediately swung to the shore, the boats being loaded upon cars and send to Knoxville. All this being accomplished, the army moved to Lenoir, Tennessee, and camped beyond the town; the line of encampment extended many miles. The same night the campfires of the enemy blazed upon the hills of Loudon, which the Union forces had just evacuated.

At the new camp on the Lenior road the Twenty-third Regiment remained until the 14^th of November, when it moved with the army back in the direction of Hough's Ferry, where a sharp engagement ensued, and the enemy was driven several miles southward. The army returned to Lenior on the 15^th, and on the following day commenced its retreat to Knoxville, having destroyed its transportation and camp equipage and turned all the teams over to the several batteries. At Campbell's Station the enemy came up and attacked repeatedly and with great energy; these attacks were successfully repelled, but the retreat was continued with all practicable speed to Knoxville, where the Twenty-third arrived at four a.m. on the 17^th, after a march of twenty-eight miles without rest or food, and having fought for five hours, losing thirty-one killed and wounded and eighty missing.

This engagement is described by a correspondent in the Louisville Journal as follows:

One brigade of the Ninth Corps was in advance, the Second Brigade of the Second Division, Twenty-third Corps, in the center, and one brigade of the Ninth Corps as rear guard. The skirmishing was begun by the Ninth Corps, forming in rear of General White's command, which formed in line to protect the stock, etc., as it passed to the rear, and to cover the retreat of the Ninth Corps, which was the rear guard and was to file past. Again was the Second Brigade in position where it must receive the shock of battle and must sustain, more or less, the honors already won. The arrangements for battle had hardly been completed before the cavalry came in from the front, followed by the infantry of the Ninth Corps, and two heavy lines of the enemy emerged from the woods, three-quarters of a mile in front. Each line consisted of a division and were dressed almost wholly in the United States uniforms, which at first deceived us. Their first line advanced to within eight hundred yards of General White's front before that officer gave the order to fire. Henshaw's and the twenty-fourth Indiana batteries then opened on them with shell, but they moved steadily forward, closing up as their line would be broken by this terrible fire, until within three hundred and fifty yards of our main line, when the batteries mentioned opened on them with canister, and four batteries in the rear and right and left of General white opened on their rear line with shell. This was more than they could stand. Their front line broke and ran back some distance, where they reformed and deployed right and left and engaged the Thirteenth Kentucky and Twenty-third Michgian on the right and the Eleventh Ohio and One Hundred and Seventh Illinois on the left, which were supported by General Ferrero's command of the Ninth corps. This unequal contest went on for an hour and a half. The only advantage over them so far was in artillery, they not having any in position yet. It seemed to be their object to crush the interior force opposing them with their heavy force of infantry. The men were too stubborn; they would not yield an inch, but frequently drove the rebels from their position and held their ground. Finding they could not move then with the force already employed, the rebels moved forward another line of infantry, heavy as either of the first two, and placed in position three batteries. Their guns wee heavier and of longer range then those of the Second Brigade, and were situated to command General White's position, while his guns could not answer their fire. they got the range of these guns on once and killed and wounded several gunners and disabled several horses, when General White ordered them back to the position occupied by those in the rear, the infantry holding the position covered by the artillery on the hill. An artillery fight then began which continued nearly two hours till it was growing dark and the order was given for our troops to fall back to resume the march to Knoxville.

"Their bugles sang truce, for the night cloud had lowered,
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;
And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered,
The weary to sleep and the wounded to die."

The management of the troops as they moved from the field of battle was a picture of skill and genralship. The Ninth Corps moved off first, devolving the duty of protecting the rear upon the troops of General White. They were hotly pursued by the enemy, who hoped to break the retreat into a run; but not a man quickened his pace, and their lines, dressed as when marching in review, gave evidence of the utter disregard of personal safety to save the honor of three days' fighting and toil. The enemy made use of every advantage he thought he could gain, but not a move did he make that escaped the quick glance of division or brigade commander; who would face about or change his front as the occasion required, delivering a few volleys so well directed as o check and drive back the enemy utterly discomforted. For two miles this military game was played with such success by the Second Brigade as o cause the rebel chief to draw off, virtually acknowledging himself checkmated at the game he began and seemed anxious to play.

This retreat over that field was a sight so grand and beautiful in its management that it attracted the attention of every officer and man who could leave his command to witness it. The heights in front and on the rear wee filled with persons of high and low rank, almost grown boisterous with pleasurable excitement as each move of troops of General White showed them the discomforted enemy falling back to assume a new offensive movement, and to meet the same fate as before. General Burnside, who witnessed its management, pronounced it a masterly effort against such numbers.

Night coming on, the enemy growing less troublesome, colonel Chapin, commanding the brigade, who had been unwell for a number of days, but had refused to leave the field while the enemy was in front, was not suffering so that he was ordered to quit his post, and the command devolved upon Col. W. E. Hobson, of the Thirteenth Kentucky, who led the men from the field and conducted the retreat to Knoxville.

Of Colonel Chapin, commanding the Second brigade, I need not add to what I have said. His excellent management of the troops upon three field and his personal bravery have attached him to his men as few commanders are attached. His staff, Captains Gallup and Sheldon and Lieutenant Pearson, are worthy followers of their brave leader.