but said nothing about my own action.  I must, therefore, report it myself or let it go unrecorded.  Distasteful as it is to me, I deem it duty to my children to state the facts and my claims based thereon, as follows: 

1.  I was ordered to put two companies in the firing line.  Before this line advanced the brigade commander informed me, and personal examination verified, that my right was in the air and exposed.  On my own judgment I ordered a company, as flankers, to that part of the line.

2.  As soon as the line had rested and become steadied at its first halt I ordered it to advance, and it continued to advance, although it broke away from the rest of the brigade.

3.  As this exposed the left to a galling and dangerous fire, I ordered, on my own judgment, a company to re-enforce that part of the line and a company from the regimental reserve also to the fighting line.

     These are the facts, and as my orders were to keep my left
     joined to the right of the Fourth Infantry, and received no
     further orders, my claims are as follows: 

     1.  That it was necessary to place a company on the right as
     flankers.

     2.  That the conditions offered an opportunity to advance
     after the first halt, and I took advantage of it.

     3.  That the left being exposed by this advance of the line
     beyond the rest of the brigade, it was proper and necessary
     to re-enforce it by two companies.

     4.  That the two companies first deployed could not have
     reached the stone fort.

     5.  That the three companies added to the firing line gave it
     the power to reach the fort.

6.  That the advance beyond the rest of the brigade was a bold and, without support, dangerous movement, but that the result justified the act.  Had it failed I would have been held responsible.

     7.  That I saw at each stage of the battle what ought to be
     done, and did it.  Results show that it was done at the right
     moment.

     8.  That the Twenty-fifth Infantry caused the surrender of
     the stone fort.

     I desire to repeat that it is with great reluctance that I
     make so much of this report as relates to myself, and
     nothing but a sense of duty would impel me to do it.

     Very respectfully,

     A.S.  DAGGETT,
     Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Commanding.

LOSSES OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.

     Killed.—­Lieutenant H.L.  McCorkle, Company G; Private Albert
     Strother, H; Private John W. Steele, D; Corporal Benj. 
     Cousins, H; Private John B. Phelps, D; Private French Payne,
     B; Private Aaron Leftwich, G; Private Tom Howe, D.