Transcription:
consist of my own regt.- 15th Ark. and a
section of Captain Herod's battery of light artilery
under the command of Lieut. Edrington with two gun
detachments numbering about twenty five men.
I had only two hundred and sixty two men
(infantry) rank and file for duty in my regiment,
and thirty one commissioned officers.
The position was wholy without earthworks
or fortifications of any kind. Lieuts Dabney and
Fenth [?] located a line of earthworks on the north
side of my camp - a more full description of
which will soon fully appear by their report to
you - as engineers. I at once ordered my men [?] entire
Regt. to work upon this line, as it was planned &
so continued to work until the evening of the 24th
of May. I was during this time assisted by dif-
ferent fatigue parties from other commands who
continued to assist me up to the night of the 26th
May, after which time I received no assistance,
but furnished a detail to work elsewhere myself
On the evening of the 24th May my working parties
were driven from their work by the skirmishes of the
the enemy who had approached within four hundred yards
of my line. I ordered Captain Franklin with his company
- Co. C. - of my regt. to engage and drive the enemy from
my front and keep him off until dark.
