and many men rested against it from time to time; pretty soon a rebel battery commenced firing solid shot at it, making the knapsacks fly in all directions, but doing no other harm. For a while it was a pastime to watch the solid shot coming through the air, and one ball was especially noticed, going apparently straight toward a man crossing the large open field to the rear, coming from the hospital probably; the ball seemed to strike in front of and close to the man, ricochetted and passed over the man, who at the same time made a profound obeisance; to all appearances the ball would have decapitated him, had the man been erect; a shout of laughter, seemingly from all parts of the field, at the ludicrousness of the scene, relieved the anxious feeling of suspense. But what a closing and beginning of a year was that! A large number of officers and men, in fact all, were without rations on the 1st and 2d, and parched corn, horse and mule steaks were in demand and appreciated; the double quick back from near Stewart’s Creek was doubly hard on empty stomachs; at last, on the evening of the 2d, some bacon, flour and coffee were received and helped to tide the command over the worst; though the men were hungry, they were in the best possible spirits. When on the 2d the brigade advanced by the right of companies double quick to the front, one man, seeing a solid shot rolling along very leisurely, put his foot out to stop it; the opposing forces did not overcome each other, and, the shot being stronger, the man found himself nicely tripped and rolling along with the ball, much to his surprise, and, not being injured, to the merriment of his comrades. The Battalion Quartermasters, with the teamsters, servants, cooks and sick, defended their trains against the charges of rebel cavalry repeatedly, repulsing the enemy every time, and saving and preserving their trains. Of the three rebel brigades of Jackson, Preston and Adams, General Bragg, the commander of their army, says: “How gallantly they moved to their work, and how much they suffered in the determined effort to accomplish it, will best appear from the reports of subordinate commanders, and the statement of losses therewith.” This shows some of the work done by the Regular Brigade, and later by its battery repulsing the determined charge of these troops on to the left of the line of battle. General Thomas, when asked why he sent the brigade into the cedars, a regular holocaust, replied that it became a necessity to do so.

The casualties in the brigade were fearful, and almost all were suffered at noon of, and all occurred on, the 31st of December.

The following statement is taken from official sources, and shows the casualties in the brigade in detail: