Leonard F. Ross to Seventeenth Illinois, February 25, 1862

In obedience to your order requiring a report of the movements and operations of the troops under my command during the investment and siege of this place I have the honor to submit the following:

On Saturday, the 15th instant, at about 1 o’clock p. m., I reported

myself to you for duty, and was at once assigned to the command of a y * See p. 182, d

. brigade composed of the Seventeenth and Forty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Soon after taking command I was ordered to the right of our line for the purpose of supporting General Wallace, who was engaging the enemy on that part of the field. On reporting the re-enforcements so sent to General Wallaee I by his order took position on his left and advaneed, first sending forward two companies deployed as “skirmishers. We continued to advance until we reached the summit of a hill previously occupied by Taylors battery, the skirmishers having advanced meantime beyond the summit of the hill in view of the enemy’s batteries, and drew from them a heavy discharge of grape, canister, and shrapnel. ‘The space between our lines and the works of the enemy being examined, and no enemy appearing in the intervening space, I ordered my eommand to fall baek about twenty paces behind the summit to a more secure position, holding the two companies of skirmishers as an advance guard. This position we continued to occupy until dark, when by your order I withdrew for the night.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,