No. 52.
Report of Brig. Gen. James J. Archer, C. S. Army, commanding _____ Brigade.
Headquarters Archer’s Brigade,
General A. P. Hill’s Light Division,
August 14, 1862.
Major: I have the honor to report that early in the morning of the 9th instant I marched with my brigade, about 1,200 strong, constituting a part of Major-General Hill’s division, from Orange Court-House toward the battle-field. On arriving near the point where General Jackson’s division was already engaged, I proceeded to form line of battle in the woods to the left of Branch’s brigade, which completed its formation and advanced before my line was half formed. Supposing that I would be wanted in front immediately, I moved forward with the First Tennessee and Nineteenth Georgia Regiments, Fifth Alabama Battalion and Seventh Tennessee in line, leaving the Fourteenth Tennessee, which was in rear, to come up into line and overtake the brigade as it best could. I advanced several hundred yards in this manner, obliquing toward the right in order to get near the left of Branch’s brigade, when I overtook its left regiment, which had become separated from its main body. In passing to the front of this regiment my line became somewhat broken, and I halted a few minutes for it to reform. During the time thus employed Colonel Forbes’ Fourteenth Tennessee Regiment came up into line, and I rode to the road, about 50 yards on my right, to ascertain whether they were our own or the enemy’s troops firing there. I found it was Branch’s brigade in the open field on the right of the road, and in a line even with that of my own, halted and firing at an enemy in front. I rapidly returned to my brigade to move it forward, when I met Captain Taylor with orders from General Hill to advance. Immediately after, on reaching the edge of the wood, we encountered the long-range fire of the enemy posted in the margin of another wood beyond a wheat field. My brigade halted here and commenced a rapid fire, which it was several minutes before I could arrest and move the brigade forward across the open field. In crossing this field I was exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy, who, from their position in the woods, were comparatively safe. My loss here was 19 killed and 116 wounded. After entering the wood and in passing through it, my two left regiments met and became to some extent mixed with the right of General Pender’s brigade, which was sweeping through from the left oblique across my course. From this point, by agreement between us, General Pender and I commanded the two brigades together without regard to the proper brigades to which the regiments belonged, he taking the right and I the left. I did not again meet with any opposition, but took a number of prisoners and continued the pursuit until night.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. J. ARCHER,
Brigadier-General.
Maj. R. C. Morgan,
Assistant Adjutant-General, A. P. Hill’s Division.
P. S. — I beg to refer to the list of killed and wounded sent in yesterday.•
*Embodied in No. 27.