I am ordered by General Grant to give personal credit where I think it is due, and censure where I think it merited.  I concede that General McCook’s splendid division from Kentucky drove back the enemy along the Corinth road, which was the great centre of this field of battle, where Beauregard commanded in person, supported by Bragg’s, Polk’s, and Breckenridge’s divisions.  I think Johnston was killed by exposing himself in front of his troops, at the time of their attack on Buckland’s brigade on Sunday morning; although in this I may be mistaken.

My division was made up of regiments perfectly new, nearly all having received their muskets for the first time at Paducah.  None of them had ever been under fire or beheld heavy columns of an enemy bearing down on them as they did on last Sunday.

To expect of them the coolness and steadiness of older troops would be wrong.  They knew not the value of combination and organization.  When individual fears seized them, the first impulse was to get away.  My third brigade did break much too soon, and I am not yet advised where they were during Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.  Colonel Hildebrand, its commander, was as cool as any man I ever saw, and no one could have made stronger efforts to hold his men to their places than he did.  He kept his own regiment with individual exceptions in hand, an hour after Appler’s and Mungen’s regiments had left their proper field of action.  Colonel Buckland managed his brigade well.  I commend him to your notice as a cool, intelligent, and judicious gentleman, needing only confidence and experience, to make a good commander.  His subordinates, Colonels Sullivan and Cockerill, behaved with great gallantry; the former receiving a severe wound on Sunday, and yet commanding and holding his regiment well in hand all day, and on Monday, until his right arm was broken by a shot.  Colonel Cookerill held a larger proportion of his men than any colonel in my division, and was with me from first to last.

Colonel J. A. McDowell, commanding the first brigade, held his ground on Sunday, till I ordered him to fall back, which he did in line of battle; and when ordered, he conducted the attack on the enemy’s left in good style.  In falling back to the next position, he was thrown from his horse and injured, and his brigade was not in position on Monday morning.  His subordinates, Colonels Hicks and Worthington, displayed great personal courage.  Colonel Hicks led his regiment in the attack on Sunday, and received a wound, which it is feared may prove mortal.  He is a brave and gallant gentleman, and deserves well of his country.  Lieutenant-Colonel Walcutt, of the Ohio Forty-sixth, was severely wounded on Sunday, and has been disabled ever since.  My second brigade, Colonel Stuart, was detached nearly two miles from my headquarters.  He had to fight his own battle on Sunday, against superior numbers, as the enemy interposed between him and General Prentiss early in the day.  Colonel Stuart was wounded severely, and yet reported for duty on Monday morning, but was compelled to leave during the day, when the command devolved on Colonel T. Kilby Smith, who was always in the thickest of the, fight, and led the brigade handsomely.