"On the nineteenth instant, I reported the operations of this division in taking from the enemy the positions at Russel's. After driving the enemy away, we found it one of great natural strength, and proceeded to fortify it. Lines were laid off by the engineer, Captain Kossak, and a very excellent parapet was constructed by the men in a style that elicited the approval of General Halleck. Men worked day and night, and as soon as it was done and the dense trees and undergrowth cleared away in front, to give range to our batteries, I directed our pickets to drive the enemy further back behind a large open field to our front and right. This was handsomely executed by the regular detail of picket-guard under the direction of the field-officer of the day, Lieutenant-Colonel Loudon of the Seventieth Ohio. "We remained in that intrenched camp at Russell's until the night of the 27th, when I received from Major-General Halleck an order by telegraph 'to send a force the next day to drive the Rebels from the house in our front on the Corinth road, to drive in their pickets as far as possible, and to make a strong demonstration on Corinth itself,' authorizing me to call on any adjacent divisions for assistance; I asked General McClernand for one brigade and General Hurlbut for another to co-operate with two brigades of my own division. Colonel John A. Logan's Brigade of General Judah's Division of McClernand's Reserve Corps, and General Veatch's Brigade of Hurlbut's Division, were placed subject to my orders, and took part with my own division in the operations of the two following days, and I now thank the officers and men of these brigades for the zeal and enthusiasm they manifested, and the alacrity they displayed in the execution of every order given. "The house referred to by General Halleck was a double log building, standing on a high ridge on the upper or southern end of the large field before referred to as the one to which we had advanced our pickets. The enemy had taken out the chinks and removed the roof, making it an excellent block-house from which, with perfect security, he could annoy our pickets. The large field was perfectly overlooked by this house, as well as by the ridge along its southern line of defence, which was covered by a dense grove of heavy oaks and underbrush. The main Corinth road runs along the eastern fence, whilst the field itself, about three hundred yards wide by about five hundred yards long, extended far to the right into the low land of Phillips's Creek, so densely wooded as to be impassable to troops or artillery. On the eastern side of the field the woods were more open. The enemy could be seen at all times in and about the house and the ridge beyond, and our pickets could not show themselves on our side of the field without attracting a shot.