Extract of a letter from an Officer in Colonel Atlee' s Battalion

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I have just now come over to this place about some business, and embrace the opportunity of letting you know that I wrote you on the 27th instant, giving you some particulars of our engagement. I now have to acquaint you that the enemy, endeavouring to force our lines, met with a warmer reception than they thought of; for the batteries began to play, and mowed them down like grass, when they retreated, and our Army cried out, the day is our own; but am sorry to inform you that Generals Sullivan and Stirling are taken prisoners, and that we have missing (which I apprehend are also taken) Colonel Atlee, Captain Howell, Captain Herbert, Captain Murray, and Captain Nice, Lieutenant Finney, Ensign Hustin, and Dr˙ Davis, with eighty privates; so you may judge what a miserable battalion we must have. There is also missing from the Rifle battalion Colonel Miles and Colonel Piper, with several other officers, whose names I have not as yet heard, and a number of privates. The enemy, by accounts which we have received, have lost (killed, wounded, and taken prisoners) about eight hundred men, among whom is General Grant killed. We expect every hour a second engagement, which I pray God may be more prosperous on our side than the last; for besides what I have mentioned, the Delaware and Maryland battalions suffered much.