APRIL 19, 1862.- Engagement at South Mills, Camden County, N. C.

REPORTS, ETC.

Numbers 1.- Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, U. S. Army.

Numbers 2.- Brigadier General Jesse L. Reno, U. S. Army.

Numbers 3.- Colonel William A. Howard, First New York Marine Artillery.

Numbers 4.- Colonel Rush C. Hawkins, Ninth New York Infantry, commanding Fourth Brigade, with resulting correspondence.

Numbers 5.- Lieutenant Colonel Thomas S. Bell, Fifty-first Pennsylvania Infantry, commanding Second Brigade.

Numbers 6.- Lieutenant Colonel William S. Clark, Twenty-first Massachusetts Infantry.

Numbers 7.- Major Edwin Schall, Fifty-first Pennsylvania Infantry.

Numbers 8.- Major General Benjamin Huger, C. S. Army, with communications from General R. E. Lee.

Numbers 1. Report of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA,
New Berne, April 29, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose General Reno's report of the movement made by him, in accordance with my order, for the purpose of accomplishing certain objects already indicated in a former dispatch, the main one of which ws most successfully accomplished. General Reno's report gives a detailed account of the movement, and I need only add that I feel an increased confidence in the brave officers and soldiers who accomplished so much in so short a time.

Our loss in the engagement was 14 killed and 96 wounded and 2 taken prisoners.* The enemy's loss must have been much greater, as the chaplain of the Ninth New York, left in charge of the wounded, reports having seen on the field 30 killed besides several wounded, the main body of the wounded having been taken from then field when they retreated.

Our forces drove the enemy from field in a most gallant style, buried our dead, bivouacked on the field for seven hours, transported all the wounded, except 14 so severely wounded that they could not be moved, but were comfortably provided for and left in charge of a surgeon and chaplain.

General Reno then, in obedience to orders, returned to his fleet and embarked his men. He felt less reluctance in leaving behind these 14 wounded with the surgeon and chaplain from the fact that I had but a few days before released some 80 wounded, with the surgeons, who were left by the enemy in New Berne, and the commanding officer in that neighborhood would be less than human were he to refuse to release these wounded as soon as they can be transported safely.

I beg to inclose my congratulatory order with the report of General Reno; also the correspondence between the general and the commanding officer at South Mills.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General, Commanding Department of North Carolina.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington.

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* But see revised statement, p. 307.

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