Today in History:

221 Series I Volume XI-I Serial 12 - Peninsular Campaign Part I

Page 221 Chapter XXIII. GENERAL REPORTS.


Numbers 12. Report's of Major Albert J. Myer, Chief Signal Officer.

CAMP NEAR HARRISON'S LANDING, VA., July 18, 1862.

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following preliminary report of service rendered by officers and men of the Signal Corps since the date of my communication of June 22.*

The following-named officers have been exposed under fire in the discharge of their duties during the recent movement of this army, and in the engagements of June 25, 26, 27, 29, and 30, and July 1. In each case the officers have well performed the duties on which they were ordered, often under circumstances of dangerous exposure:

In the engagement of June 25, with General F. J. Porter's heavy batteries on our right and with General Hooker's advance near the Williamsburg road: First Lieutenant W. S. Stryker, Twelfth West Virginia Camp, Fourth New Jersey, at General Porter's batteries. Second Lieutenant W. G. McCreary, One hundred and second Pennsylvania, and E. A. Denicke, Cameron Rifles, New York Volunteers, with General Hooker, near Williamsburg.

At Mechanicsville, June 26: First Lieuts. B. F. Fisher, Third Pennsylvania Reserves, and F. Birney, Twenty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers. Second Lieuts. J. C. Wiggins, Third New Jersey; F. Horner Sixth new Jersey, and Isaac Beckett, Fifty-sixth New York.

At the battle of Gaines' Mill, June 27: First Lieuts. B. F. Fisher, Third Pennsylvania Reserves, and F. Birney, Twenty-third Pennsylvania Reserves, and F. Birney, Twenty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers. Second Lieuts. J. Glosky, Twenty-ninth New York Volunteers; J. C. Wiggins, Third New Jersey; N. H. Camp, Fourth New Jersey, and F. Horner, Sixth New Jersey.

At the battle of Savage Station, June 29: Second Lieuts. J. C. Wiggins. Third New Jersey Volunteers; N. H. Camp, Fourth New Jersey Volunteers; F. W. Marston, Fortieth Pennsylvania Volunteers; W. H. R. Neel. Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers; D. S. Tomkins, Fifth Michigan, and E. A. Denicke, Cameron Rifles, New York Volunteers.

At the battle of Malvern Hill, June 30: First Lieutenant L. B. Norton and G. H. McNary, Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves; F. Birney, Twenty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, and Second Lieutenant J. F. Robbins, Ninety sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers.

At the battle of Malvern, Hill, July 1: First Lieuts. B. F. Fisher, Third Pennsylvania Reserves; F. Ellis, Forty-second New York Volunteers, and Charles Herzog, Forty-first New York Volunteers; Second Lieuts. Joseph Gloskosky, Twenty-ninth New York Volunteers, and F. W. Marston, Fortieth Pennsylvania Volunteers.

The officers have been chiefly under artillery fire, which they have encountered from almost every variety of caliber and in almost every degree of intensity. They have been screened whenever it was practicable from musketry fire. There have been narrow escapes, but no casualties. Two of the officers have been touched, their clothing torn by fragments of shell.

The service of the following-named officers entitle them to especial mention:

At the evacuation of the base of operations at White House Point, Va., and while that point was threatened with attack by the enemy,


Page 221 Chapter XXIII. GENERAL REPORTS.