Today in History:

173 Series I Volume XI-II Serial 13 - Peninsular Campaign Part II

Page 173 Chapter XXIII. SEVEN-DAYS' BATTLES.

Lieutenant J. H. Butler, Second Artillery, was very cool, brave, and active, and I am greatly indebted to him for the efficient condition of the battery before the battle. Lieutenant J. S. Dudley, Second Artillery, and Lieutenant J. C. Schuetz, Second Michigan, had charge of sections, and behaved admirably.

Respectfully submitted.

JAMES THOMPSON,

Captain, U. S. Army.

To the ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL.

Headquarters Third Division, [Third Corps.]

[Indorsements.]

*I should rather say that the time was 7.30 p.m.

P. KEARNY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

+I have to complain that Captain Thompson made no report to me of this accident to his piece at the time, though immediately in front of where the pieces had been firing. A small detail of men-even his

own artillerists-should have taken it off. I was ignorant of his loss for twenty-four hours and only learned it by rumor.

P. KEARNY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

Respectfully forwarded.

The court of inquiry asked for at my suggestion should examine this loss of piece, never reported and most easy to be saved. Our line never once broke, but held their ground. I was with Colonel Hays for more than half an hour after retiring of Thompson's pieces. Captain Thompson was brave in action, negligent afterward.

P. KEARNY,

Brigadier-General.


No. 65. Reports of Brigadier General John C. Robinson,

U. S. Army, commanding First Brigade, of the engagement at Oak Grove, or King's School-House, and battles of Glendale, or Nelson's Farm [Frazier's Farm], and Malvern Hill.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, KEARNY'S DIVISION, THIRD CORPS, June 26, 1862.

GENERAL: In compliance with instructions received from you I left camp yesterday morning at 7.30 o'clock with three regiments of my brigade, for the purpose of extending our line of pickets in conjunction with those of Hooker's division. On entering the woods in front of the abatis I deployed four companies of the Sixty-third Pennsylvania as skirmishers, with six companies as reserves, following in three columns. This regiment was followed by the Twentieth Indiana, ready to support. The Eighty-seventh New York was held in reserve at the edge of the wood. My skirmishers soon became engaged with the enemy's pickets and drove them back on their supports, when the firing becoming brisk and the right of my line of skirmishers being for a moment repulsed, I ordered forward the Eighty-seventh New York. The


Page 173 Chapter XXIII. SEVEN-DAYS' BATTLES.