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276 Series I Volume XXXIX-I Serial 77 - Allatoona Part I

Page 276 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter LI.

the regiment during the battles did good and meritorious service. Several cases of sunstroke occurred during the battles of 14th and 15th, which prostrated the sufferers during the remainder of the march.

For a full list of casualties, I would refer you to the list sent in immediately after the fights. *

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WM. H. HEATH,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Regiment.

Lieutenant Henry HOOVER,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, THIRD Brigade, First DIVISION.


Numbers 16. Report of Colonel Lyman M. Ward, Fourteenth Wisconsin Infantry, commanding Fourth Brigade.


HDQRS. FOURTH Brigadier, FIRST DIV., 16TH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tenn., July 24, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my command in the recent expedition to Tupelo:

The Fourth Brigade, consisting of the Fourteenth and Thirty-THIRD Regiments Wisconsin Infantry, the non-veteran detachment of the Forty-first Illinois Infantry, and Battery M, First Missouri Light Artillery, moved out from Memphis to Moscow, Tenn., on the 2nd and 24th of June, the infantry by rail and the artillery by road. June 27, 1864, marched from Moscow to La Grange. July 5 to July 11, inclusive, my brigade with the crest of the DIVISION marched from La Grange, Tenn., to Pontotoc, Miss., by way of Ripley.

July 13, 1864, the expedition marched from Pontotoc by the Tupelo road. My brigade having the rear of the First DIVISION, I was directed by Brigadier-General Mower to guard the general supply train with my infantry the battery to march for that day with the THIRD Brigade. I divided my command into companies of about twenty- five men each, and distributed it along the right flank of the supply train and the train of my brigade, one company to each six wagons. Just after crossing a little creek, running through a wide bottom about nine miles from Pontotoc, and while Colonel Bouton's brigade of colored troops was engaged with the enemy in the rear, I received an order from General Mower to withdraw the Thirty-THIRD from the flank of the train and march it an rear, taking immediate command myself; also, to cover the flank of the train with the remaining force as far as it would reach, which I did, thus leaving about one-quarter of the train with no flankers from my command. No demonstration was made upon the train until about 2 p. m., while passing a point where a branch of the Okolona road intersects the Tupelo road, about eight miles from Tupelo. Here the flankers from the Fourteenth Wisconsin Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel James W. Polleys commanding, were furiously assaulted by a brigade of the enemy's cavalry, which I subsequently learned was commanded by Colonel Duff, of the Nineteenth [Eighth] Mississippi. The attack was made about a quarter of a mile from the rear of the train. Colonel Polleys assembled his men and held his position gallantly, his line formed parallel with the train facing from the road. I immediately directed Lieutenant Colonel F. S. Lovell, commanding Thirty-THIRD Wisconsin Infantry, to move his regiment forward at the double-quick and take

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* See table, p. 254.

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Page 276 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter LI.