Today in History:

416 Series I Volume XIX-I Serial 27 - Antietam Part I

Page 416 OPERATIONS IN N. VA., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter XXXI.

formed in good order, after delivering two well-directed volleys into the enemy. I think there was nearly if not quite a brigade of the enemy so near the right of my regiment that you could see the white of their eyes at the time of retiring, and that they disappeared again so soon under the cover of the timber convinces me that the well-directed volleys of the Seventy-seventh and the Thirty-first New York, which was on my right, dealt destruction to their souls.

After getting our new position the enemy's shot and shell fell thick around us, and quite a number of my men were wounded, but my officers and men behaved nobly through the entire day, even amidst the most galling fire and shelling of the enemy. To particularize the bravery and manly conduct of every one of my officers would do injustice to those not mentioned, and so I leave it to you to judge, after giving you the casualties of my command, what portion of the honors of that victorious battle we are entitled to. Killed, 6; wounded, 26; total, 32.

Your obedient servant,

N. S. BABCOCK,

Captain, Commanding Seventy-seventh New York.

Colonel IRWIN,

Commanding Third Brigade.


No. 137. Reports of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, U. S. Army, commanding right wing, Army of the Potomac, of operations September 7-19.


HEADQUARTERS RIGHT WING, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Near Antietam Bridge, September 30, 1862.

GENERAL: I have the honor to report the following operations of my command during the late campaign of the Army of the Potomac in Maryland:

On the 7th day of September I was placed in command of the right wing of the army, composed of the Third and Ninth Army Corps, commanded respectively by Major-Generals Hooker and Reno, and, under the direction of the general commanding, I moved upon Frederick City by way of Leesborough, Brookville, and Damascus, arriving at the Monocacy Bridge in the afternoon of the 12th instant, which bridge was carried after a slight resistance on the part of the enemy. Very soon after, a charge was made by Cox's division upon Frederick City, then occupied by a small force of the enemy, which force was driven out, and the place and suburbs occupied by our troops.

Our loss in the skirmish was 2 killed and 7 prisoners, including Colonel Moor, of the Thirtieth [Twenty-eight] Ohio Regiment (Volunteers), who led the charge into the town. General Pleasonton's brigade of cavalry entered the town simultaneously with General Reno's corps, and the two commands at once occupied all the approached to the place. On the following morning General Pleasonton, being directed by the general commanding to move his forces in the direction of Middletown and Jefferson, with a view to reconnoitering the South Mountain passes and communicating with General Franklin, called upon me for infantry support to carry out the movements. A portion of General Rodman's division was sent to the main body under General Pleasonton, and the


Page 416 OPERATIONS IN N. VA., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter XXXI.