Today in History:

178 Series I Volume XLVI-I Serial 95 - Appomattox Campaign Part I

Page 178 N. AND SE. VA., N. C., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter LVIII.


Numbers 12. Report of Captain William C. Faxon, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, commanding Fort Emery, of operations March 25.

FORT EMERY [VERY], VA.,

March 25, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to report that in the engagement this morning I fired thirty-three percussion shell - ten at a body of the enemy's troops occupying a position in rear of Fort Stedman and the remainder in reply to the 8-inch columbiad and light guns immediately in my front, which opened on this for and on our own troops passing in rear, and which open silenced. The firing on the enemy's troops was by direction of a major on the staff of Major-General Parke, who pointed out the position, and who reported that it did considerable damage to the enemy.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. C. FAXON,

Captain, First Connecticut Artillery, Commanding Battery.

Lieutenant W. S. MALONY,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Siege Batteries.


Numbers 13. Reports of Lieutenant Henry A. Pratt, First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, commanding Batteries Parsons and Wilcox, of operations January 23-24.

BATTERY PARSONS, VA.,

January 28, 1865.

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor to forward the following report of the part taken by Batteries Parsons and Wilcox in the late engagement with the rebel rams:

About 10 p. m. January 23 intelligence was brought that one ram had passed the picket-line and that another was in sight. Owing to the extreme darkness they were not visible from my batteries until close at hand. One was so far down that my guns could not be brought to bear upon it. I therefore opened on the lower one with my mortar and on the river above with my 100-pounder. The lower one put out anchor at the instructions and began to clear a passage. I placed six men at the river edge to watch them. To annoy the working party, my spare men opened with musketry. Lieutenant Bergin, in charge of the mortar, fired thirty-one rounds at the obstruction; of these twenty-nine burst a few feet above the water, just over the obstructions two did not burst. At about midnight the first ram passed the obstructions, and was soon followed by a second. Meantime the fire from the 100-pounder continued, but owing to the darkness it was impossible to observe the effect. After an hour or two the rams returned and returned and proceeded a short distance up the river. Two other boats were reported as lying together under the Howlett Battery, landing troops on the left bank of the river. Both batteries continued their fire until morning - the mortar firing with long forces at the rams; the gun directing an occasional shell at the rams when their smoke revealed their position,


Page 178 N. AND SE. VA., N. C., W. VA., MD., AND PA. Chapter LVIII.