Today in History:

1186 Series I Volume XLVI-I Serial 95 - Appomattox Campaign Part I

Page 1186 N. AND SE. VA., N.C., W.VA.,MD., AND PA. Chapter LVIII.

infantry. At this point I halted my brigade and prepared to charge the fort. The Third and Fourth Brigades moving up, formed on my left at 12.15 p.m. At 1 p.m. orders were received to move forward and carry the enemy's works. I moved my command forward about half the distance, in quick time, at right shoulder shift arms, and having passed a deep and difficult slough, gave the command charge, when the brigade, with cheers, swept up the ascent at the double-quick, under a terrible fire of grape, canister, and minie-balls tearing through the ranks. The Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, moving straight forward, struck the front and the angle of the fort on the left, and next the angle on the road; the Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteers striking the angle on the road; the Sixty-second Ohio Volunteers and One hundred and ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers striking this angle and the angle farther on the right, swept around to the rear, striving to gain an entrance, but it was found to be an inclosed fort, admirably constructed for defense. The men rushed into the moat and clambering up the extreme slope fought hand-to-hand across the parapaet with the enemy, who stubbornly refused to surrender although surrounded on all sides. The fighting lasted twenty-four minutes when we finally burst over the parapets, and the fort was ours. The redoubts on the right of the fort was also carried in the charge by a portion of the skirmish line of the Sixty-second Ohio Volunteers, assisted by two companies of the One hundred and ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers which had been detached for this purpose, capturing a number of prisoners, together with two cannon and five caissons.

In this assault upon Fort Gregg, Captain Patrick O'Murphy and First Lieutenant Robert McMillan, One hundred and ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, were killed, as also First Lieutenant William M. Lamb, Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers. Captain O. M. Eddy and Captain Ansell, Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteers, Lieutenant Neal, Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, Captain Gregory and Captain Bippers, Lieutenants Williams, Patton, and Ellison, One hundred and ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, Captain Hitchcock and Lieutenant Murray, Sixty-second Ohio Volunteers, were wounded. The One hundred and ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers lost 14 enlisted men killed and 60 wounded; the Sixty-second Ohio Volunteers, 3 enlisted men killed and 25 wounded; the Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, 19 enlisted men killed and 44 wounded; the Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteers, 7 enlisted men killed and 54 wounded.

At 8 a.m. on the morning of the 3rd of April the brigade moved at the head of the division, the right in front, and marched toward Luynchburg, bivouacking for the night about eighteen miles distant from Petersburg. On the 4th instant reached Wilson's Station, halting at Ford's Station for dinner. On the 5th, after a long and tedious march of twenty-five miles, marching by way of Nottoway Court-House, we arrived at Burke's Station at 11 p.m.

At 1 p.m. on the 6th of April we marched, in accordance with orders, toward Rice's Station; arriving there we found the enemy in heavy force throwing up entrenchments at the station to oppose us. In accordance with orders drom the general commanding, throwing forward skirmishers, I formed line of battle and moved forward the Sixty-second Ohio Volunteers and One hundred and ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, a little to the left and in advance of the Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, which was held in reserve, its right resting upon the railroad, the Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteers upon the right of the Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, the railroad intervening, and connecting


Page 1186 N. AND SE. VA., N.C., W.VA.,MD., AND PA. Chapter LVIII.