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848 Series I Volume XXX-I Serial 50 - Chickamauga Part I

Page 848 KY.,SW.VA.,TENN.,MISS.,N.ALA., AND N.GA. Chapter XLII.

Attached to this report I forward you a full and complete list of the casualties,* with rank, &c.

I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. H. WOOD,

Lieutenant Colonel Comdg. Fifty-first Ohio Volunteers.

Captain WILLIAM H. CATCHING,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, Third Brigade, Third Division.


Numbers 196.

Report of Colonel Peter T. Swaine, Ninety-ninth Ohio Infantry.

HDQRS. NINETY-NINTH OHIO VOLUNTEERS, Chattanooga, Tenn., September 26, 1863.

SIR: In giving a report of the operations of my command, I must preface by saying it varied from a regiment to a brigade.

On the 4th instant, my regiment crossed the Tennessee River [Lieutenant Colonel John E. Cummins being back with 139 officers and men escorting a train].

Marched on the 5th to Whiteside's; 6th, to Murphy's Valley; 8th, to Trenton Valley; 9th, to Rossville, Chattanooga Valley; 10th, to within 6 miles of Ringgold; 11th, through Ringgold and 3 miles beyond, fighting rear guard of enemy all day [was joined by Colonel Cummins' command that night]; 12th, to Gordon's Mills; 13th, made part of a reconnoitering force under the division commander to feel the enemy, the reconnaissance resulting in a sharp skirmish with the enemy; 14th, to within 16 miles of Chattanooga, in Chattanooga Valley; 15th, to a position about 2 miles beyond Crawfish Spring, on the West Chickamauga Creek; there we remained on the 16th, 17th, and 18th, our pickets on the latter day having a very lively skirmish with the cavalry and artillery of the enemy.

That night we were marched back to Gordon's Mills, and on the morning of the 19th we participated in the great battle.

Soon after daylight I was placed in command of the Thirteenth Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Mast; the Eighty-sixth Indiana, Major Dick; Stevens' [Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania] battery; a section of Swallow's [Seventh Indiana] battery, and the Ninety-ninth Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Cummins, and occupied a very prominent and commanding position on the creek, from which point the batteries did good execution in silencing the enemy's guns and preventing them from establishing batteries. This command was ordered by detachments farther to the left, and I was ordered with my regiment to join my brigade, then on its advance upon the enemy. I was placed in command of the second line, the Thirty-fifth Indiana, Major Dufficy, and the Ninety-ninth Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Cummins.

The first line soon got hotly engaged with the enemy, driving them for about 1,200 yards, part of the distance through a dense thicket of trees and underbrush. Suddenly a heavy force of the enemy appeared in their front an, as I afterward heard, on their flank, compelling those two brave regiments [the Eighth Kentucky and Fifty-

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*Nominal list omitted; see revised statement, p.177.

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Page 848 KY.,SW.VA.,TENN.,MISS.,N.ALA., AND N.GA. Chapter XLII.