Today in History:

731 Series I Volume XXX-II Serial 51 - Chickamauga Part II

Page 731 Chapter XLII. CHALMERS' RAID.


No. 20.-Captain H. L. Duncan, First Mississippi Partisan Rangers.


No. 21.-Lieutenant Colonel W. L. Duckworth, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry.


No. 22.-Lieutenant Colonel Rober A. McCulloch, Second Missouri Cavalry.


No. 23.-Lieutenant David A. Richards, McLendon's (Mississippi) battery.


No. 24.-Colonel R. V. Richardson, Twelfth Tennessee Cavalry, commanding

brigade.


No. 25.-Lieutenant Colonel James U. Green, Twelfth Tennessee Cavalry.


No. 26.-Colonel James J. Neely, Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry.


No. 27.-Colonel James Z. George, Fifth Mississippi Cavalry.


No. 28.-Lieutenant H. C. Holt, Buckner (Mississippi) Battery.


Numbers 1.

Report of Major General William T. Sherman, U. S. Army, commanding Fifteenth Army Corps.


HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Corinth, Miss., October 14, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on Sunday, the 11th instant,
having sent forward all my troops, partly in cars and mostly by land, owing to the small capacity of the railroad, I started in a special train with my personal staff and the battalion of the Thirteenth U. S. Regulars, Captain C. C. Smith commanding. At 12 noon we reached Collierville, and, observing signs of danger, the train was stopped.

Colonel Anthony, of the Sixty-sixth Indiana, commanded at Collierville, and soon reported that his pickets had that moment been either captured or driven in by a large force of Confederate cavalry. I directed the regulars to get off the cars, and the train to back to the depot. A flag of truce was seen approaching from the direction of the enemy, and Colonel Anthony, who met it, sent me word, by Captain Dayton, of my staff, that General Chalmers, of the Confederate Army, had sent his adjutant to demand the surrender of the place. I instructed him to return an emphatic negation, and at once made preparations to resist the attack. The battalion of regulars consisted of eight small companies, aggregate, 260, and Colonel Anthony had six companies of the Sixty-sixth Indiana, aggregate, 240. These were disposed, three companies of the regulars in the ditch outside a small earth-work near the depot, and the balance in the wood near the railroad cut, to the east and south of the fort. One company of the Sixty-sixth Indiana was inside the fort, one in the depot building, and the balance outside in the wood to the west and south, and in rifle-pits behind the fort near their regimental camp.

The enemy at once opened with artillery from a ridge overlooking our entire position, throwing canister, 6-pounder round shot, and rifled solid projectiles. They also threw a few shells at us, but their artillery fire was principally aimed at our train, disabling the locomotive and damaging some of the cars, killing and wounding 8 of our horses. Two columns passed the railroad on either side of us, breaking the telegraphic wire, and burning three small trestles of the railroad. A pretty brisk fire of small-arms was kept up for a couple of hours, the enemy approaching under cover of the ground, woods, and depot building to within about 75 yards of the fort, but at no time did he attempt to assault the fort. We had no artillery,


Page 731 Chapter XLII. CHALMERS' RAID.