Today in History:

933 Series I Volume XXX-III Serial 52 - Chickamauga Part III

Page 933 Chapter XLII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

I know this to be the case, as I was on my front till near 10 p.m. last evening, superintending the construction of abatis.

Respectfully, &c.,

TH. J. WOOD,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding.

P. S.-My picket officer report the pickets in good condition, the line undisturbed, and no news. No firing on my front during the night.

TH. J. WOOD,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding.


HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION,
Chattanooga, Tenn., September 29, 1863-5.30 p.m.

Brig. General T. J. WOOD,

Commanding First Division:

GENERAL: In obedience to your order I have watched the movements of the enemy in your front to-day. I have the honor to report a battery of five guns (appear to be 6-pounders), almost south of the fort, put into position about 2 o'clock p.m. Some kind of works are being made for the battery, but not completed yet. Clouds of dust have been visible since 11 o'clock a.m. on the right. Could see no troops moving. The usual lines of infantry are in your front, but quiet.

Respectfully, sir,

J. L. YARYAN,

Aide-de-camp.


HDQRS. SECOND BRIG., SECOND DIV., 21ST ARMY CORPS,
Chattanooga, September 29, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel C. GODDARD,

Assistant Adjutant-General, &c.:

On the evening of the 18th instant, at Crawfish Spring, the major-general commanding this department, in the presence of the Assistant Secretary of War of the United States, of a Senator of the United States, and of some half dozen major-generals of the army, saw proper, as I hold, without any just cause, to pass public censure upon me, by stating that, by failing to show proper respect to a division commander of this army, by negligence in my duties, and a failure to promptly obey my orders, and by not permitting myself to be relieved when an officer was sent by him to relieve me, I had greatly detained the movements of two corps of the army and greatly imperiled the safety of another.

From the fact that the accusations have great gravity; that the general commanding would not heed my plain statement of facts concerning the matter at the time, and that they were made in a tone and spirit I never before listened to (and did so then only from the fact that we were upon the eve of an important engagement and from deep solicitude for the interests of the country), I feel it incumbent upon me to state plainly and respectfully that the attack was groundless, as I will attempt to show by appended papers, was harsh and oppressive because made at a time when personal redress


Page 933 Chapter XLII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.