Today in History:

472 Series I Volume XLVII-I Serial 98 - Columbia Part I

Page 472 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.

connection with the rest of the Second Brigade, First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, &c., left camp at Savannah, Ga., on special campaign through the interior of the Confederacy, arriving at Sister's Ferry, Ga., on the 29th.

We crossed the Savannah River into South Carolina, on the 5th of February, 1865, marching in the direction of Columbia, S. C., crossing the Augusta and Charleston Railroad at White Pond Station on the 12th, arriving to within about four miles of Columbia on the 16th, when we were ordered to march in the direction of Charlotte, N. C. After going within about ten miles of Chesterville, we moved in the direction of Goldsborough, crossing the Catawba River at Rocky Mount Post-Office. On the 28th the Sixty-ninth crossed in pontoon-boats about midnight, after guarding the crossing until the pontoon bridge was taken up.

On the 7th of March we crossed the Great Pedee River about ten miles above Cheraw, and also the Cape Fear River on the 13th at Fayetteville. On the 19th we came up with and engaged a force of the enemy, as we thought cavalry; but it proved to be a large force of infantry, which the First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, charged and were handsomely repulsed with a heavy loss on the Sixty-ninth. The rebels then charged and drove us about half a mile, when they were checked and driven back by the Second Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, and troops from the Twentieth Army Corps. In the night the rebels left, and we marched to Goldsborough on the 23rd, thus ending the most glorious campaign of the war.

The loss of the regiment during the campaign was as follows. *

During the entire campaign from Sister's Ferry only about ten days' rations were issued to the men, depending almost entirely for subsistence on the resources of the country.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. J. RARICK,

Captain, Commanding Sixty-ninth Ohio Veteran Vol. Infantry.


Numbers 79. Report of Lieutenant Colonel David Miles, Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania Infantry, commanding Third Brigade, of operations January 20-March 19.


HDQRS. THIRD Brigadier, FIRST DIV., 14TH ARMY CORPS,
Goldsborough, N. C., March 28, 1865.

SIR: In compliance with order from headquarters First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, I have the honor to report the operations of the Third Brigade, First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, from the time of leaving Savannah until the 19th day of March, 1865.

This brigade, composed of the Twenty-First Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, Thirty-eighth Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry, Seventy-fourth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, and Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, under my command, moved by order on the 20th day of January, 1865, with the division on the Macon road.

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* Nominal list (omitted) shows 4 men killed, 1 officer and 19 men wounded, and 1 officer and 5 men captured or missing.

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Page 472 OPERATIONS IN N. C., S. C., S. GA., AND E. FLA. Chapter LIX.