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304 Series I Volume XLV-I Serial 93 - Franklin - Nashville Part I

Page 304 KY.,SW.VA.,TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N.GA. Chapter LVII.


HDQRS. FORTY-NINTH OHIO VETERAN VOL. INFANTRY, Near Huntsville, Ala., January 8, 1865.

The following is a list of casualties occurring in this command in the battles Nashville, Tenn., December 15 and 16, 1864.*

[J. R. BARTLETT,
Captain, Commanding.]


No. 73. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Kimberly, Forty-first Ohio Infantry commanding Second Brigade, of operations December 15, 1864-January 5, 1865.

HEADQUARTERS FORTY-FIRST OHIO VETERAN INFANTRY, Huntsville, Ala., January 8, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Corps, in the battles before Nashville, December 15 and 16, and the subsequent pursuit of the enemy:

Until the assault of Overton's Knob, December 16, the brigade was commanded by Colonel P. S. Post, Fifty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, who was wounded in that assault while gallantly leading his brigade, and the command devolved upon me. At daylight on the 15th of December the brigade quitted its position on the Granny White pike and moved to the right, forming in front of the enemy's position at the burnt house. The Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Hart, was on the right of the first line; the Fifty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, Major Stookey, on the left; the One hundred and twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel J. Pickands, in the second line. The Forty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel R. L. Kimberly, was deployed as skirmishers, covering the front of the brigade, and the Ninety-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel D. Bowman, was left to hold the position the brigade occupied before leaving. Shortly after getting into position the brigade was ordered forward against the enemy's fortified position in front, which was carried without difficulty, the skirmish line clearing the rebel works without being checked, and pursuing the enemy nearly to his second line of works. The brigade was moved to a stone fence 200 yards beyond the house, and strengthened its line by throwing up a slight parapet of earth against the wall. The Forty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry was relieved from the skirmish line and placed on the left of the One hundred and twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the second line. At about 3 p.m. an advance was made upon the enemy's second line of works, which was gallantly carried by the Fifty-ninth Illinois Volunteers and Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in advance of the line on both flanks. These regiments sustained a considerable loss in this charge. The second line was moved up to occupy the captured works, and the first line promptly reformed. It was nearly dusk when the action ceased, and the brigade was then moved across the Granny White pike, taking a position nearly parallel to it, and facing the high ground on the Franklin pike, and entrenched.

Shortly after daylight on the 16th the brigade moved and formed on the left of, and perpendicular to, the Franklin pike, the Forty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, One hundred and twenty-fourth Ohio Volun-

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*Nominal list [omitted] shows 10 men killed, and 5 officers and 39 men wounded.

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Page 304 KY.,SW.VA.,TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N.GA. Chapter LVII.