Today in History:

286 Series I Volume XX-I Serial 29 - Murfreesborough Part I

Page 286 KY.,MID. AND E.TENN.,N.ALA., AND SW.VA. Chapter XXXII.

field, and to Orderly Sergt. Isaac P. Rule, for taking command of Company I from January 1 to January 5, Captain Barnes being sick and unfit for field duty.

First Lieut. Asa R. Hillyer and Second Lieut. John B. Biddle fell while heroically attempting to rally their men. The regiment has lost in them officers whose places cannot be filled, and the country patriots who served faithfully to the last.

The regiment is particularly indebted to Asst. Surg. Walter Caswell for gallantly staying by them under the heaviest fire.

We have now present for duty 10 commissioned officers and 178 enlisted men. Present, on detached service, 15 enlisted men, and report 19 enlisted me known to have gone to Nashville.

Respectfully,

I. M. KIRBY,

Major, Comdg. One hundred and first Regt. Ohio Vol. Infty.

Capt. SAMUEL P. VORIS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.


No. 27. Report of Col. William E. Woodruff, commanding Third Brigade.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, RIGHT WING, FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, January 5, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to report the operations of the Third Brigade, First Division, of the right wing, in the five days' battle before Murfreesborough.

This brigade having held the advanced position on Overall's Creek in the afternoon and night of Monday, December 29, was the base of formation for the line of battle on Tuesday morning. At an early hour on the morning of the 30th, I received instructions that we would move forward in line of battle.

I was directed to join my left with Brigadier-General Sill's brigade, holding the right of the Second Division, under

Brigadier-General Sheridan, and that Colonel Carlin, commanding the Second Brigade of the First Division, would connect his line with my right.

This brigade was accordingly formed in two lines, the Thirty-fifth Illinois Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Chandler, on the right; the Twenty-fifth Illinois Regiment, Col. T. D. Williams commanding, on the left, in the first line of battle, and the Eighty-first Indiana Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Timberlake, in the second line in reserve, the extreme left on the right of [the Wilkinson?] turnpike; the Eighth Wisconsin Battery, of four guns, Captain Carpenter commanding, being placed in the interval between Brigadier-General Sill's, right and my left. My front was curtained with two companies of skirmishers, detailed from the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-fifth Illinois Regiments, under the command and immediate supervision of Major McIlwain, of the Thirty-fifth Illinois Regiment. The commands to my right and left were formed in the same manner.

We moved forward on the morning of Tuesday, the 30th, at about 10 o'clock, and halted on the edge of a large cotton-field, immediately in front of a wood running parallel with the turnpike, our lines facing Murfreesborough, which was in a southeasterly direction. This was about 11 a.m.


Page 286 KY.,MID. AND E.TENN.,N.ALA., AND SW.VA. Chapter XXXII.