Today in History:

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

Page 317 Chapter XXXII. THE STONE'S RIVER CAMPAIGN.

with pride the gallant bearing of all the company officers of the Fifteenth who took part in the action of the 31st and the following days of the conflict. They did their whole duty under the trying circumstances under which they were placed.

Lieutenant Fowler was wounded slightly in the right leg and taken prisoner on the 31st, but he is now within our lines.

From December 31 to the evening of January 4 the loss of the Fifteenth was: Killed, 17; wounded, 68; missing, 127.

Your obedient servant,

WM. WALLACE,

Colonel, Commanding Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Capt. CARL SCHMITT,

A. A. G., First Brig., Second Div., Right Wing, Fourteenth, A. C.

[P. S.-I cannot close my report without speaking in terms of the highest commendation of Dr. Kelly, of this regiment, who remained with our wounded, and by his untiring efforts succeeded in having our unlucky braves made as comfortable as the nature of the circumstances would permit.

[Addends.]

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND,


No. 55. Murfreesborough, Tenn., March 21, 1863.

I. At a court of inquiry, convened at Murfreesborough, Tenn., pursuant to Special Field Orders, No. 59, Headquarters Department of the Cumberland, on the request of Major John McClenahan, to report on the charges against him during the battle of Stone's River, of which court Col. Stanley Matthews, Fifty-first Ohio Volunteers, was president, and Capt. D. G. Swaim, assistant adjutant-general, was recorder, the following facts, were found upon the testimony:

1st. That on the 31st of December, 1862, at the battle of Stone's River, the Fifteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteers was part of the First Brigade, Second Division, Right Wing; that early in the day General Willich, the brigade commander, was taken prisoner by the enemy, and Col. W. H. Gibson, the next ranking officer, with a portion of the command, was cut off from the main body of the brigade, whereby the command devolved upon Colonel Wallace, Fifteenth Ohio Volunteers; that thereby the command of said regiment devolved upon Major McClenahan, the senior officer present; that previously thereto Major Clenahan had been wounded by a bullet passing through the muscles over the scapula, and through the spine of the scapula of the right shoulder; that said wound was sufficient to prevent the ordinary use of the right shoulder and arm, but was not severe enough to disable Major McClenahan from remaining in the field on horseback, or to unfit him, under the circumstances, for the discharge of his field duties; that it was an occasion of great urgency, requiring extraordinary exertion and endurance on the part of every officer and soldier, the whole line of the corps being driven by the enemy from its position, and this brigade, including the Fifteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteers, having been thrown into confusion; that when Major McClenahan was notified that the command of the regiment devolved upon him, he declined, formally, to assume it, on account of his wound, and thereupon Colonel Wallace ordered Captain Dawson, of the same regiment, to assume command thereof, which he did; that Major McClenahan nevertheless remained with the regiment until it had fallen back to a position on the Murfreesborough turnpike, at about


Page 317 Chapter XXXII. THE STONE'S RIVER CAMPAIGN.