Today in History:

598 Series I Volume XL-I Serial 80 - Richmond, Petersburg Part I

Page 598 OPERATIONS IN SE.VA. AND N.C. Chapter LII.

Report of killed, wounded, and missing in First Brigade, Fourth Division, Ninth Army Corps, July 30, 1864.

Killed. Wounded. Missing.

Off Men Offi Men Off Men Aggre

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27th U. S. 1 11 1 36 2 100 151

Colored Troops

30th U. S. -- 18 5 107 5 79 214

Colored Troops

39th U. S. -- 12 9 101 -- 63 185

Colored Troops

43rd U. S. 1 17 6 77 2 128 231

Colored Troops

Total 2 58 21 321 9 370 781

J. K. SIGFRIED,

Colonel Forty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Vol. Infantry.

BEFORE PETERSBURG, VA., July 31, 1864.


No. 213. Report of Colonel Henry G. Thomas, Nineteenth U. S. Colored Troops, commanding Second Brigade, of operations July 30.

HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, FOURTH DIV., NINTH ARMY CORPS, August 2, 1864.

SIR: With regard to the fight of July 30, 1864, I have the honor to state that soon after daylight in the morning this brigade entered the covered way leading to the front of that part of the line occupied by the Ninth Corps, following the First Brigade of our division. We were held about half an hour in this way, and then went at double-quick into the exploded fort and into the rifle-pits on our right. Here I lost Lieutenant-Colonel Ross, commanding the leading regiment, and the two officers of his regiment next him in rank. The loss here was heavy in getting into position. There was a white division in the pits into which we were ordered. The instant I reached the First Brigade I attempted to charge, but the Thirty-first was disheartened at its loss of officers and could not be gotten out promptly. Captain Dempcy and Lieutenant Pennell and myself then attempted to lead them, but the fire was so hot that half the few who came out of the works were shot. Here Lieutenant Pennell was killed and riddled through and through. He died with the flag in his hand, doing everything an officer could do to lead on the men. His appearance and actions were splendid-I might say heroic, sacrificing deliberately and knowingly his life in the hope of rendering his country some service. A partially successful attempt was then made to separate the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Regiments U. S. Colored Troops from the white troops of one of the brigades of the First Division, Ninth Corps, previous to attempting another charge. I then sent word that unless the enfilading fire on my right was stopped, by the moving of a force in that direction at the moment in which I moved, that no men could live to reach the crest. Immediately after this I was ordered by Brigadier-General Ferrero to advance in concert with Colonel Sigfried and take the crest. I ordered the Twenty-ninth this time to lead, which it did gallantly, closely followed by the Twenty-eighth and a few of the Twenty-third, when it was at once engaged by a heavy charging column of the enemy, and after a struggle driven


Page 598 OPERATIONS IN SE.VA. AND N.C. Chapter LII.