Today in History:

536 Series I Volume XLII-I Serial 87 - Richmond-Fort Fisher Part I

Page 536 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter LIV.

and a part of the Nineteenth Indiana, at the right of the point of attack, fell beck to the troops of Mott's division and there reformed their line, capturing 45 prisoners, without the loss of a man. The Twenty-fourth Michigan fell steadily back toward the Aiden house, capturing 12 prisoners en route, and suffering slightly in wounded and prisoners. The Sixth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers fought the enemy steadily, checking his advance four several times as that handful of men ran the gauntlet of half a mile, with the enemy in front and on both flanks, losing in killed 3 officers of 8 present, and killed and wounded, 20 enlisted men of 74. On the afternoon of the 20th my command went into position on the left of the railroad and fronting Vaughan road, near --- house, and threw up entrenchments, Hofmann's brigade, Fourth Division, on the left, and Second Division on the right. At 9 a. m. 21st the enemy made an assault on the line and were handsomely repulsed, losing heavily in killed, wounded, and prisoners. In this affair my brigade captured 6 field officers, 15 line officers and 101 enlisted men, 2 stand of colors, a number of wounded, and a quantity of small-arms. My own loss was but nominal, except the loss of Captain charles P. Hyantt, brigade inspector, and temporarily in command of the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, who lost his left leg from a fragment of shell a moment after the colonel of the Sixteenth Mississippi Regiment had surrendered to him. He was a splendid soldier; cool, daring, and fearless, and could communicate his own spirit to his command. His loss to the regiment and service is greatly to be deplored.

The loss of my command in the several operations is as follows: Officers - killed, 3; wounded, 2; missing, 7. Enlisted men - killed, 6; wounded, 36; missing, 137.*

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWD. S. BRAGG,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

Captain GEORGE MONTEITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Third Division, Fifth Army Corps.

ADDENDA.


HEADQUARTERS FIFTH ARMY CORPS,
August 24, 1864.

Major General G. K. WARREN:

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that on the morning of August 19, 1864, between 3 and 4 a. m., by your direction, I proceeded to the extreme right of General Crawford's division to establish a picket-line form that point through the woods, in a northeast direction, to connect with the picket-line of the Ninth Corps. Finding Brigadier-General Bragg On the ground, who had been ordered to make the connection, I proceeded to assist him in it, giving him such directions as were indicated to me you, and were as follows: To commence at the right of General Crawford's line and push out a line of skirmishers by the flank in a direction a few degrees north of east, until they met the enemy; then to fall to the rear a short distance and push on by the flank as close the enemy as could be and join the pickets of the Ninth Corps. I also explained to him by the map that the distance was between one-half and three-quarters of a mile, and that the direction was the proper one. His reply was to this effect, that he considered it a hazardous undertaking to push out a line in that way, not knowing where they were going and what was in their front, and then commenced establishing

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* But see revised statement, p.125.

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Page 536 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter LIV.