Today in History:

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

Page 795 Chapter LIV. THE RICHMOND CAMPAIGN.

report these things, and ask for ammunition and artillery. General Grant I heard was at Deep Bottom. I had dispatched two officers in succession to tell him of our capture, and ask him to send ammunition, a commander, and other troops, but hearing nothing from him or General Butler, who, I presumed, was at Deep Bottom, I was placed in an ambulance and left the field to communicated with them. This I tried to do by telegraph on reaching it, but failed to find them, and afterward learned that General Grant had arrived at Fort Harrison just after I left it.

This report would have been made earlier, but General Butler never called on me for a report, and it was only recently I learned that no report had been made by any officer commanding the corps of the successful operations of the Eighteenth Army Corps that day.

Generals Stannard, Burnaham; Colonels Theodore Read, Donohoe, Raulston, Cullen, Roberts, Fairchild, Jourdan, Ward; Lieutenant-Colonel Comstock, of General Grant's staff; Major Wheeler, assistant adjutant-general; Capts. H. G. Brown, Dan. Wells, and Lieutenant Thomas G. Welles, of my staff; Captains Kent, Bessey, and Lieutenant Ladd, of General Stannard's staff; Captain Cecil Clay and Lieutenant Johnson, of Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania, and a large number of others, whose names I could not get, on account of being sent North immediately after the battle, were conspicuous for their gallantry.

We captured 22 guns, about 300 prisoners.

Our loss was particularly severe in officers. The leading brigade, Burnham's, lost its general (Burnham), and the two next successive commanders, wounded. Nearly all the officers I have named as conspicuous for their gallantry and a large number of others were either killed or wounded.

Great gallantry was shown by officers and men.

I respectfully recommend Captain Dan. Wells, Eighth U. S. Infantry, for promotion to major by brevet for gallant conduct, 29th of September, 1864. He was accidentally overlooked.

Respectfully,

E. O. C. ORD,

Major-General, Commanding.

General JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Chief of Staff, Washington, D. C.


No. 315. Report of Bvt. Major General Godfrey Weitzel, U. S. Army, commanding Eighteenth Army Corps, of operations October 27-28.

HEADQUARTERS EIGHTEENTH ARMY CORPS, October 31, 1864.

COLONEL: In accordance with orders from the major-general commanding department, I left H. Cox's field at 5 a.m. Thursday, October 27, with the following troops of my command: the First Division and two brigades each of the Second and Third Divisions and two four-gun batteries of artillery, and marched by the route indicated to the Darbytown road; thence up this road to a cross-road beyond Timberlake's Store; thence by this cross-road to White's Tavern, on the Charles City road. Here Colonel West, commanding Cavalry Division, reported to


Page 795 Chapter LIV. THE RICHMOND CAMPAIGN.