Today in History:

703 Series I Volume XXXVIII-I Serial 72 - The Atlanta Campaign Part I

Page 703 Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC. - ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.

close to the base of the mountain as to make it impossible for him to depress his guns sufficiently to injure my command. The One hundred and twenty-first Ohio occupied this position from the 18th until the morning of the 26th, and during all the time only 1 man was injured by their shelling, which was without cessation, namely, William Hammil, of Company F, who was wounded in the arm. During the same time there were 3 men wounded in the regiment, viz: Privates John A. Chapman, of Company I; Philip Vanderan, of Company I, and Abraham Drake, of Company I; 1 man killed, Peter Strine, of Company B, by the enemy's sharpshooters, and 1 man, Private Stiles Simpkins, of Company F, wounded by an imperfect shell from one of our own guns. On the morning of the 26th the regiment was relieved before day and moved to the right, where it rested with the brigade, in the rear of the first line, until the morning of the 27th. On the morning of the 27th of June, in accordance with orders, I held my command ready to move at daylight. Leaving the sick to guard the knapsacks, tents, and cooking utensils, which I had been ordered to leave behind, we moved out and formed, the Second Brigade being on the right of the line that was to storm the enemy's works. The formation was a column of regiments closed in mass. Our column was four regiments deep. In the front line was the One hundred and thirteenth Ohio; just behind the One hundred and thirteenth was the One hundred and twenty-first Ohio; next was the Ninety-eighth Ohio, and next was the Seventy-eighth Illinois, while the Thirty-fourth Illinois was deployed as skirmishers in front of the column. My orders were to overlap the One hundred and thirteenth Ohio two companies to my right, making the right guide of my third company the guide of my regiment, which I ordered to cover the right guide of the regiment in front, and ordered the two right companies to guide left. The other regiments, I understood, were to form in echelon, guiding and overlapping in like manner. I was also instructed to deploy my regiment to the right when I struck the enemy; that my left would probably strike an angle in the enemy's works, and that I would have to wheel my regiment to the left, and that I would be supported on my right by the regiments in my rear. I deployed my regiment as I raised the hill in front of the enemy's works, and uncovering the angle at the very point at which I had been advised I would find it, I started my regiment upon a left wheel, my left already resting well up toward the enemy's works. The enemy still was reserving his fire, and continued to do so until my command got close up to his ditches on the right, when he opened upon my single line with grape and canister from both flanks and a full line of small-arms from my front. On the left, from the first volley from the enemy, the captain of Company B was mortally wounded; the captain of Company G was shot dead; the captain of Company E was shot through the ankle and carried from the field, from which wound he has since died, while the major who was in charge of the left received three mortal wounds, from which he died before he could be taken from the field. Company I had lost 29 out of 56 men she took into action. Their commander, Captain Robinson, was wounded in the knee, and the only commissioned officer now on the left, while most of the sergeants were either killed or wounded. In Company B all of them were either killed or wounded.

The enemy now opened another battery from an angle in his works on my right. On this flank I was entirely without support. Be


Page 703 Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC. - ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.