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

Page 709 Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC. - ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.

extends, the operations of this brigade from the 3rd day of May, 1864, when it struck tents and broke up camp at Lee and Gordon's Mills, until its arrival at Atlanta, on the 4th day of the present month. Being the fourth brigade commander since the campaign begun, and having served on the corps staff for some time before and up to the 27th of June last, I am compelled to rely chiefly for data upon the necessarily confused memoranda of the different commanders who preceded me.

On the 3rd of May last the brigade, composed of the Twenty-second Indiana Veteran Volunteers, Eighty-fifth, Eighty-sixth, and One hundred and twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteers, and the Fifty-second Ohio Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Daniel McCook left Lee and Gordon's Mills on the same day it broke up camp and marched to Ringgold, Ga., where, toward night, it crossed the Chickamauga River and joined the division, then commanded by Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis, and bivouacked until the morning of the 5th of May, when the brigade marched out to near Catoosa Springs and again bivouacked until the morning of the 7th, when it marched beyond Tunnel Hill about two miles, part of the time under heavy fire from the enemy's batteries. On the morning of the 8th of May the brigade marched toward and confronted the enemy's skirmishers guarding the entrance to Buzzard Roost Gap. May 9, supported the First Brigade skirmish line. May 10, the brigade lay under the fire from the enemy's sharpshooters. In the evening of this day it moved to the front and relieved the First Brigade; Fifty-second Ohio deployed as skirmishers. May 11, remained on the line until dark, at which time it was relieved by a brigade of the Fourth Army Corps. We then moved up the valley about two miles and bivouacked for the night. At daybreak May 13, command marched toward Resaca, by way of Snake Creek Gap, reaching the mouth of the gap, after a tiresome march, at about 8 p.m. continued the march until nearly 2 a.m., next day, when the command halted until daylight; here we took breakfast, and then moved beyond the line of intrenchments toward Resaca, and rested until evening; took up position at night in rear of First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps; moved in line next day and confronted the enemy in their works at Resaca; remained thus until the enemy evacuated that place, when this brigade, in connection with the division, was ordered to Rome. The march commenced early, Third Brigade in the rear, with the One hundred and twenty-fifth Illinois detached as guard for division train; went into camp late at night on left-hand side of Rome road; resumed march next morning at daylight, following the Second Brigade; arrived within two miles of Rome at 5 p.m.; enemy reported to be in their works in force. Colonel McCook immediately disposed the brigade in order of battle as follows: The Twenty-second Indiana and the Eighty-sixth Illinois in the front line, the Fifty-second Ohio and Eighty-fifth Illinois in the second line, with three companies from the Twenty-second Indiana thrown forward as skirmishers. The front line occupied an elevation of ground known as Howe's Hill, with the left resting near Howe's house. The lines were but just formed when the enemy made a vigorous attack upon the Twenty-second Indiana, throwing it in some confusion and pressing its right back about sixty yards, where it rallied behind a rail fence. A part of the Eighty-sixth Illinois in the mean time was pouring a well-directed fire from its right into the enemy's advancing lines. This


Page 709 Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC. - ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.