Numbers 153.

Reports of Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Lister, Thirty-first Ohio Infantry.

HDQRS. THIRTY-FIRST OHIO VET. VOL. INFANTRY,
Near Atlanta, Ga., August 17, 1864.

CAPTAIN: In compliance with orders from the colonel commanding the brigade, the subjoined report of the part taken by the Thirty-first Ohio Veteran Volunteers during the campaign commencing May 7 up to the 5th instant is respectfully submitted. As the regiment was commanded by Colonel M. B. Walker for the greater part of the time for which the report is required, I am unable to furnish more than a mere outline of operations.

The regiment marched from Ringgold on the 7th of May and was ordered on picket in the vicinity of Tunnel Hill. On the 8th arrived in front of Buzzard Roost Gap and remained in position until the 12th, when it marched to Snake Creek Gap, some miles east of its former position. On the 14th the regiment was deployed on the right of the front line of the brigade, and, being ordered to send out skirmishers, details of veterans from each company, under command of Captain W. H. Wade, were advanced onto a ridge in front of the open field, then occupied by the brigade. The skirmishers were soon engaged, and soon after the whole line was ordered to advance. Upon reaching the crest of the second ridge a line of troops, said to belong to Hascall's brigade, of Judah's division, Army of the Ohio, advanced from the woods in our rear, and passing our front line, advanced some paces in its front. The regiment being then ordered forward, upon reaching the crest of a third ridge, it was exposed to a heavy fire of artillery from batteries planted upon hills on the opposite side of a valley and distant about 500 yards. The word being still "forward," the regiment rushed down a nearly precipitous declivity and advanced to the edge of a creek, over which the front line had already struggled. The enemy here opened with musketry and two batteries, but the regiment gallantly dashed into the creek and was emerging from it when the first line (Hascall's troops), unable to maintain their advance under so murderous a fire, fell back, and a portion of it passed through and over the right wing of the regiment, which was not protected by the banks of the creek, which on the left were high and the water deep. A portion of the regiment regained the ridge and there reformed. The remainder were, by order of the colonel commanding, engaged in keeping up a fire on the enemy's works, under cover of which the men retired singly or in small squads and rejoined that portion of the brigade which had been halted on the ridge. After remaining in support of batteries which were then brought up to the front until the following morning the brigade was moved to position on the right and in reserve, and remained there until the occupation of Resaca by the army. On the 16th crossed the Oostenaula River, passing through Calhoun toward Adairsville. Marched on the 17th and 18th. On 19th encamped four miles from Kingston. On the 23rd forded the Etowah River. On the 26th were ordered to escort train to Kingston. Returned with it to Burnt Hickory on the 29th and encamped on Pumpkin Vine Creek. Guarded the trains of Fourteenth Corps until the 1st of June, when the regiment marched to a position three miles from Burnt Hickory. On the 5th camped eight miles from Acworth. On the 8th the regiment was detached from the brigade and sent as