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

Page 814 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.

[Inclosure No. 1.]


HDQRS. SEVENTY-FOURTH INDIANA VOLUNTEERS, September 3, 1864.

Colonel GEORGE P. ESTE,
Commanding Third Brigade:

Understanding there is some dispute relative to who captured the Eighth and Nineteenth Arkansas Battery in the fight of September 1, I desire to submit the following statement: I was, when the line was formed for the charge, on the right of my company, which was on the right of the second line, the Tenth Kentucky being in our front. Our regiment being considerably the largest, overlapped the Tenth on the right. About the time the charge was ordered, just on the edge of the woods, we rushed forward, obliquing a little to the right,and Companies A, F, and D went on the front line, on the right of the Tenth Kentucky. During our advance we received two discharges from the battery. We, however, pushed forward, there then being no troops on our right, reached the battery and the rebel line of works by its side, capturing most of the men behind both the battery and the rifle-pits. After we reached the battery there were no rebels left to fire its guns. In from five to ten minutes thereafter other troops came up on our right and rear, considerably overlapping us, but not belonging to our brigade. Some of them were the Fourteenth Michigan. I saw Lieutenant Kuder capture the rebel who bore the battery battle-flag myself; he was just behind one of the guns and endeavoring to escape. I know we, for a considerable time, had virtual possession of the Eighth and Nineteenth Arkansas Battery before troops from any other brigade came to our support, and that after we reached them no guns were fired from that battery.

GEORGE W. HARTER,

Captain, Commanding Company A, Seventy-fourth Indiana Vols.

[Inclosure No. 2.]

Statement on the 1st of September, 1864, by the Third Brigade, I was commanding Company F, Seventy-fourth Indiana Volunteers, which was on the right of the second line when the brigade line of battle was formed. In advancing, Companies A, F, and D of our regiment overlapped and extended to the right of the first line of battle,and there being no troops connecting with us on the right, we, upon entering the woods in front of the enemy's works, oblique to the right and charged the works of the enemy, so that Company A of our regiment ran upon and over a rebel battery of four guns, a portion of which were firing upon us while we were firing upon we were advancing. We carried the works, capturing nearly all the troops occupying them,and sent the prisoners to the rear, Company A capturing those immediately at the battery. Second Lieutenant Jerry Kuder, of Company A, captured a color said to belong to the battery and marked Eight and Nineteenth Arkansas. Lieutenant Kuder took the color from the hands of a rebel and sent him to our rear. After we had held the works some minutes a line of troops, claiming to belong to the Tenth and Fourteenth Michigan and Sixtieth Illinois Regiments, came up on our right and rear, overlapping us. This was the first support we had on the right of our brigade. The guns of said battery


Page 814 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.