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128 Series I Volume XXXVIII-III Serial 74 - The Atlanta Campaign Part III

Page 128 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.

I have to thank my troops for their zeal and bravery. They did their whole duty, grave as it was, with promptness and alacrity. Brigadier General C. R. Woods, commanding First Brigade, Colonel Wangelin,commanding Third Brigade and Major Landgraeber, chief of artillery, had occasion to give renewed evidence of their energy and skill. The officers of my staff were of great assistance to me, and I feel under many obligations to them.

I am, major, with great respect, your obedient servant,

P. JOS. OSTERHAUS,

Brigadier General Vols., Commanding First Div., 15th Army Corps.

Major R. R. TOWNES, A. A. G., Fifteenth Army Corps.


HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Before Jonesborough, Ga., August 31, 1864.

COLONEL: In compliance with your instructions I have the honor to make the following preliminary report of the operations of to-day;

About 3 p.m. the enemy opened a galling fire on our position and immediately afterward made an attack on my lines. Protected by his artillery fire, the enemy approached in solid column very gallantly, and drove in our skirmishers. The attack was mainly on my right and the brigade of Sixteenth Corps stationed there, but was gallantly repulsed, the Fourth Ohio Battery behaving with great bravery, although mostly served by new details from the infantry, who had hardly had time to become acquainted with their new arm. The enemy, after being repulsed, attacked again three or four times, though not nearly as determined as the first time, and was on each occasion driven back, our troops occupying at present nearly the same ground as at the time of the attack. In pursuance of instructions from major-general commanding army corps, two regiments, the Twenty-sixth Iowa Infantry and Seventy-sixth Ohio Infantry, were attached to Brigadier-General Hazen, commanding Second Division, to whom I refer for a report, of their action.

A number of prisoners were taken on the right of my line, which during the action were turned over to, and will be reported by, the Sixteenth Army Corps. I estimate the loss of the enemy at not less than between 200 and 300 in killed and wounded in front of my line.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. JOS. OSTERHAUS

Major-General, Commanding.

[Lieutenant Colonel R. R. TOWNES, Assistant Adjutant-General.]

List of casualties, August 31, 1864; Killed-enlisted men, 3. Wounded-commissioned officers, 4; enlisted men, 27. Missing-enlisted men, 1. Aggregate, 35.

HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS.

East Point, Ga., September 9, 1864.

COLONEL: On the 20th of May I had the honor to report on the part taken by my division in the operations terminating in the capture of Resaca, Ga., May 16, to which report I beg leave to refer:

We left Resaca, together with the other portions of Fifteenth Army Corps, May 16, and crossed Oostenaula River same day at Lay's Ferry. Moving thence by way of McGuire's Cross-Roads, Adairsville, and Woodland, we marched to the north bank of Etowah River, two miles west of Kingston, where we encamped until the


Page 128 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.