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

Page 529 Chapter L. REPORTS,ETC.-ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.

Too much praise cannot be given to the officers and men of my command for their patient endurance and cool courage during a most fatiguing march of forty miles over dusty roads in extreme heat. I can not, moreover, forbear to express my especial thanks to Lieutenant-Colonel Rheinlander and his officers and men,of the veteran Twenty-fifth Indiana Volunteers, for the cool courage, skill, and endurance with which they followed the enemy in a constant skirmish for seventeen miles.

My losses were only 5 men wounded, and none of them seriously. I can furnish no estimate of rebel loss. Major Williams, commanding battalion, was left dead upon the field in their retreat, and their loss in killed and wounded must have been considerable.

My command is in splendid condition, eagerly awaiting orders.

I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. H. HOWE,

Colonel, Commanding.

Captain F. W. FOX,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


No. 564.

Report of Colonel John Tillson, Tenth Illinois Infantry,commanding Third Brigade, of operations August 20-September 6.

HDQRS. THIRD Brigadier, FOURTH DIV., 16TH ARMY CORPS, Near Jonesborough, September 6, 1864.

CAPTAIN: In compliance with Special Orders, No. 102,current series, Fourth Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, I have the honor to report, my connection with this brigade was made on the 20th of August, and for its history prior to that period I must refer to the reports (accompanying) of commanding officers of Twenty-fifth Indiana and Thirty-second Wisconsin. The operations of the Seventeenth New York, which, on the 20th ultimo, was transferred to the Fourteenth Army Corps, and which up to that time had been a portion of the brigade, are, I presume, generally embraced in the reports above named.

The brigade as originally constituted remained in Decatur, Ala., from the 1st of May last until the 5th of August, when it left by railroad for the front,and reported to the division in front of Atlanta on the 7th. It remained, doing picket duty and holding position within one mile and a half of Atlanta, on the southeast, until the 20th, when the Seventeenth New York was taken out and the Tenth Illinois Infantry added to the organization, the command devolving upon Colonel John Tillson, of the Tenth Illinois, as senior officer. The operations have been unimportant during the two weeks of my command, except as they claim connection with the bold and brilliant movement of the Armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee, resulting in the forced abandonment of Atlanta and the successful close of a four months' campaign.

The history of the Tenth Illinois, perhaps, during most of this period, belongs to the army and corps with which it was formerly

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Page 529 Chapter L. REPORTS,ETC.-ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.