Today in History:

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

Page 610 Chapter L. THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN.

of the Eleventh's works at our right. They thus held all the works around the Sixteenth, and were firing into us from the Thirteenth's works, in our rear. I placed my men in the pits again, explaining to my officers the condition of things, while at that moment the rebels were forming a line in front of the Thirteenth's works, to charge bayonets down upon us. We agreed to surrender, but while discussing the subject on the right, we saw the left going over the works, surrounded by rebel bayonets. We followed their example, and were soon marching over the ground where lay the work of our hands, in the form of the rebel dead and wounded. We had the satisfaction of seeing for every man of us surrendered, at least one dead or wounded rebel lying on that field of gore. Many of our officers and men were robbed by the rebels of almost everything as they left the ground. At the time of our surrender we were entirely out of ammunition, the rebels having been so long in our rear that supplies were prevented from reaching us. Why we were left alone, an isolated regiment, surrounded and helpless, while the other regiments around us were ordered from their works, as I suppose they were, I cannot realize. If the sacrifice of this noble regiment was intended to give the army in our rear time to rally, then it was well, and the sacrifice was nobly made of a band of as brave and faithful men as any who fought upon the field that day. They could not be taken from the front, and only surrendered when further resistance would have been suicide.

The regiment numbered on the morning of the 22nd 425 effective fighting men; of these a fatigue detail of three officers and eighty men was made in the morning, most of whom were captured afterward while fighting in front of field-works close by. Our loss in killed and wounded I cannot give, but it was slight.

I should have stated in its proper place, that while firing heaviest, and guns so heated that they could scarcely be handled, we were reenforced by Companies D and K of the Thirteenth Iowa, commanded by Captain Pope and Lieutenant Rice. Captain Pope informed me that they were ordered to our assistance, fearing our ammunition as well as men must soon be exhausted. I assigned these companies places along the trenches, and they went into the works like veterans, fought nobly to the last, and surrendered with us.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ADD. H. SANDERS,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding.

Brigadier General N. B. BAKER,

Adjutant-General of Iowa.


Numbers 595.

Report of Captain Crandall W. Williams, Sixteenth Iowa Infantry, of operations July 22.

CAMP SIXTEENTH IOWA INFANTRY VOLUNTEERS,

Near Atlanta, Ga., July 26, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to furnish the following account of the operations of this regiment in the engagement of the 22nd instant:

On the 22nd day of July, 1864, this regiment was posted upon the left of the Eleventh Iowa and in the immediate front of the Thirteenth Iowa, the Fifteenth Iowa being upon the left of the Thirteenth, the four regiments constituting or occupying the extreme left of the army. Companies B and G of this regiment, under command


Page 610 Chapter L. THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN.