Today in History:

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

Page 890 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.

We regret to report the death of many valiant soldiers. Among the officers our lamented Colonel Drake, Captain Sharkey, Captain Lamkin, Captain Herring, Lieutenant Kennedy, and Lieutenant West.

Number killed, missing, and wounded: 15 officers, 144 men.

M. JACKSON,

Captain, Commanding Thirty-third Regiment.

Captain C. P. NEILSON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.


Numbers 695.

Report of Captain Charles A. Huddleston, Fortieth Mississippi Infantry, of operations July 20.


HEADQUARTERS FORTIETH MISSISSIPPI REGIMENT,
September 15, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor, in the absence of the lieutenant-colonel commanding (he being absent wounded), to make the following brief summary of the part taken by the Fortieth Mississippi Regiment in the engagement on the 20th of July near Peach Tree Creek:

About 3 o'clock on the evening of the 20th the command was notified that they were going to move on the enemy's works. Immediately Company A was deployed about 300 yards in advance of the regiment, with instructions to move forward at once and drive in the enemy's advance posts. These dispositions having been made, the command moved forward by the right of companies to the front about half a mile without serious obstruction, where it encountered the enemy's pickets and drove them in. The regiment moved as above stated until it arrived in the woodland fronting the enemy's line of battle in on old field, distant about 400 yards, where it halted and formed into line. It then moved at a double-quick on to the enemy's line, which was protected by temporary works, driving his line in disorder before it until the regiment reached the crest of a ridge about forty yards in rear of the enemy's works, where it halted.

It may be proper here to add that there were about 300 yards of the distance immediately in front of the enemy's works over which the regiment moved in full view of the enemy's line, both right and left, as well as in front (it being in the old field above mentioned), and that the regiment, moving rapidly, reached the enemy's works about seventy-five yards in advance of the right of brigade on our left, thereby subjecting it (the regiment) to a terrific enfilading fire from the enemy's batteries on the left, which decimated the ranks to a very considerable extent. I may further state that the general alignment of the regiment was partially deranged while crossing a rectified, owing to the galling fire to which the regiment was subjected at that time.

After the regiment's halting on the ridge last mentioned it was discovered that the regiment was very much depleted in numbers, and that it had lost both field officers (Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace being wounded and Major Gibbens being killed), as well as many officers of the line, in consequence of which, together with the for-


Page 890 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Chapter L.