Today in History:

102 Series I Volume XXIII-I Serial 34 - Tullahoma Campaign Part I

Page 102 KY., MID. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXXV.

[L. T.] Miller was constantly at his post, as were all of the company officers, cheering and encouraging the men to do their best. Many personal acts of daring were done, but where all did their duty so well it would be injustice to particularize. I will, however, say that when the order to surrender was given to the men, that a large portion of them broke their arms, and so damaged their accouterments as to render them worthless.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES M. HENDERSON,

Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding Thirty-third Regiment Indiana Volunteers.

Lieutenant H. B. ADAMS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.


Numbers 10. Report of Colonel John P. Baird, Eighty-fifth Indiana Infantry.


HDQRS. EIGHTY-FIFTH Regiment INDIANA VOL. INFANTRY,
Franklin, Tenn., May 7, 1863.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Eighty-fifth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the action at Thompson's Station on the 4th and 5th of March last:On the morning of the 4th of March, 1863, I was placed, by your order, in the rear of the wagon train with my regiment, a company of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and a section of artillery, and took no part in the skirmish of that day further than to watch the train, a portion of which I loaded with forage and sent to Franklin.

On the morning of the 5th, after the head of the column came in sight of Thompson's Station, the enemy having opened on us with a battery, my regiment was, at about 10 a. m., deployed into line of battle on a range of hills to the west of the pike and to the left and rear, and in supporting distance of a section of the Eighteenth Ohio Battery, which was posted on a commanding hill, facing south. Up to the time my regiment got in position, but two or three shots had been fired by the enemy's battery. But, soon after deploying my regiment, a brisk cannonading commenced, and my men were ordered to lie down under the crest of the hill. After some twenty minutes, the enemy showing no front, your ordered me to make a demonstration on his left, and, if not in force, to charge a battery which had our range. I accordingly moved out with my regiment, in column of companies, accompanied by the Thirty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson commanding, and marched, under a galling fire from the enemy's batteries, about 500 yards across an open plain, throwing down fences, until we reached the station-house. Here I discovered that the enemy was in heavy force, two brigades of dismounted cavalry, posted behind stone walls and in underbrush, directly between me and the battery, and was on the point of retreating when I received your order to fall back. So soon as we started back the enemy started after us, and the battery again opened on us. I lost 2 men killed and 4 wounded in crossing and recrossing the plain. Arriving at the crest of the hill, the two regiments formed, facing the approaching enemy, the Eighty-fifth to the right of the Thirty-third, the left of the Thirty-third resting near the section of the Eighteenth Ohio Battery before mentioned. After a short contest the enemy were driven back in front of these two regiments.


Page 102 KY., MID. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXXV.