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606 Series I Volume XXIV-I Serial 36 - Vicksburg Part I

Page 606 Mississippi, WEST TENNESSEE, ETC. Chapter XXXVI.

carried all their medical stores on foot, and not only performed their whole duty by attending to the noble men who were wounded in my command, but, like the good Samaritan of other days, gave balm and bound up the wounds of suffering rebels by the wayside.

The prisoners taken by my command on the field of battle cannot fall short of 400.

My casualties, as shown by accompanying reports, are: Killed, 42;

wounded, 263, and MISSING, 3. Total, 308. *

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

ALVIN P. HOVEY,

Brigadier General, comdg. Twelfth DIVISION, thirteenth Army Corps.

Lieutenant Colonel WALTER B. SCATES,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Number 12. Report of Brigadier General George F. McGinnis, U. S. Army, commanding First Brigade. HDQRS. FIRST BRIGADE, TWELFTH DIVISION, THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS, ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, In the Field, may 6, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the First Brigade in the battle of Port Gibson, MISS., on the 1st instant:

My brigade consisted of the following commands, viz:

The Eleventh Indiana Infantry, colonel Daniel Macauley, 519 men; Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry, colonel W. T. Spicely, 546 men; Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry, colonel R. A. Cameron, 607 men; Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry, colonel T. H. Bringhurst, 423 men; Twenty-NINTH Wisconsin Infantry, colonel Charles R. Gill, 533 men; SECOND Ohio Battery, first Lieutenant Beach commanding, 100 men; SIXTEENTH Ohio Battery, captain J. A. Mitchell, commanding, 111 men. Total, 2,839.

About 7 a. m. I received an order from Brigadier General A. P. Hovey, commanding our DIVISION, to form y brigade in line of battle, holding two regiments in reserve. The order was immediately executed. My first line was composed of the Twenty-fourth, thirty-fourth, and Forty-sixth Indiana; my SECOND of the Eleventh Indiana and Twenty-NINTH Wisconsin, with directions to hold themselves about 200 yards in the rear and act as support to the first line. One section of the SECOND Ohio Battery was all the artillery I had with my command at the commencement of the battle, in consequence of a lack of transportation upon our leaving Perkins' plantation, La. As soon as our lines were formed, we advanced about three-fourths of a mile over a surface of country which under any other circumstances would have been pronounced impassable. High hills, in many places almost perpendicular, deep ravines, thickly covered with cane and vines, interfered very much with our advance. After advancing about half a mile, at the request of General Benton, commanding First Brigade, fourteenth DIVISION, the Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry was detached from my brigade for the purpose of supporting General Benton's right, which brought on the action, and had

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*But see revised statement, p. 583.

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Page 606 Mississippi, WEST TENNESSEE, ETC. Chapter XXXVI.