Today in History:

293 Series I Volume XXIV-II Serial 37 - Vicksburg Part II

Page 293 Chapter XXXVI. THE SIEGE OF Vicksburg, ETC.

the batteries above mentioned were all drawn forward to the ground occupied the evening before by the howitzer, and gradually intrenched by earth thrown up in front. Battery D. First Illinois Light Artillery, was, on the 20th, placed in battery within intrenchments near the white house, and performed during the siege valuable and important services at different places and station in that vicinity.

The siege having been successfully terminated, I cannot but refer with pleasure and gratification to the willingness, endurance, and zeal with which all my subordinates submitted to all the hardships incident thereunto. Throughout from the captains down to the bugler, the same hearty-co-operation met me, and were in not for a few lamented dead, I should remember with pleasure for the balance of my natural life the devotion to the national cause so unmistakably exhibited by my men. THE untimely death of the truly brave Captain Henry A. Rogers mars the pleasantries of my recollections of the siege, and his late command will long mourn his loss. The expenditure of ammunition at the siege has been as follows:

Rounds.

Battery D, first Illinois Light Artillery. . . . . . . . . . . . 5,200

Battery L, SECOND Illinois Light Artillery. . . . . . . . . . . 2,368

Battery, THIRD Ohio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,521

Battery, eighth Michigan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,409

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Total expended. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,498

* * * * * *

Respectfully submitted.

C. J. STOLBRAND,

Major, and Chief of Artillery.

Major R. R. TOWNES,

Assistant Adjutant General.

Number 47. Report of Brigadier General Mortimer D. Leggett, u. S. Army, commanding First Brigade. Vicksburg, MISS, July 6, 1863.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the First Brigade, THIRD DIVISION, SEVENTEENTH Army Corps, consisting of the Twenty-THIRD Indiana Volunteer Infantry, twentieth Thirty-first, forty-FIFTH, and One hundred and twenty-four Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the siege of Vicksburg, from the 4th of June (the date at which I was assigned to its command) to the 4th of July, 1863, inclusive:

Until the 25th of June, nothing occurred to call the brigade from its regular routine of duties-picketing, sharpshooting, and working the trenches being the duties to which it was assigned, and at which it was engaged night and day. By the annexed list of casualties, you will see that I lost only an occasional man while in the discharge of these duties, through during the whole time bivouacked within short musket range of the enemy's works.

As the trenches progressed, I advanced my sharpshooter, thus protecting as much a possible those at work in the trenches. After running the main trenches up to the enemy's works, I was ordered to withdraw 15 paces and open a sap to the left, running nearly parallel with the enemy's works. The saps and trenches were constructed under the direction of Captain Hickenlooper, of General McPherson's staff.


Page 293 Chapter XXXVI. THE SIEGE OF Vicksburg, ETC.