Today in History:

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

Page 18 KY., MID. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXXV.

horse. As soon as I obtain a full report of them they will be sent to the division quartermaster for disposal.

I forward report of Colonel [W. R.] Cook, Second East Tennessee Cavarly.*

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

ELMER OTIS,

Commanding Third Cavalry Brigade.

Captain [WILLIAM H.] SINCLAIR,

A. A. A. G., Cavalry Corps, Department of the Cumberland.

JANUARY 24, 1863.-Skirmish at Woodbury, Tenn.

REPORTS.


Numbers 1.-Colonel William Grose, Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry, commanding brigade.


Numbers 2.-Colonel John T. Wilder, Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, commanding brigade.


Numbers 1. Report of Colonel William Grose, Thirty-sixth Indiana Infantry, commanding brigade.


HDQRS. THIRD BRIGADE, SECOND DIVISION, LEFT WING,
Murfreesborough, Tenn., January 28, 1863.

SIR: I have the honor to report the part this brigade took in the engagement at Woodbury, this State, on the 24th instant.

According to orders, I left camp near Murfreesborough at 4 p. m. on the 23rd, with the Sixth Ohio, Colonel [A. C] Christopher; Twenty-third Kentucky, Major [T. H.] Hamrick; Eighty-fourth Illinois, Major [C. H.] Morton; Twenty-fourth Ohio, Captain [A. T. M.] Cockerill, and Parsons' battery, Lieutenants [H. C.] Cushing and [H. A.] Huntington (the Thirty-sixth Indiana absent, at Nashville, with supply train).

We marched that night to Readyville, 10 miles, and bivouacked until 5 o'clock next morning, when, according to the general's order, we crossed the river there and took position on the other side, on the Woodbury pike, our skirmishers feeling their way into the woodland in front, before daylight, where the enemy was known to have been the evening before. The other forces that were to have co-operated with us not being up, we there rested until 8 o'clock, when the general arrived, and we moved forward on the pike toward Woodbury, yet 6 miles distant, where the enemy was supposed to be in force, variously estimated from 1,000 to 6,000. The Second Brigade, Colonel [W. B.] Hazen, under the command of Colonel [W. H.] Blake, came up and moved forward close in our rear, the Twenty-third Kentucky and Twenty-fourth Ohio, of my brigade, taking the advance, with two companies from each thrown forward as skirmishers on either side of the road.

After advancing about 3 miles, we came to the enemy's outpost, and skirmishing commenced. We advanced, however, cautiously and steadily, driving the enemy within 1 miles of the town, where we found him posted in considerable numbers behind a double stone fence, with a deep ravine in his rear, forming complete protection against our small-arms. My two front regiments, with the skirmishers, gained the crest of some high ground on the rod, which off to the left raised to a

---------------

*Not found.

---------------


Page 18 KY., MID. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXXV.