Today in History:

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

Page 84 KY., MID. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXXV.

nel Bloodgood, the only field officer of my command who escaped; from colonel Jordan, who commanded the cavalry; from Captain Aleshire, of the artillery, and from the assistant adjutant-general and quartermaster upon Colonel Coburn's staff. These contain all the facts that i have been able to collect in relation ot the disaster in question. A court of inquiry might elicit further facts, which it would be desirable to place upon record, but its conclusions would still be unsatisfactory, so long as the present of Colonel Coburn or some of the officers with him cannot be secured.

Colonel Coburn's command was composed of his own brigade, which, exclusive of details and those absent sick, &c., marched with the following aggregate force:

Thirty-third Indiana ...................................... 606

Eighty-fifth Indiana ...................................... 330

Twenty-second Wisconsin ................................... 378

Nineteenth Michigan ....................................... 531

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Total effective men ....................................... 1,845

Likewise Aleshire's (Eighteenth Ohio) battery, consisting of six Rodman rifled guns, a small regiment from General Gilbert's division, the One hundred and twenty-fourth Ohio, which remained as a rear guard to the train and did not enter the combat, and portions of the Second Michigan and Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiments, about 600 mounted men.

The loss in my division is represented as follows:

Command. Field and Company Enlisted

staff. officers. men.

33rd Indiana. 4 19 482

85th Indiana. 4 19 261

22nd Wisconsin. 2 10 148

19th Michigan. 3 22 432

Total*. 13 70 1,323

Making a loss of 1,406 out of 1,845. The battery had, I believe, 1 man captured, and the loss in the cavalry was likewise slight.

We learn from the enemy that from 30 to 50 of our men were killed and 150 wounded, while they acknowledge a loss four times as great in killed and three times as great in wounded.

With the exceptions our troops fought with great gallantry, notwithstanding the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, and Colonel Coburn exhibited the utmost coolness, determination, and god judgement during he fight. The bravery of the little band surrounded and captured was so conspicuous as to elicit the applause of the enemy himself, and we are informed that colonels Coburn and Gilbert, and Major [W. R.] Shafter, of the Nineteenth Michigan, were permitted on this account to retain their horses and side-arms.

It is thought by many that a more vigorous use of the three pieces of artillery posted at first upon the left of the road might have repulsed the final attack from the left, and, perhaps, have opened a way for the escape of the entire force. The inclosed documents contain all I know

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*But see revised statement, p. 75.

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Page 84 KY., MID. AND E. TENN., N. ALA., AND SW. VA. Chapter XXXV.