Today in History:

685 Series I Volume X-I Serial 10 - Shiloh Part I

Page 685 Chapter XXII. SIEGE OF CORINTH, MISS.

trenchments, picket duty, skirmishing with the enemy, and guarding trenches.

On May 21, while skirmishing with the enemy immediately in front of our intrenchments, Private Michael Donner, of Company I, was severely wounded in the thigh by a musket-ball from the enemy's pickets.

On the morning of May 29 the regiment was ordered, with the brigade which was then commanded by General Ammen, to move forward toward the enemy's works. We took up a position in easy range of the rebel fortifications, and under cover of heavy forest and a strong picket force commenced the construction of rifle pits and trenches. The brigade threw forward a picket guard of six companies, consisting of two companies from the Twenty-fourth Ohio, two from the Sixth Ohio, and two from the Thirty-sixth Indiana, under the command of Major Bennett, of the Thirty-sixth Indiana.

Early on the morning of May 30 these skirmishers were ordered forward to the rebel works, which they found entirely abandoned by the enemy. These companies were then deployed as skirmishers, and moved through the rebel works over the town and formed into line beyond the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, on the south side of Corinth, and were there at least one hour before any forces entered the town. The division of General Nelson, with the Tenth Brigade in advance, was the first Federal force to enter after these skirmishers. The regiment, with the brigade, moved back to camp in the evening, where it remained, doing only guard duty, until the morning of June 4, when it was ordered on a forced march, to re-enforce General Pope and Rosecrans in the direction of Baldwin, Miss., on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

After a fatiguing march, consequent upon the extreme heat of the weather, dusty roads, and scarcity of water, we arrived at the lines of General Pope, at Blackland, where we bivouacked until the evening of June 9, when we moved toward Iuka by way of Jacinto, and where we arrived, after a very severe march, on the 11th, and where we have since been bivouacked.

During all this time the regiment has been in fine order and ready at all times to promptly obey every order given it.

Respectfully,

O. H. P. CAREY,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding.

Brigadier-General AMMEN, Comdg. Tenth Brigade.

Numbers 7 Report of Colonel John H. McHenry, jr., Seventeenth Kentucky Infantry, of operations from May 2 to 30.


HDQRS. SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT KENTUCKY VOLS.,
June 10, 1862.

The regiment which I have the honor to command, forming a portion of your brigade, was ordered from Pittsburg about May 2, and approached Corinth by slow, irregular, and inconvenient marches, remaining at some points for several days, bivouacking at night generally, and did not fully establish our camp until we arrived within 3 miles of Corinth, where we were ordered to encamp, and remained from about the 16th ultimo until the evacuation of Corinth by the


Page 685 Chapter XXII. SIEGE OF CORINTH, MISS.