753 Series I Volume X-I Serial 10 - Shiloh Part I
Page 753 | Chapter XXII. SIEGE OF CORINTH,MISS. |
wounded through the shoulder on picket Thursday evening, the 29th ultimo, and Douglass Tucker, of Company B, was shot in the foot on the 29th ultimo, whilst after water, near the picket line.
It gives me great pleasure to say that all the officers and men of the Seventy-second Regiment have performed their duties so well that I have no occasion to discriminate. I feel quite justified in assuring you that the Seventy-second Regiment can be relied upon to do its whole duty in any emergency.
Your obedient servant,
R. P. BUCKLAND,
Colonel, Comdg. Seventy-second Regt. Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Brig. Gen. J. W. DENVER,
Comdg. Third Brig., Fifth Div., Army of the Tennessee.
No. 35 Report of Major-Generaal John A. McClernand, U. S. Army, commanding Reserve Corps, Army of the Tennessee, of operations from April 24 to May 30.
HDQRS. RESERVE CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Camp Jackson, July 4, 1862.
GENERAL: My report of the part taken by my command, consisting of the First Division of the Army of the Tennessee, in the battle o Shiloh, explains how the enemy was driven from my camp on the 7th, and forced with great loss to abandon the ground he had gained on the 6th of April. I will not dwell upon the incidents of that great event now. It would be supererogatory to do so. They have passed into glorious and imperishable history, and there let them rest.
Devoting my attention during the interval to measures necessary to repair the consequences of a protracted and sanguinary battle, and to restore the vigor and efficiency of my command, and having prepared the way by the construction of bridges, on the 24th, pursuant to order, I moved it to the front and extreme right of the first advance made after the battle. Halting on the east side of Owl Creek, and resting the right of the division on the bluffs overlooking the creek, we pitched our tents and remained here until the 30th, meantime guarding the passes of Owl Creek and making frequent cavalry reconnaissances westerly in the direction of Purdy and southerly on each side of the creek in the direction of Pea Ridge. Here, as a precaution against surprise, I threw up earthworks, consisting of lunettes and intrenchments, covering my camp. These were the first that had been thrown up south of the bluffs overlooking Pittsburg Landing.
The enemy, having taken refuge behind Lick Creek upon a lofty range called Pea Ridge, commanding the approaches across the valley of that stream, felt secure in making sudden and frequent descents upon our advance pickets. To arrest and punish these annoyances, on the 25th I ordered Col. M. K. Lawler (Eighteenth Illinois), with six regiments of infantry, three companies of cavalry, and a section of McAllister's battery, to reconnoiter in front and on the left of our position in the direction of Pea Ridge, to drive in the enemy's pickets and outposts, and avoiding an engagement with a superior force, ascertain, if practicable, his position, and then fall back upon our camp. Rapidly
48 R R-VOL X
Page 753 | Chapter XXII. SIEGE OF CORINTH,MISS. |