282 Series I Volume XXXIX-I Serial 77 - Allatoona Part I
Page 282 | KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter LI. |
A list of the casualties of my command has been furnished to the major-general commanding. *
I have the honor to be, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
D. MOORE,
Colonel Twenty-first Missouri Infty., Vols., Commanding DIVISION.
Major John HOUGH,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Right Wing, SIXTEENTH Army Corps.
Numbers 19. Report of Colonel Charles D. Murray, Eighty-ninth Indiana Infantry, commanding First Brigade.
HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, THIRD DIV., RIGHT WING, 16TH A. C.,
Memphis, Tenn., July 25, 1864.GENERAL: In accordance with the order of the colonel commanding the DIVISION, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by this brigade in the action with the enemy at Tupelo, Miss., on the 14th instant:
The THIRD DIVISION being in the advance on the 13th on our march from Pontotoc, Miss., en route for Tupelo, we had arrived within a mile of the town of Tupelo when very heavy firing in the rear indicated a heavy attack on our train, and notice also having been received from General Mower, commanding First DIVISION, having in charge our train, we were halted and line of battle formed. The First Brigade was formed in line of battle, the right resting on the Tupelo and Pontotoc road, in the following order; One hundred and twenty-second Illinois, Colonel Rinaker commanding, on the right; Eighty-ninth Indiana Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Craven commanding; FIFTY-eighth Illinois Volunteers, Captain Heelan; Twenty-first Missouri Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Moore commanding, and One hundred and nineteenth Illinois Volunteers, Colonel Thomas J. Kinney, on the left, the line extending nearly south from the Pontotoc road. In this position the line bivouacked for the night.
Early on the morning of the 14th the lines was advanced some 300 yards toward Pontotoc to a more advantageous position, preserving the same order in line. At this point, immediately on my right, two pieces of artillery were put in position (who commanded and what artillery it was I did not learn). Immediately on the left of the One hundred and twenty-second Illinois three pieces of the THIRD Indiana Battery were placed in position on an elevated ridge, having fair command of the enemy's anticipated position; one gun so placed as to bear toward the point of the left of my line, and two others to the front and right oblique. The whole line of infantry was placed so as to be concealed from the view of the enemy by the nature of the ground, growing corn, and bushes. At about the hour of 9 a. m. the enemy, having driven in the cavalry and our line of infantry skirmishers, advanced in line of battle to the attack, their right extending nearly to the extreme left of my position, in our front being an extensive and open, cleared field, giving us a view of the approaching line. When the enemy had approached within perhaps 100 yards the line was ordered to rise up and advance, which they did with the greatest gallantry and courage, meeting on the crest of the hill the advancing and confident enemy with such a line on fire as to compel them, without scarcely firing a gun, to about face and retreat in the utmost disorder. Our line continued to follow them up, pouring deadly volleys into their rapidly thinning ranks.
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* See table, p. 255.
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Page 282 | KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter LI. |