Numbers 111. Report of Lieutenant General Alexander P. Stewart, C. S. Army, commanding army corps.

HDQRS. STEWART'S CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE,
Near Tupelo, Miss., January 20, 1864.

SIR: The following brief outline of the operations of this corps from September 29, 1864, to the close of the campaign is respectfully submitted. It is necessarily an imperfect report, being made at the request of the commanding general without the aid of the reports of subordinate commanders:

Crossing the Chattahoochee at Pumpkin Town, September 29, we camped the night of October 2 within a few miles of Lost Mountain. the next morning (Monday, the 3d), in obedience to the orders of the commanding general, we marched to strike the railroad at Big Shanty, Armstrong's brigade of cavalry joining us at Lost Mountain, and taking post between Big Shanty and Marietta to cover our work of destroying the railroad. Arriving near Big Shanty in the afternoon, Featherston's brigade, of Loring's DIVISION, was formed in line, with skirmishers in front, and moved forward on the village. The small force of the enemy took refuge in the depot, which was loop-holed. After the exchange of a few shots and a small loss in killed and wounded they surrendered-some 100 or more. Loring's DIVISION then moved direct to Acworth, where a few hundred prisoners were taken next morning. Reynolds' brigade, of Walthall's DIVISION, carried Moon's Station, between Big Shanty and Acworth, taking some hundred prisoners, and by 3 p. m. of the 4th the railroad was effectually torn up, the ties burned, and rails bent for a distance of ten or twelve miles. This work, the capture of some 600 prisoners, and a few killed and wounded, was effected with a loss of not more than 12 or 15, mostly wounded.

In compliance with the orders of the commanding general, French's DIVISION was started to Allatoona, and with the other two I moved back to Lost Mountain. Reports have already been forwarded of the heroic but fruitless attack made by French's DIVISION on the enemy's position at Allatoona.

Moving with the rest of the army at 11 p. m. October 12, after a march that day of near thirty miles, this corps reached the railroad some mile and a half or two miles above Resaca, and immediately went to work to destroy the road. By night of the 13th the road was effectually destroyed to within a few miles of Dalton, and with it a vast quantity of cross-ties and bridge timbers. A working party of the enemy, consisting of 70 or 80 men, their tools, wagons, and work oxen were taken, and block-house at Tilton, with some 300 men, captured. These captures were made by French's DIVISION, Selden's battery, of Walthall's DIVISION, reducing the block-house.

We next encountered the enemy at Decatur, Ala., toward the end of October, driving in his pickets and skirmishing for a day or two, with a loss of some 135 men, but making no serious attack on his strongly intrenched position. Leaving this place, we moved to Tuscumbia, whence, after a delay of three weeks, we marched for Tennessee. *

I deem it proper to say that after the fall of Atlanta the condition of the army and other considerations rendered it necessary, in my judgment,

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*For portion of report (here omitted), relating to the Nashville campaign, see Vol. XLV, Part I.

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