Today in History:

526 Series I Volume XXX-I Serial 50 - Chickamauga Part I

Page 526 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., N. ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter XLII.

Ohio; Captain Varner, Twenty-fifth Illinois, and captain Wheeler, and several other officers of the Eighty-first Indiana Volunteers, we made several efforts with partial success to rally our scattered commands. We made three several stands, and on a rise about 1,200 yards to the rear of the fieldwork, made the last and desperate resistance with a few hundred men, checking the progress of the enemy and enabling our batteries to be taken safely from the field. We then withdrew from the field quietly and sullenly with every regimental color and field piece of the brigade, and retired about 1 1/2 miles to the rear, reaching there about 2 p.m. and reformed our remnant of a command. We then, in company with the brigade and division to which we are attached, together with several other divisions of the army, moved to a position about 2 miles nearer Chattanooga, and bivouacked for the night.

Upon calling the roll of the Eighty-first Indiana Volunteers 2 officers and 19 enlisted men were reported missing. We have good evidence for knowing that several among the missing were killed or wounded, but owing to the great uncertainty enveloping the case they are all reported on the sad list of missing. We expended in the two days' fighting about 61 rounds of ammunition per man, and sustained the following casualties: Six officers and 81 enlisted men, a correct list of the names having preceded this report.

It is due, under the circumstances, that I should speak of the conduct of the officers and men of the Eighty-first Indiana Volunteers. With scarcely an exception they behaved in the most gallant and admirable manner, and though comparatively a young regiment, conducted themselves with the coolness, steadiness, and precision of veterans on the field of battle. Captain Mitchell, a brave and efficient officer, was mortally wounded, and Lieutenants Northcutt, Cummings, and Zimmerman were wounded while gallantly leading their men in the discharge of their duties. They battled as brave men worthy of the best Government ever instituted among men, and the Republic may feel confident when its interests rest in the hands of such defenders. It would be deemed little less than invidious were I to mention one officer or man as excelling another in gallantry and efficiency, but I cannot close this report without thanking Adjutant Schell for the aid and courtesies he has shown me in the discharge of my duties, and tendering all the officers and men my thanks for the cheerfulness and universal promptness with which they have obeyed my orders. I desire to offer no eulogium upon the conduct of the officers and men of the Eighty-first Indiana Volunteers. I wish to say they shared no higher honor than that they "fought in Carlin's brigade of the Army of the Cumberland, obeyed orders, and did their duty in the great battle of Chickamauga, 'the Creek of Death,'" and when the long sad list of killed, wounded, and missing is published the shadows of gloom that will gather around many of the hearth stones of our homes will show that there also they were loved and appreciated.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

J. E. CALLOWAY,

Major Twenty-first Illinois volunteers, Commanding.

Captain S. P. VORIS,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, Second Brigade, First Division.


Page 526 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., N. ALA., AND N. GA. Chapter XLII.