709 Series I Volume XL-I Serial 80 - Richmond, Petersburg Part I
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until night, when General Burnside promised to relieve him. The next day I asked General Burnside for the two divisions left in his trenches, and finding that he could not send them all to me without inconvenience, I telegraphed General Meade that I could get along with the part which had been returned. The whole reported that night or the next morning.
Inclosed you will find reports of division commanders and reports of casualties.
I am, sir, respectfully,your obedient servant,
E. O. C. ORD,
Major-General of Volunteers, Commanding.
Major General A. A. HUMPHREYS,
Chief of Staff, Army of the Potomac.
Numbers 264. Report of Brigadier General Hiram Burnham U. S. Army, commanding First Division, of operations July 30.
HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, EIGHTEENTH CORPS,
July 31, 1864.SIR; I have the honor to submit the following report of operations of this division during the action of yesterday in front of the Ninth Corps:
On the evening of the 29th, in obedience to orders from corps headquarters, I relieved Brigadier General George J. Stannard, in command of the division. At 10 p.m. that portion of my division which occupied the trenches in my front having been relieved by a detachment of Mott's division, of the Second Corps, I moved to the left with my whole command to a point in rear of the line occupied by the Ninth Corps. I here reported to Brigadier-General Carr, under whose command I had been placed for the day. Under the direction of General Carr, my First Brigade, under command of Colonel A. F. Stevens, Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, was assigned a position in the second line on the right, my Second Brigade in the first line on the extreme left, and my Third Brigade directly opposite the enemy's works, which had been previously mined; all these positions being on that part of the line heretofore occupied by the Ninth Corps. In consequence of delays, which were out of my power to prevent, my command did not reach the position indicated until daylight.
At 5 a.m. of the 30th the mine was sprung and the attack commenced, when my Second Brigade, Colonel E. M. Cullen, Ninety-sixth New York Volunteers commanding, opened fire on the enemy's works in its front, to which no reply was made, and my Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Guy V. Henry, Fortieth Massachusetts Volunteers, rendered important service, keeping down the fire from the enemy's flanking pits. At 7 a.m. my First Brigade was moved from its position in the second line and took up a position in the rifle-pits near the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, where it remained until noon, when it relieved the brigade of Colonel Bell, occupying the front line of pits opposite the crater. During the heavy fire of the morning a number of men in my Third Brigade volunteered to bring in the wounded of the Ninth Corps, who were lying exposed in the open field; two men of the Fortieth Massachusetts
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