Numbers 11. Reports of Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, U. S. Army, Commanding Fifteenth Army Corps. HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Savannah, Ga., December 26, 1864.

CAPTAIN: *

The orders issued regulating the march of the columns from Atlanta south assigned me again to the extreme right, with the privilege of using one or more parallel roads, if it did not interfere with the columns on my left (Seventeenth Army Corps). I respectfully refer the major-General commanding to the accompanying map,+ marked B, for the routes taken by and the camps of the different divisions at the end of every day's march.

On November 15, 1864, in pursuance of orders received, the Fifteenth Army Corps left its encampments-General Woods, Smith, and Hazen, marching in one column from Atlanta, arrived, via Rough and Ready, in the vicinity of Stockbridge; General Corse, who had on the previous night reached the Chattahoochee River, was necessarily delayed at Atlanta, receiving and issuing quartermaster's stores, which were laid a Part of them, and therefore had to halt for the night in the vicinity of Rough and Ready. The head of the former columns (First, Second, and Third Divisions) found near the aforesaid railroad station some rebel pickets, who, evidently surprised at our unexpected appearance, fled. Near Stockbridge the rebel General, Lewis, with about 1,000 mounted troops and one section of artillery, held a position, but he also yielded it after a very feeble show of resistance. This rebel general subsequently indulged merely in the destruction of bridges to oppose our advance, keeping his troops at a very discreet distance. The First, Second, and Third Divisions were encamped in the vicinity of Stockbridge, with a view to prevent a collision with the Seventeenth Army Corps, whose march was also directed toward Stockbridge.

McDonough being the point to be reached on the 16th of November, I directed General Hazen (Second Division) to march on the main road via Stockbridge, while Generals Woods and Smith moved via Lee's Mills, and General Corse was to take a direct road from his camp at Rough and Ready, by Lee's Mills, to McDonough. At McDonough the whole of the Fifteenth Army Corps was for the first time assembled, and the divisions in supporting distance of each other.

The corps marched on November 17 in one column to Locust Grove, where, to facilitate the movement, two columns were formed, moving toward Planters' Factory, on the Ocmulgee River-Generals Woods and Hazen via Indian Springs, Generals Smith and Corse via Jackson. On the same day I succeeded in pushing the Twenty-ninth Missouri Infantry to that river, and secured both banks for the intended bridges. As soon as the pontoon could be laid down at the Ocmulgee Factories, General Smith crossed and took a defensive position on the east side of the Ocmulgee (November 18), the other divisions of the corps remaining in their respective camps until the Seventeenth Corps had crossed.

At 7. 30 a. m. November 19 the Seventeenth Corps yielded the bridge to us and we commenced crossing, General Hazen leading. General

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* For portion of report here omitted, see VOL. XXXIX, Part I, p. 740.

+ Not found.

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6 R R-VOL XLIV.