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545 Series I Volume XXXVIII-I Serial 72 - The Atlanta Campaign Part I

Page 545 Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC.-ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.

100 feet high confronted us, from the top of which the enemy fired on our line, and, finding his fire unavailing, hurled down huge rocks on the skirmishers. Finding no assailable point directly in front, the line moved by the right flank about one half mile with like success, when the regiment wa ordered to take up a position at the base of the ridge,where it remained, subject to the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters, until the morning of the 11th, when it was retired about a mile. On the morning of the 12th the regiment was ordered to march with the brigade to the right, and, after passing through Snake Creek Gap, bivouacked for the night some distance south of that point. Next morning the regiment with the balance of the brigade marched in the order of battle, skirmishing with the enemy until after dark, when the division was relieved by General Williams' division, of the Twentieth Army Corps, and retired a few hundred yards. About midnight the regiment was moved tot he front again, the men resting on their arms until morning. On the morning of the 14th the brigade was divided into two lines, the Fifteenth in the second line covered by the Thirty-third Ohio. Skirmishing commenced early in the morning and continued very brisk our lines advancing steadily until the enemy's skirmishers were driven with their main line into their works. After a short rest a charge was ordered, the two lines of the brigade being at the time very close to each other. The lines attempted to advance across an open field, but no sooner showed their colors than the enemy opened a very heavy and destructive fire from two lines of works on the opposite hill, which compelled the advancing lines to halt and await the cover of night to retire. In this action the regiment lost 1 commissioned officer killed and 5 wounded, and 1 enlisted man killed and 9 wounded, exclusive of 2 wounded on the skirmish line, both of whom [have] since died. On Sunday morning, 15th, the Fifteenth Kentucky and Eighty-eighth Indiana were moved to the extreme left of our lines and ordered to occupy a position covering the enemy's right, with a view to silence a battery of six guns which he had been working in a strong redoubt. While the regiment was getting into position the One hundred and twenty-ninth Indiana, which we were about to relieve, suddenly ceased firing, and gave the enemy time to turn one of his guns on us, which sent a shell into the midst of the regiment, killing 1 enlisted man and wounding a commissioned and a non-commissioned officer. After this mishap, our unceasing fire kept the enemy quiet during the day without any further casualty occurring in the regiment.

During the night of the 15th the enemy evacuated his position in our front and the regiment was moved next day to the village of Resaca, where we bivouacked for the night. On the morning of the 17th we resumed our march after the retreating foe across the Oostenaula River, through Calhoun and Adairsville, reaching Kingston in the afternoon of the 19th, and bivouacked a few miles south of that point (after burning the saltpeter works) until the morning of the 23d, when the regiment "stripped for battle," crossed the Etowah, and by easy marches reached the Allatoona hills near Dallas on evening of the 26th. A portion of the Fourth Corps being hotly engaged on the 27th, the brigade was sent to its support, but night putting a stop to the fight, the regiment was not brought into action. Next morning the regiment took a position between the Eighty-eighth Indiana and Tenth Wisconsin on the extreme left of our lines, threw up some hasty works, and soon became engaged

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Page 545 Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC.-ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.