613 Series I Volume XXXVIII-I Serial 72 - The Atlanta Campaign Part I
Page 613 | Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC.-ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. |
HDQRS. TWENTY-FIRST Regiment OHIO INFTY. VOLS.,
Atlanta, Ga., September 9, 1864.SIR: In obedience to orders, I have the honor to report the operations of the Twenty-first Regiment Ohio Infantry Volunteers, under my command, in the Georgia campaign, to the morning of 2nd of September, 1864:
The regiment moved, under command of Colonel James M. Neibling, from Ringgold, Ga., May 7, and he continued to command it until the morning of May 28, when he was severely wounded, and the command devolved upon myself. Not being present the first sixteen days of the campaign, I cannot mention definitely the operations for that time. The regiment, however, participated in the affair at Buzzard Roost, and, subsequently, in the affair at resaca. The casualties in this regiment, to the time of my taking command, are 1 enlisted man killed and 14 enlisted men wounded in action. May 31, Lieutenant John W. Berry, having his company (K) deployed as skirmishers, in an attempt to regain a hill which was abandoned, without a fight, on the evening of 27th before, at Pumpkin Vine Creek, lost 6 men killed and 2 wounded. This little dash gave us the crest of a hill which commanded the position of the enemy in our front, which position was held by this regiment until the enemy withdrew. The firing on both sides continued incessantly between the skirmishers and pickets. It would make this report too voluminous to detail the numerous skirmishes and firings, earth-works built and marches performed, by this regiment during the campaign; it has written its history in this respect very indelibly from Ringgold to Jonesborough, Ga., during a period of three months and twenty days of restless vigilance. For twelve days together it occupied the front line at Bald Knob before Kenesaw Mountain, sustaining a loss of 1 officers, the gallant Lieutenant Dillworth, killed, and 11 men killed and wounded. The artillery practice at this position was the most desperate I have witnessed. Near Vining's Station, Ga., on the 9th of July, 1864, the regiment had a most spirited affair with two regiments of the enemy (the Fourth Mississippi and Fifty-fourth [?] Louisiana), driving them out of their rifle-pits into their main works, killing and wounding a number, and capturing 17 prisoners and their ordnance stores. My regiment commenced the attack with 12 officers and 382 enlisted men. Our loss was 15 enlisted men killed and 2 officers and 37 enlisted men wounded, and 1 officer missing. The regiment continued to hold the captured works and to annoy the enemy in his main works. During the night he abandoned his whole line north of the Chattahoochee, and by 4 a. m. 10th the skirmish line, under Captain Daniel Lewis, advanced, and in a short time reached the river. In this affair no other troops than my own regiment were engaged on our side, and it was a fair specimen of the tenacious fighting qualities displayed on other occasions by the gallant officers and brave men composing this command. On the 21st of July, while marching in line of battle, the gallant Captain Lewis (above named) was killed. In the operations before Atlanta the regiment was under the enemy's fire every day, and though no general battle was delivered by either side along our immediate front, our list of casualties became large from the almost incessant shelling and musketry of the enemy. In the battle before Jonesborough, September 1 instant, which resulted so gloriously to our arms, this regiment was again engaged. Charging through a dense
Page 613 | Chapter L. REPORTS, ETC.-ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND. |