No. 173.

Report of Captain William A. Osborne, Twentieth Indiana Battery, of operations August 14-September 2.

HEADQUARTERS TWENTIETH INDIANA BATTERY, Jonesborough, Ga., September 5, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to make the following report of the operations of the Twentieth Indiana Battery during that campaign:

On the 14th day of August, in obedience to your order, the battery was placed in a position in the works before Atlanta, which had just been vacated by Battery I, First Ohio Artillery, on the right of the First Brigade and the left of the Second Brigade, First Division, Fourteenth Army Corps. We found in our front and in the enemy's works the remnant of a battery which had been dismounted previously by Battery I, First Ohio Artillery, and which the enemy were endeavoring to remount and place in position near their former one bearing upon us. I directed fire to be kept up on all working parties of the enemy in our front,which was done effectually until the night of the 25th, when the enemy, under cover of night,placed a battery obliquely to our right in a new position, bearing upon the Twentieth Battery,and on the morning of the 26th of August directed a sharp fire on our works, when I directed a concentrated fire of the whole battery on the enemy's battery,and, with the firing from the Seventh Indiana Battery, soon silenced the enemy's guns and damaged their works so seriously that their artillery abandoned the position. During the firing I expended the following ammunition; 63 spherical case, 129 shell, and 122 solid shot. On the evening of the 26th of August, in obedience to your orders, the battery took up the march with the corps in the general movement on this point, and moved under your direction until the 28th of August, when the Twentieth Indiana Battery and the Seventh Indiana Battery were organized into the Third Battalion of Artillery, of the Fourteenth Army Corps, by order of the major-general commanding the corps, and in obedience to your order reported to Brigadier-General Baird, commanding the Third Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, to move with and be maneuvered with that division. On the morning of the 29th of August Brigadier-General Baird assigned the battalion a position in his column, and we marched with his command during the day without any firing by the Twentieth Indiana Battery, the Seventh Indiana Battery under your direction having fired six rounds form a position on the Atlanta and Montgomery Railroad. The battery moved with the Third Division, of the Fourteenth Army Corps, under the direction of Brigadier-General Baird, commanding, up to the battle-ground on the afternoon of the 1st instant, when the infantry became engaged, and the Twentieth Indiana Battery, with the Seventh Indiana Battery, was, by order of Brigadier-General Baird, with orders to await orders in readiness. The battery was not engaged, and consequently met with no losses. On the 2nd instant the battery arrived at Jonesborough, Ga., its present position, with the Third Division, Fourteenth Army Corps. When the battery moved from its position on the night of the 26th of August I was necessarily compelled to leave some property for the reason that all my transportation wagons, with a detail of one sergeant and ten men, were by our orders out after forage,and I had no means of transporting