Numbers 519.

Report of Major William B. Brown, Seventieth Ohio Infantry, of operations July 22.

HDQRS. SEVENTIETH OHIO VETERAN VOLUNTEERS,
Before Atlanta, Ga., July 24, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to submit to you the following report of the operations of the Seventieth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry on the 22nd day of July, 1864:

On the morning of the 22d, this regiment had on the skirmish line in front of the Third Brigade, Fourth Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, forty men, commanded by Captain Watson Foster. Early in the day the skirmish line advanced to take the enemy's works, from which they were falling back, and Captain Foster was severely wounded in the left leg and had to be carried from the field. I was ordered by Colonel Oliver, commanding the brigade, to move my regiment forward to the enemy's works, some 400 yards south of the railroad from Atlanta to Decatur, and change them -to operate in the direction of Atlanta. About noon firing commenced on the left and rear of the Army of the Tennessee. The firing increased rapidly and the regiment was ordered to be ready for action, and in a few moments was ordered to move southeast to meet the advance, as the firing indicated that the enemy were gaining ground, but before reaching the scene of action was ordered to return to the line of works which we had changed, and about 500 or 600 yards from the railroad, and the opposite side from which we had occupied, to hold that position until another regiment could reach that point; and as soon as relieved moved forward the railroad, but before reaching that point a captain on General -staff request General Harrow to send a regiment to the point where the enemy were heavily engaging the Seventeenth Army Corps, which the general did, and ordered me to report to Colonel Walcutt, commanding Second Brigade, which was then engaging the enemy. Colonel Walcutt ordered the regiment held in support, but was ordered to the works, some 500 yard south of the railroad, to meet a column advancing from the direction of Atlanta. The regiment soon became engaged, and the firing was very heavy along the entire line for some time, but the line on our right began to waver, and Captain Campbell, of Colonel Oliver's staff, brought the order to fall back to the works from which the advance had been made in the morning. The regiment was formed out of the works to march to the point indicated, but before the regimental had entirely filed away from the works I saw General Harrow and sent Captain Summers to him for instruction, and, finding that he wished the works held, I ordered the regiment to return double-quick to the position from which it had just been ordered. This order was received by the regiment with great cheering. The enemy's advance were driven back, and for some distance on our right the lines were again established in the works, but the enemy rallied and charged again with greater desperation, and the musketry became a perfect crash, and our entire line to the right of the Seventieth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, so far as we could see, gave way, and the enemy took possession of their works, and the advance reached a point some 200 yards in the rear of the works on our right. I brought two companies from the left of the regiment to the right, and formed all the detachments that I could collect at right angles