success of this battery throughout this entire campaign is owing to the fact that its fire has ever been concentrated, and by battery or in volleys. August 13, obtained from General Sherman a 4 1/2-inch Rodman, which was placed in battery where my line connected with the right of the Army of the Cumberland. The position overlooked the whole valley, being the salient of our joint lines, and the gun opened on the city, with orders to fire a round every fifteen minutes throughout the day, and every five minutes during the night. This piece fired 1,080 rounds before being dismounted, with no other injury than the enlargement of the vent. A battery [of] 20-pounder Parrotts was sent to me from the Seventeenth Corps, and placed in position with Welker's guns; a furnace was built and hot shot fired from two of them during the night. The heating process seemed to expand the shot, so as to take the rifling more perfectly, and with the guns we had the experiment was a perfect success. I cannot say positively that the hot shot was used save one. The command suffered from the first advance till the evening of the 25th of August, as severely as a besieging party. Our lines were so closely drawn that extreme danger attended the exposure of the person at any point on the skirmish line. We were constantly annoyed by batteries on our right and left flanks, which destroyed more men in the reserve lines than elsewhere. There was no safety or security; cooks, grooms, clerks at work in their offices, were as subject to being hit by the random shell or shots as men in the extreme front.

On the evening of August 25, at 8 p. m., with muffled artillery wagons, and with great secrecy and celerity, the Second Division withdrew, occupying a line of works thrown up through the day on the ridge running north and south, on which Ezra Church is located, and conforming nearly to the line of the Fifteenth Corps in their battle for the 28th of August [July], facing east instead of west, Rice's brigade on the left and Adams' brigade on the right. The division, with its corps, withdrew from this position on the night of August 26. Being in rear of the Army of the Tennessee, Rices' brigade was thrown out as rear guard, not to move till the pickets all fell back. The entire command drew out at 8 p. m. and marched, via Lick skillet,over Utoy Creek, through Dry Pond, to a plantation on Camp Creek, owned by one Campbell, nearly due south of Sandtown. August 28, our trains went round by Judge Wilson's place, and joined us at this point. This division, in advance of the corps, and in rear of the train of the Seventeenth Corps train to clear the road. The march was short, bringing us to Shadna Church on the West Point railroad, distant from Fairburn two miles. Here the Sixteenth Corps laid in reserve. August 29, the division, with the corps, moved down the West Point railroad, destroying the track between Shadna and Palmetto, about 5 miles; returned to the position occupied the night before, in rear of the Seventeenth Corps. August 30, the Second Division, in advance of the corps, moved toward Jonesborough, taking a direct road, crossing Pond Fork and Shoal Creek, via Renfroe Place on the west bank of Flint River, where the command went into bivouac about 10 p. m. The Fifteenth Corps occupying the main road compelled us, being in the advance of the parallel column, to make a road as we marched. By direction