No. 62. report of Col. P. Sidney Post, Fifty-ninth Illinois Infantry, comnmanding Second brigade, of operations August 19-September 8.
Hdqrs. Second Brig., Third Div., 4TH Army Corps, Atlanta, Ga., September 11, 1864.
Captain: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army Corps, since the 19th day of August, 1864, at which time I assumed command of it:
In obedience to orders from department headquarters, on the 21st the Sixth Regiment of Kentucky Infantry, and on the 24th the Sixth Regiment Indiana Infantry, were sent to the rear.
The brigade occupied the intrenchments north of the beleaguered city of Atlanta until the night of the 25th of August, when, at 8 p. m., in accordance with the instructions of Brigadier-General Wood, commanding the division, the troops were silently withdrawn and moved toward the right of the army.
The Ninety-third Regiment Ohio Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bowman, remained on the picket-line until 11 p. m., at which time, under the supervision of Major Dawson, of the staff of the general commanding the division, it left its position without exciting the suspicion of the enemy and followed the column.
On the evening of the 28th the brigade bivouacked near Red Oak, and on the following morning it marched in the direction of East Point, destroying the Atlanta and West Point Railroad, burning the ties and twisting the rails.
The brigade destroyed about one mile of the road, approaching as near East Point as the division commander deemed prudent.
On the 30th the march was resumed, crossing the West Point railroad and moving in the direction of Rough and Ready, on the Atlanta and Macon Railroad, until we reached Big Bethel Church.
During the night a large force of the enemy, with artillery and trains, moved past our position in a southerly direction.
In the morning he was found in rifle-pits in our front.
The Fifty-ninth Regiment Illinois Infantry, commanded by Captain West, deployed as skirmishers on the right of General Kimball's division, attacked the riflepits, and drove the enemy from them, capturing 6 prisoners. The Forty-first Regiment Ohio Infantry were then deployed as skirmishers, and this brigade, the advance of the corps, pushed forward toward the Macon railroad, which was struck about three miles south of Rough and Ready and destroyed during the night by our pioneers, under direction of Captain Galbraith.
The Seventy-first Regiment Ohio Veteran Infantry arrived and was camped with the brigade.
On the 1st of September this brigade acted as rear guard to the train, camping two miles north of Jonesborough.
Moving through Jonesborough on the 2d, we found the enemy in force near Lovejoy's Station, and, as directed by the division commander, the brigade was formed in double column at half distance in the rear of the left of First Brigade of this division, with 200 men from the Seventy-first Regiment Ohio Veteran Infantry, under command of Colonel McConnell, deployed as skirmishers on the left of the skirmishers of the First Brigade.
Advancing, we encountered the enemy's skirmishers and drove them half a mile.
Finding that there was an interval between the First and Third Brigades, I 