No. 76.-report of Capt. Samuel El. Barrett, battery B, First Illinois Light Artil lery.
Hdqrs. Company B, First Regt. Ill. Art., Year Pittsburg Landing, April 10, 1862.
Major: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the battery under my command during the engagement at this place on the 6th and 7th instant:
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We were stationed near the outposts, and on the alarm being given, at about 7.30 o'clock on Sunday morning, the battery was promptly got in readiness, and in ten minutes thereafter commenced firing on the right of the log church, some hundred yards in front of General Shermans headquarters, where the attack was made by the enemy in great force.
The enemy once charged on the battery, but were repulsed with great loss.
The enemy, however, succeeded in turning our left flank, and, finding the battery in a critical condition, I retired to the open field occupied by the First Brigade, First Division, and awaited orders which were soon received, to go into battery on the upper end of the field.
This movement was promptly executed, and we engaged for tw hours a rebel battery (masked) in the camp of the Forty-fifth Regimenu Illinois Infantry, suffering a loss of 1 man killed and 3 wounded. As the firing had been very rapid all the morning my supply of ammunition became exhausted, and I retired to an open field some half mile in the rear, where, finding my baggage wagons, I refilled my caissons and gun-limbers.
I remained on this field the most of the day and the day following until about 4 o'clock p. m., when I was ordered to move forward and go into battery near the point we occupied when the attack was made on the preceding day, but finding the rebels in full retreat, and being out of the range of my guns, we were not brought into action.1
My camp and garrison equipage was almost totally ruined, much of it being plundered and the remainder destroyed; I beg leave to call your attention to the annexed list of property destroyed and captured by the enemy while in my camp.
Very respectfully, yours,
Saml. E. Barrett, Captain, First Regiment Illinois Artillery. Maj. EzRA Taylor, Comdg. First Battalion, First Regt. Illinois Artillery.
