Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[698] I deem it eminently proper to say to the department, that neither the spirit which resolved to dispute at Vicksburg the jurisdiction of the Mississippi River, nor the energy which successfully executed that resolution, was local in its character, nor was it a spirit bounded by State lines, or circumscribed by State pride. It was a broad, catholic spirit, wide as our country, and unlimited as the independence we struggle to establish. The power which baffled the enemy resided in the breasts of the soldiers of seven States, marshaled behind the ramparts of Vicksburg. Mississippians were there, but there too, also, were the men of Kentucky, of Tennessee, of Alabama, of Arkansas, of Louisiana, and of Missouri, as ready to defend the emporium of Mississippi as to strike down the foe at their own hearthstones. I incorporate with my report a schedule of the forces under my command at Vicksburg, as a proper contribution to the archives of the Confederacy.

General Helm.--Fourth Kentucky volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Hynes; Fifth Kentucky volunteers, Colonel Hunt; Thirty-first Alabama volunteers, Colonel Edwards; Fourth Alabama battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Snodgrass; Thirty-fifth Mississippi volunteers, Colonel Orr; Hudson battery.

General J. S. Bowen.--First Missouri volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Riley; Tenth Arkansas volunteers; Ninth Arkansas volunteers, Colonel Dunlop; Sixth Mississippi volunteers, Colonel Lowry; Second Confederate battalion; Watson's battery, Captain Bursley.

General Preston.--Third Kentucky volunteers, Colonel Thompson; Sixth Kentucky volunteers, Colonel Lewis; Seventh Kentucky volunteers, Colonel Crossland; Thirty-fifth Alabama volunteers, Colonel. Robertson; Cobb's battery, Lieutenant Gracy.

Colonel W. S. Statham.--Fifteenth Mississippi volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Farrell; Twenty-second Mississippi volunteers, Captain Hughes Nineteenth Tennessee volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Moore; Twentieth Tennessee volunteers, Colonel Smith; Twenty-eighth Tennessee volunteers, Colonel Brown; Forty-fifth Tennessee volunteers, Colonel Searcey; McClung's battery, Captain McClung.

General M. L. Smith.--Company of sappers and miners, Captain Winters; Twenty-sixth Louisiana volunteers, Colonel DeClouett; Twenty-fifth Louisiana volunteers, Colonel Thomas; Sixth Mississippi battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Balfour; Twenty-seventh Louisiana volunteers, Colonel Marks; Third Mississippi volunteers, Colonel Mellon; Seventeenth Louisiana volunteers, Colonel Richardson; Fourth Louisiana volunteers, Colonel Allen; Company I, Thirty-seventh Mississippi volunteers, Captain Randall; First Mississippi Light artillery, Colonel Withers; regiment heavy artillery, Colonel Jackson; Eighth Louisiana battalion, Pinckney; First Louisiana battalion, Major Clinch; Twenty-eighth Mississippi cavalry, Colonel Stark; battalion Zouaves, Major Dupiere; cavalry escort, Lieutenant Bradley.

To the members of my staff, Majors Kimmel and Stith, Assistant Adjutant Generals; to Majors Joseph D. Balfour and A. M. Haskell, Inspectors; to Surgeon Choppin, Medical Director; to Surgeon Ryan, Medical Inspector; to Lieutenants Sullivan and Shoemaker, my Aides; to Lieutenant-Colonel Lomax, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General; to Lieutenant-Colonel J. P. Mayor, Acting Engineer; to Captain A. H. Cross, Captain Thyssing, Engineers; to Colonel Fred. Tate, and to Majors Uriel Wright and Welchler, volunteer Aides, I return my thanks for the ready and efficient services rendered by them in their respective departments.

I am, sir, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

Since this report was written I have received the report of Major-General Breckinridge, of his operations at Baton Rouge and Port Hudson, herewith forwarded. It gives me pleasure to commend to the special notice of the department the names of all who won distinction in the service.

Sir: I have the honor to report the operations of a portion of my division, recently ordered from Vicksburg to Camp Moore and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Major General Van Dorn:

I left Vicksburg on the twenty-seventh of July with somewhat less than four thousand men, and arrived at Camp Moore the evening of the twenty-eighth. The Major-General commanding the district having received intelligence that the enemy was threatening Camp Moore in force, the movement was made suddenly and rapidly by railroad, and having but few cars, nothing could be transported except the troops, with their arms and ammunition. Brigadier-General Charles Clark, who had reported for duty a few days before our departure from Vicksburg, promptly and kindly consented to accompany the expedition. Brigadier-General Ruggles was already at Camp Moore, in command of a small force, with which he had kept the enemy in check. The troops were immediately organized in two divisions, General Clark taking command of the First, and General Ruggles of the Second division. The rumor of an advance of the enemy in force upon Camp Moore proved to be unfounded. On the thirtieth of July, in obedience to a despatch of the twenty-ninth, from the Major-General commanding the district, the troops were put in motion