Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 11.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[293] twenty-one rounds per man. A report of casualties amounting to twenty-seven hundred and ninety-two officers and men killed, wounded and missing, is herewith appended.

Including so long a period of active operations, which were spread over so broad a field, this report is necessarily quite protracted; but it could not be compressed into narrower limits without doing injustice to the division whose services it is designed to commemorate. The reports of brigade and regimental commanders are herewith transmitted.

I am, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

Signed

This division was commanded from the beginning of the campaign to the fifth day of August by General Morgan L. Smith, from that date to the day I took command by General J. A. J. Lightburn. For that period I have caused the Adjutant-General of the division who has been on duty with it all of that time, to make a report of the operations of the division, which, upon comparison with the reports of brigades and regiments, I find to be substantially correct.

I found the division August seventeenth, in the trenches in front of Atlanta, composed of two brigades, the First, commanded by Colonel Theodore Jones, Thirtieth Ohio volunteers, with nine hundred and seventy-seven effective aggregate for duty. The Second, commanded by Colonel Wells S. Jones, Fifty-third Ohio volunteers, with one thousand one hundred and seventy-three effective aggregate for duty, with two batteries of light artillery--Company H, First regiment Illinois light artillery, with three twenty-pounder Parrotts, commanded by Captain F. DeGrass, and company A, of the same regiment, with four twelve-pound light field-guns, effective aggregate of both for duty being one hundred and forty-one, making the entire strength of the division two thousand two hundred and ninety-one.

The division remained in the position I found it, about six hundred yards from the enemy, till August twenty-sixth, when at eight P. M. it moved with the corps in the direction of Fairburn, reaching the West Point and Atlanta railroad without opposition, at a point about thirteen miles from Atlanta, at twelve M., August twenty-eighth.

On the morning of the twenty-ninth, a squad of one officer and nine enlisted men of a Texas cavalry regiment was captured and brought in by Captain George M. Crane, Eighth Missouri detachment. The division, leading the corps, took up the march at seven A. M., the thirtieth, in the direction of Jonesboroa, distant thirteen miles. After moving about five miles, we came upon a portion of Kilpatrick's cavalry that had been checked by two brigades of the cavalry of the enemy. Forming two regiments as a support to the skirmishers already made strong, they all advanced in conjunction with some troops of the Sixteenth corps on the right, the enemy giving way. As often as the enemy found time during the day, he endeavored, by making temporary barricades, and by the use of artillery, to check our column; but the march was kept up with but little delay the entire day, crossing Flint river, driving him from the other side, repairing the bridge and pushing to within one fourth mile of the town before dark. At this time we captured an infantry soldier from the enemy, who informed us that two divisions of Hardee's corps were before us, and that our lines were not over two hundred yards apart. This was also made probable by the musketry fire. The troops were here formed in line, the right resting on the Fairburn and Jonesboroa road, and extending north, and a good barricade made along their front. Early on the morning of the thirty-first, Colonel Theodore Jones, commanding First brigade on the left, was directed to seize and fortify a commanding eminence about one half mile to the front of his left. He had just gained it, when the enemy came also to occupy it. He held his ground, however,with a portion of his command, while the remainder fortified the position. It was found to be of the greatest importance, as it overlooked the entire front occupied by the enemy. Columns of rebel troops were now seen to be extending to our left, planting artillery and making all dispositions necessary to attack. As he extended beyond my left, and as my troops were formed in a light line, with considerable intervals, a brigade from the Seventeenth corps under Colonel George E. Bryant, Twelfth Wisconsin volunteers, and two regiments under Colonel William B. Woods, Seventy-sixth Ohio volunteers, were sent to me, and posted where most needed, where they afterward performed good service. I now had sixteen regiments in the line and one in reserve. No point of it could by given up with: out endangering the entire line. At two P. M., the enemy commenced a vigorous fire of artillery all along his line, and was soon after seen advancing his infantry. We had good works, and the attack was met with the most perfect confidence. He came on with two full lines, supported by troops in mass, coming in one place quite inside the works, and persisting in the attack for about three fourths of an hour, when he was completely repulsed at all points, and those who came too near captured.

We lost quite heavily in the trenches before the fight took place, but during the fight we had but eleven killed, fifty-two wounded, and two missing.

Of the enemy we buried over two hundred, captured ninety-nine unhurt, and seventy-nine wounded. We took also two stands of colors, and over a thousand stands of small-arms. I have