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

Colonel Dan. McCook, commanding brigade, arm, severe; Colonel Harmon, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois, killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Clancey, Fifty-second Ohio, spent ball, slight; Lieutenant-Colonel Warner, One Hundred and Thirteenth Ohio, arm fractured, severe; Major Yeager, One Hundred and Twenty-first Illinois, severe; Captain Cook, Tenth Michigan, mortal; Captain Clason, One Hundred and Twenty-first Illinois, severe; Captain Neighbor, Fifty-second Ohio, mortal; Captain Durant, One Hundred and Thirteenth Ohio, slight; Lieutenant Walson, One Hundred and Thirteenth Ohio, slight; Lieutenant Bentley, One Hundred and Thirteenth Ohio, slight; Lieutenant Paul, Fifty-second Ohio, slight.

The above names were obtained from staff officers of the division and brigades, and are doubtless correct.

The loss of the enemy, of course, is not known. We can only judge from the position occupied by them — believed impenetrable works — that it is lighter than ours, probably by one fourth. Of one thing there is a certainty, we have many of their dead and wounded, and rarely one escaped who showed his head above the works.

Many instances of gallantry and almost impossible feats are pretty well authenticated, but lest I may lay myself open to the charge of indulging in sensational reports. I will pass them over for the present, promising to do full justice to the brave boys when I can do so without laying myself open to censure. That there should be acts of unusual bravery performed is no more than can be expected, for charging fortifications opens the door to all to win a hero's title. There the private has an equal chance with his Colonel to throw himself into the strife, and win lasting fame in history.

The color-bearer of the Twenty-seventh Illinois, Sergeant Nick Delany, planted his colors on the ramparts, after being wounded, and held them there until again shot, when the colors dropped from his grasp, toppled inside the works, and his body fell into the arms of his comrades, pierced by a rebel bayonet. He died a hero's death.

With this recital the history of the assaults of the twenty-seventh ends. On no other portion of the rebel line was a storming column hurled, though while the events I have related were transpiring, Dodge and Blair on the left, and Hooker and Schofield on the right, were not inactive. At the moment the assaulting columns moved forward, Hooker's corps, on the right of Davis' division, made a strong demonstration; Geary's division moving forward under cover of batteries I and M, First New York, and Knapp's Pennsylvania battery, and carrying, without serious opposition, an important ridge in his front, where he proceeded at once to establish himself. The other divisions of the Twentieth corps pushed forward their skirmishers, gaining several hundred yards; and it must be remembered that every yard gained tells upon the enemy in his circumscribed position.

The Twenty-third corps, on the extreme right, had executed a long and tiresome wheel to the left, including no less than six parallels, in the week preceding the twenty-seventh.

It had pressed the enemy so closely, that it was established within four hundred yards of the main rebel fortifications, leaving no room for skirmishers, and, though on the day of assault, the Second division opened heavily, with musketry and artillery, upon the enemy, they confined their efforts to stout skirmishing, sustaining a loss of seventy-five killed and wounded.

During the preceding night, General Cox's division, of the Twenty-third corps, was pushed boldly south on the Sandtown road, and, crossing Oily creek, reached an important fork in the road, nine miles south of Marietta, and but three from the Chattahoochee river, which, at last advices, he still held, with nothing confronting him but a heavy force of cavalry. Whether cutting into the retreat of the enemy was intended by this movement, in case the assault succeeded, or whether it was simply a diversion in favor of the storming columns, or whether a permanent extension of our right wing to that point was designed, has not yet been developed. The rebel cavalry in Cox's front consisted of two divisions, commanded by Jackson, fifty of whom we captured. Our loss in the movement was not over fifty.

While the assaults were in progress, and long after they were decided, the batteries of Blair, Dodge, and Logan, all in position, maintained a heavy fire on Kenesaw, to which the rebels replied but feebly. Blair and Dodge both made formidable demonstrations, their skirmishers advancing a considerable distance up the eastern slope of Kenesaw, gaining important territory, which they held at nightfall and were fortifying. Their loss was comparatively slight.

By noon both armies were tranquil again, the enemy, on some portions of the line where assaults were made, permitting us to remove our dead and wounded, which was speedily effected. A series of vigorous assaults had been made, accompanied by demonstrations along the whole line, but the repulse of the former, beyond the loss of many as brave men as were ever marshalled, has but little bearing upon the prospects for Sherman's eventual success. We advanced our lines materially, which could not have been done by any feeble effort; we failed to pierce the lines of Johnston's army, to compass its confusion or destruction. The loss of the enemy, compared with ours, is light, for evident reasons. He can not be very joyous that we failed to drive him from a very formidable chain of earthworks, and the comparatively few brigades--ten in all — engaged in