Report of Lieutenant Colonel William H. Moegling, 11th Connecticut, of operations June 15 to June 26, 18641
Head-Quarters, 11th C. V.,
In the Field, Va., June 26, 1864
ADJT.-GEN. H. J. MORSE,
Hartford, Conn.
SIR:
I have the honor to transmit herewith a list of casualties which occurred in this command since June 15th; the casualties from the 1st to the 15th, I understand have already been published. The regiment being constantly in the front, I am not able to send lists immediately after every engagement, but shall always endeavor to send them as soon as possible. In the casualties of the 18th instant, you will find the name of Captain W. H. Sackett, of Company I, among the killed. Capt. S. had just returned from recruiting service in Connecticut. In him the service loses a most gallant and efficient officer. We also mourn the loss of Adjutant S. C. Barnum, who died in Washington, from a wound received at Cold Harbor. Both these officers were connected with the regiment since its organization, and two braver men never left the State.
The loss of the regiment has been very heavy; it has been in the front almost continually since it joined the Army of the Potomac. It has occupied the front line at Cold Harbor from the 3d to the 11th, being within 100 yards of the enemy, and continually under fire, losing from two to six men every day. In the engagement before Petersburg, the regiment always had the front line, and on the 18th lost quite heavily, having the advance during the whole battle, and keeping it until 8 o’clock on the 19th, when it was relieved, and in the evening was marched back to its old camp near Bermuda Hundred, to take twenty-four hours rest. In the battle of the 18th, the regiment charged and captured the enemy’s rifle-pits, in front of their main works, before Petersburg, killing and wounding a number, and taking a rebel Major, and thirty men prisoners. Since the 9th of May last, the regiment has been under fire twenty-three times, and has lost 400 men in action, and over one-half of its officers ; it has marched many miles, with but very few stragglers, and has always done its duty without flinching. The health of the command at present is excellent, although the heat is intense, and the duty in the trenches very hard in consequence.
I am, Sir, very respectfully,
Your most ob’t servant,
William H. Moegling,
Lieut.-Col. Comd’g 11th C. V.
Source:
- Annual Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Connecticut, for the Year Ending March 31, 1865 (New Haven: Carrington, Hotchkiss & Co., State Printers, 1865), p. 248 ↩