No. 316. Report of Brigadier General Joseph B. Carr, U. S. Army, commanding First Division, of operations August 5.1
HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, EIGHTEENTH CORPS,
August 6, 1864.
SIR: I have the honor to report that at about 6.30 p.m. on yesterday, immediately after the sound of an explosion and of a few volleys of musketry to the left of my front, supposed to be on the front of the Ninth Corps, the enemy opened on my command with a heavy fire from some twenty pieces of artillery situated on the right bank of the Appomattox River, and continued a vigorous shelling for something over an hour. Little injury was done, most of the shells passing to the left of my front and in rear, save from a well-directed fire from what is known as the Chester Hill battery, the shells from which almost enfiladed the left of my front line; the explosion of a single shell from which killed 1 and wounded 9 men in the trenches. The fire of the enemy was replied to by Dow’s battery of 30-pounder Parrotts and mortars, while Regan and Riggs opened to my immediate front and left, but with what effect I am unable to tell. In obedience to orders from corps headquarters my troops were all under arms prepared to resist any attack, but my infantry was in nowise engaged.
Very respectfully,
J. B. CARR,
Brigadier-General.
Major WILLIAM RUSSELL, jr.,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Eighteenth Corps.
Source:
- The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume XLII, Part 1 (Serial Number 87), page 797 ↩