No. 160. Report of Captain Albert A. Day, Twentieth Michigan Infantry.1
HEADQUARTERS TWENTIETH MICHIGAN VOLUNTEERS,
Ford’s Farm, Va., April 18, 1865.
MAJOR: In compliance with extract from Special Orders, No. 94, dated headquarters Army of the Potomac, April 14, 1865, I would
respectfully report with regard to the operations of this regiment, as follows:
The alarm having been given the command was promptly turned out between 10 and 11 o’clock the night of the 29th ultimo. With the exception of a desultory fire from the artillery of the enemy nothing of importance took place during the night. The men remained under arms until daylight. Four men were wounded during the night. From that time forward the troops of this command in Battery No. 9 were almost constantly on the alert in expectation of an attack or evacuation on the part of the enemy, the men often being turned out three and four times during a night. On the morning of the 1st instant fifty men were ordered into the skirmish pits to charge the enemy’s works; the order being countermanded, they were returned to the regiment. The following morning the entire regiment was ordered out to support a charge to be made by the Second Michigan Volunteers before daylight. At daylight, nothing having been done on the left of Battery No. 9, where the Second Michigan was expected to make a demonstration, this regiment was ordered to form a line in rear of the skirmish pits in front of Fort McGilvery; alter remaining in that position until about 9 a.m. the regiment was ordered back to Battery No. 9.
On the morning of the 3rd instant, a short time before daylight, the evacuation of the enemy having been reported, the regiment entered the city of Petersburg the third in order, and the colors were placed with those of the First Michigan Sharpshooter on the court-house of that city. The men of the regiment were at once place on duty as safeguards and provost guards; the regiment continued on such duty until the morning of the 5th instant, when it moved with the brigade fifteen miles from Petersburg, on the Cox road, where it is at present on duty.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ALBERT A. DAY,
Captain, Commanding Twentieth Michigan Volunteers.
Bvt. Major C. A. LOUNSBERRY,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.
Source:
- The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume XLVI, Part 1 (Serial Number 95), pp. 1048-1049 ↩