No. 178. Report of Captain Richard S. Milton, Ninth Battery Massachusetts Light Artillery.1
HEADQUARTERS NINTH MASSACHUSETTS BATTERY,
April 9, 1865.
LIEUTENANT: Agreeable to instructions received, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by this command during the action before Petersburg, April 1 and 2:
Five guns of my battery were in position at Fort Rice, between the Norfolk railroad and the Jerusalem plank road, and one at Battery 18 on the Norfolk railroad. During the night of the 1st instant became engaged about 11 p. m., on the enemy’s line, at 1,000 yards distance, to the right and left of Fort Rice. At 12 m. the firing slackening on the
right I ceased firing. Firing was again resumed about 6 a. m. of the 2nd instant upon the enemy’s batteries, which had an enfilading fire upon the lines taken by our troops. The firing was kept up during the greater portion of the day with seeming good effect, as the enemy’s fire gradually slackened and finally ceased.
During the action 149 rounds of ammunition were expended.
No Casualties were experienced in the command.
During the operations of the two days sixty men of my battery were detail as pioneers to remove obstacles in front of batteries advancing into the enemy’s lines. The detail was under the immediate command of the commanding officer of the Twenty-seventh New York Battery.
Respectfully submitted.
R. S. MILTON,
Captain Ninth Massachusetts Battery.
Lieutenant HEASLEY,
Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, Artillery Brigadier, Ninth Army Corps.
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. 1078-1079 ↩