OR XLVI P1 #121: Report of Lieutenant Colonel Amasa S. Tracy, 2nd VT, March 25, 1865

No. 121. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Amasa S. Tracy, Second Vermont Infantry, Second Brigade, of operations March 25.¹

HEADQUARTERS SECOND VERMONT VOLUNTEERS,
March 28, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to report the following as the operations and moves of the Second Vermont Volunteers in the attack made on the enemy’s line, on the 25th instant:

The brigade was massed in three lines. The Second Vermont Regiment was posted on the right of the third line. My instructions from Bvt. Major General L. A. Grant were that the brigade was to support General Shaffer’s [Keifer’s] brigade, of the Third Division, which was to make the charge on the enemy’s line. My orders from General Grant were to wait until the second line of the brigade left the pits in front and then to move forward, keeping about the same distance in their rear. The idea that I got from General Grant’s order to me was that we were not the charging column, but the supporting column. But when the advance was ordered I saw no troops making the charge in that part of the line in front of the Jones house but the Second Division, Sixth Army Corps. The Second Vermont Regiment charged in and captured the enemy’s line in front of the Jones house, supported immediately by the Third Brigade, Second Division. Seeing the enemy running in all directions to get out of our way, I ordered the Second Vermont Regiment to charge and take the Jones house, which was gallantly done. I should state here that one battalion of the Eleventh [First] Vermont Heavy Artillery joined my regiment (the Second Vermont Volunteers) and charged gallantly with it to the house. Finding that my regiment and the battalion of the Eleventh [First] Vermont Heavy Artillery were the only troops that had advanced beyond the works and that we could do no good by remaining at the house, I ordered my regiment back to the earth-works we had captured, keeping skirmish-

ers out near the house. Afterward, finding that the enemy’s sharpshooters were using the house for a protection, I sent men out with orders to burn it, which was immediately done.

Many prisoners came in through our lines as we were advancing, but having no men to spare to take charge of them, and knowing them to be going where there were plenty men to take charge of them, I felt no inclination to stop my men for that purpose.

I cannot close without reporting the conduct of both officers and men of the Second Vermont Regiment as being gallant, brave, and daring; in short, such as their previous history has been during the war. I cannot say too much in their praise.

The loss of the regiment was 2 men killed and 8 wounded.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. S. TRACY,
Lieutenant -Colonel, commanding Second Vermont Volunteers.

Captain M. BARBER,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Second Brigade.

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