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ORDERS BY GENERAL BURNSIDE.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, KNOXVILLE,
TENN., NOV.

GENERAL FIELD ORDERS, No. 32.

In accordance with the proclamation of the President of the United States, Thursday, the twenty-sixth instant, will, so far as military operations will permit, be observed by this army as a day of thanksgiving for the countless blessings vouchsafed the country, and the fruitful successes granted to our arms during the past

year.

Especially has this army cause for thankfulness for the divine protection which has so signally shielded us; and let us with grateful hearts offer our prayers for its continuance, assured of the purity of our cause, and with a firm reliance on the God of battles.

By command of Major-General BURNSIDE. LEWIS RICHMOND, A. A. G.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,

IN THE FIELD, NOV. 24, 1868. } GENERAL FIELD ORDERS, NO. 31. The Commanding General has the sad duty of announcing to this army the death of one of the bravest of their number, Brigadier-General W.

P. Sanders.

A life rendered illustrious by a long record of gallantry and devotion to his country has closed while in the heroic and unflinching performance

of duty.

Distinguished always for his self-possession and daring in the field, and in his private life eminent for his genial and unselfish nature and the sterling qualities of his character, he has left, both as a man and a soldier, an untarnished

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Monday, November 30. The long, tedious, and painful suspense is over. We no longer doubt the intentions of Longstreet. After thirteen days of menace and siege, he gathered his forces, and struck the mighty blow that was to have broken our lines, demolished our defences, and captured Knoxville. It was an utter and disastrous failure. In justice to our enemy, it is conceded by all, that more desperate valor, daring gallantry, or obstinate courage has not been recorded during the war. They contended against the impossible. The men who opposed them were as brave, as well trained on the same bloody fields of Virginia as they, and having as large a stake, had the advantages of an impregnable position. The enterprise was a bold one, the play masterly, and the attempt vigorous. Success would have given the enemy possession of the key to all our works on the west side of the town, not the town itself. But Fort Sanders lost, our position in Knoxville would be more precarious. But they failed. We do not know if Longstreet has done his worst; but it is evi

dent that he expected to have exploited a brilliant and decisive coup de guerre. He was thirteen days deciding upon it. He waited until reenforced by the forces of General Jones, Mudwall Jackson, Carter, and Cerro Gordo Williams. He selected three brigades of picked regiments, and determined upon a night attack, always the most dangerous and bloody, but if successful, the most decisive. It is evident that he played a tremendous odds to insure success, and every man in those doomed brigades advanced to the storming of Fort Sanders with that confident courage that usually commands it.

To resist him, were part of the Seventy-ninth New-York in the front, four companies of the One Hundredth Pennsylvania on the right, and four companies of the Second Michigan on the left. No part of the fort is complete. One bastion on the north-west angle, and parapet on the west side only, are up. Temporary traverses were made by cotton-bales, and also two salients, from which guns could sweep the ditches on the north and west. Spirited skirmishing commenced, on the right of the position, at ten o'clock P.M. Saturday. The vigor and persistence of it evidently foreshadowed something more serious behind, and such became the feeling of all the immense audience within our lines, who listened to the continuous and unceasing crash of musketry hour after hour, to one, two, and three o'clock A.M. Many an anxious heart, that night, beat high with hope and fear for their rebel friends without, and many a tearful and timid prayer went up to the God of battles, for the All felt that an eventsafety of friends within.

ful moment was at hand for weal or woe, in the destinies of East-Tennessee and her brave defenders.

The enemy dashed upon the left of our position several times, as if in confident bravado, and finally drove our skirmishers from the advanced rifle-pits, and occupied them about daylight, Sunday morning. Our men rallied, and as determinedly regained them, driving the rebels back in turn. Suddenly an avalanche of men were hurled upon the disputed rifle-pits, our skirmishers were forced back, covered by our guns from the fort, by our retreating men. Two storming brigades were enabled to approach within one hundred yards of the bastion. It was their intention, probably, to draw out our boys, and then attempt to return with them, and enter the works. In this they were foiled. Our skirmishers fell in on the left, and the rebel storming-party advanced directly upon the bastion. Then ensued a scene of carnage and horror, which has but few parallels in the annals of warfare. Balaklava was scarcely more terrible. Stunned for a moment by the torrent of canister and lead poured upon them by Buckley's First Rhode Island battery and our line of musketry, on they came. Again and again, the deadly missiles shattered their torn and mangled columns. Their march was over dead and wounded comrades, yet still they faltered not; but onward, still onward. Whole ranks stum

bled over wires stretched from stump to stump, and fell among the dead and dying; yet still over their prostrate bodies marched the doomed heroes of that forlorn hope.

At last the ditch was reached, and the slaughter became butchery, as if on a wager of death against mortality. Benjamin's guns on the salient swept the ditch, as the tornado would the corn. The earth was sated with blood. Men waded in blood, and struggled up the scarp, and, slipping in blood, fell back to join their mangled predecessors in the gory mud below. The shouts of the foiled and infuriate rebels, the groans of the dying, and shrieks of the wounded, arose above the din of the cannon. Benjamin lighted shell, and threw them over the parapet, and artillerymen followed his example. One rebel climbed the parapet, and planted the flag of the Thirteenth Mississippi regiment on the summit; but the rebel shout that greeted its appearance had scarce left the lips that framed it, than man and flag were in the ditch together, pierced by a dozen balls. Another rebel repeated the feat, and rejoined his comrade. A third essayed to bear off the flag, and was cloven with an ax. One man entered an embrasure, and was blown to fragments; two more were cut down in another; but not one entered the fort. The three veteran regiments of the Ninth army corps stood up to the work before them unflinching and glorious to a man. The heroes of a dozen campaigns, from the Potomac to Vicksburgh, they found themselves, for the third time, arrayed for trial of courage and endurance with the flower of the Southern army-the picked men of Longstreet's boasted veterans; and saw the sun rise, on that chill Sunday morning in November, on an entire brigade annihilated, and two more severely punished. Even the dead outnumbered us, for not more than three hundred of our force participated in the defence of Fort Sanders. Benjamin, of the Third United States artillery, and Buckley, of the First Rhode battery, were foremost in acts of daring and gallantry. General Ferrero, who has never left the fort since Longstreet's appearance before it, to whose skill and foresight much of the admirable dispositions for defence were due, was in command, and right nobly he has earned his

star.

His coolness, energy, and skill are subjects of universal encomiums.

pose of burying their dead, and caring for their wounded.

Our own loss was but four killed, and eleven wounded. Some pickets have been cut off, and skirmishers captured, raising our loss to fortyfive in all. Before Fort Sanders, south of the river, however, the Twenty-seventh Kentucky having abandoned the rifle-pits, the enemy, of course, entered them, and enfilading the line, killed, wounded, and captured some fifty. Colonel Cameron pushed forward other troops, and reoccupied the works without further mischief. Our entire loss during the night and day is within one hundred. The rebels removed their dead and wounded, and the occasion was improved to exchange the wounded of other occasions. Among ours, I note the gallant Major Byington, of the Second Michigan, who was wounded in the charge of his regiment upon the rebel works on Tuesday last. His wounds are severe, but not mortal. He speaks highly of the kindness of the rebel surgeons. Among the rebel officers killed was Colonel McElroy, of the Thirteenth Mississippi. His lieutenant, John O'Brian, a brother of Mrs. Parson Brownlow, is our prisoner. The rebels were posted on the fight between Grant and Bragg, and have two stories concerning it. As one of them agrees with ours, we believe that. As Longstreet has now tried the siege plan and the assault, and failed in both, we can conceive no further necessity for his longer residence in East-Tennessee, and if he be not gone to-morrow, we shall be unable to account for it.

November 30-A. M.-It has been comparatively quiet this morning. A few shots have been exchanged between the batteries and an occasional one along the skirmish line.

The enemy exhibits no indication of a renewal of the attack.

The total number of prisoners taken yesterday is two hundred and thirty-four.

December 1-A. M.-Still quiet. The enemy show no signs of another attack.

The weather is clear but cold, with severe frosts at night.

The following order, congratulatory to our troops for the victory of Sunday last, was addressed to them this morning, and was received with enthusiastic cheering all around the line:

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The dead and wounded were left on the field, GENERAL FIELD ORDERS-NO. 33. and the ghastly horrors were rendered sickening HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, by the vain cries of hundreds for water and help. IN THE FIELD, November 30, 1863. In full view from the embrasures, the ground The brilliant events of the twenty-ninth inwas covered with dead, wounded, and dying. stant, so successful to our arms, seem to present Forty-eight were heaped up in the ditch before a fitting occasion for the Commanding General to the bastion; thirteen in another place, almost thank this army for their conduct through the within reach of those who, though late their severe experiences of the past seventeen days, to foes, would have willingly heeded their anguish-assure them of the important bearing it has had ed shrieks for water; yet none dare go to their assistance. The humanity of General Burnside was not proof against so direct an appeal, and he at once sent in a flag of truce, offering an armistice until five o'clock P.M., for the purVOL. VIII.-Doc. 17

on the campaign in the West, and to give them the news of the great victory gained by General Grant, toward which their fortitude and their bravery have in a high degree contributed. In every fight in which they have been engaged,

and recently in those near Knoxville, at Loudon, at Campbell's Station, and, finally, around the defences on both sides of the river, while on the march, and in cold and in hunger, they have everywhere shown a spirit which has given to the army of the Ohio a name second to none.

emy.

Here I remained till the last gun had passed, and then followed in the march to Knoxville, reaching there about midnight, and encamped on the ground formerly occupied by General Potter's headquarters. On the morning of the seventeenth, I detailed, by order of General By holding in check a powerful body of the Potter, one captain, one lieutenant, and thirty enemy, they have seriously weakened the rebel men, to patrol the city, and arrest and turn over army under Bragg, which has been completely to their respective division provost-marshals all defeated by General Grant, and, at the latest ac- stragglers from the Ninth army corps; the balcounts, was in full retreat for Dalton, closely pur-ance of the command was under orders to move sued by him, with the loss of six thousand pris- at any moment. About two o'clock P.M., oners, fifty-two pieces of artillery, and twelve stands of colors.

For this great and practical result, toward which the army of the Ohio has done so much, the Commanding General congratulates them, and with the fullest reliance on their patience and courage in the dangers they may yet have to meet, looks forward with confidence, under the blessing of Almighty God, to a successful close of the campaign.

Major-General Burnside.

By command of
LEWIS RICHMOND, A. A. G.

CAPTAIN MONTGOMERY'S REPORT.

FORT SANDERS, KNOXVILLE, TENN., Dec. 5, 1863. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this regiment, under my command, since the fourteenth ultimo:

I re

ported, with my command, to headquarters Ninth army corps, in Knoxville, and remained there till next morning, when I was ordered to report to the First brigade, First division, which I immediately did, and was assigned to duty in Fort Sanders, since which my command has constituted the major portion of the garrison.

I detailed, daily, two commissioned officers and forty-five men as a grand reserve for the skirmishers in front of the works. This party were posted on the crest of the hill, about five hundred yards in front of the work, with instructions to hold the position at all hazards, should the enemy attempt to carry it. No casualties occurred while on this duty, and the position was maintained till about half-past eleven o'clock on the night of the twenty-eighth, when the enemy advanced and drove in the skirmishers. Such was the impetuosity of his advance, that he had almost gained the crest occupied by the reserve before they could fire a shot, and they were thus compelled to fall back, only, however, for about fifty yards. Having gained the position which the reserve was thus compelled to relinquish, the enemy was contented for the night; and at five o'clock next morning, (the twenty-ninth,) I sent out, as usual, the detail to relieve the reserve, with the instructions, which I received from General Ferrero, that the position lost on the previous night was to be retaken at all hazards. This was accomplished; but no sooner so, than the enemy again made a demonstration, and, from the velocity of his advance, it was evident he meant to storm; nor was this impression incorrect. It is proper here to state, that my command only consisted of one hundred and fortyfour muskets, and, at the time the enemy made the assault, there were not more than fifty men in the fort. The reserve, which had been relieved, together with the party who relieved them, were soon, however, on hand, and in position in the front. The enemy steadily advanced, and quickly crowded on the ramparts and in the ditch. The fire from the artillery was rendered useless, the enemy having got within range, so that it was left to infantry entirely to defend the fort.

At that date, my command was stationed at Lenoir's Station, on duty at headquarters Ninth army corps. About eight o'clock A.M., I received orders to strike camp and hold myself in readiness to move at a moment's notice. This order was promptly carried out, and, having formed line and stacked arms, waited for further developments. During the early part of the day, the camp of the corps headquarters was struck, and the wagons packed, numerous other calls made on my men to load forage and other Government property on the cars, besides furnishing several guards. My command was thus occupied till early on the morning of the sixteenth, when, at early dawn, I received orders to move and support a section of the Third United States artillery, under command of Lieutenant Bartlett. The roads impassable, and the horses worn out, great physical exertion was required on the part of the men to keep the section in motion. Beyond this, nothing occurred worthy of notice till reaching Campbell's Station, when I was ordered by General Burnside, in person, to take up position under cover, and support a section of Benjamin's battery. I had a good opportunity for doing so, in a defile, between two fences. While in this position, I was called on by order of General Potter, to detail a commissioned officer and twenty men, to take in charge some prisoners; and a like detail, to cover the road leading to Now it was that the often tried mettle of the Knoxville, to arrest and detain all stragglers Highlanders was put to its severest test. Never from their commands; and another, of eighteen were men more cool or determined. Officers and men, to assist in working the guns of Buckley's men alike were fully alive to the position they battery. I had thus under one hundred men were placed in, and how much depended on their available for fighting duty, should my command action. So fierce was the attack, that no less have been called into active contact with the en-than three stands of colors were planted on the

salient of the north-west bastion, the point assailed. Two of these were blown into the ditch by our fire; the other, that of the Fifty-first Georgia regiment, was heroically captured by First Sergeant Francis W. Judge, company K, who, on seeing it, sprang on the ramparts, and seizing it and its bearer, brought them into the fort. From both flanks of the bastion a terrific and deadly fire was poured into the enemy's ranks, and hundreds fell wounded, others to rise no more. The enemy was repulsed and driven from the work, hundreds of prisoners were taken, and hundreds killed and wounded; the carnage was fearful, and cannot be described; the eye dimmed and the heart sickened at the sight.

Every man had forty rounds of ammunition when the assault was made, and I furnished them with twenty additional rounds each while the action was in progress; there could not have been less than fifty rounds per man consumed. Besides the stands of colors captured on the ramparts, my command is entitled to be credited with a large share of the captured arms and accoutrements, with a large number of prisoners.

The casualties were few, wonderfully few, and must be accounted for by the cool and careful manner in which the officers and men moved themselves. Had the officers been less careful, and allowed the men to expose themselves unnecessarily, the consequences might have been fearful. It is pleasing, and it affords me unmingled gratification to be able to record the gallant conduct of every officer and man in the command; I would be doing myself and them an injustice did I fail to do so.

Numerous instances of individual heroism were noticeable, but it would be invidious to mention names when all behaved with so much bravery. I cannot close without paying a tribute to the good conduct and cheerful demeanor of the men, all throughout this trying time, on short rations, and continued duty by night and day. They never complained, but, on the contrary, have performed every duty, and suffered the privation and exposure without a murmur.

Subjoined is a list of casualties.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
WM. S. MONTGOMERY,
Captain Commanding Regiment.

and the best of spirits exist among all classes, citizens and soldiers. Up to last Saturday, an assault has been a matter of dread by many; but since the terrible storming of Fort Sanders on that memorable morning, and its disastrous and bloody results, even assaults have lost their terrors. The rebels seem still to surround us, and their pickets are quite as strong and vigilant as ever, but no demonstration of a serious nature has been made by them since Sunday. We are in the dark as to the rebel movements altogether, and can but theorize upon the little we know. İ confess I am a subscriber to the proposition that places Longstreet in the position of the gentleman who caught the Tartar, having invested, threatened, and besieged Knoxville, in so far as he was able. He is now more anxious concerning a method of escape, and is doubtless straining every nerve to accomplish so desirable a result. Nevertheless, we are told to hold Knoxville at every hazard by a man who seldom gives an order without an object, and thus far we have done so. We could rally from our works and ascertain more of Longstreet, but he might not be so much gone off as we think, and we can af ford no unusual risks; so we watch the pickets day and night, and every time we see a rebel head we shoot at it, and they generally return the compliment. As these memoranda of current events may probably never reach you, and might reach the enemy, I make no details. If no attack is made to-night, Longstreet will have irretrievably lost his opportunity, and should he have procrastinated his departure, will probably be lost himself, since we have tolerably sure evidence that we shall be relieved within thirty-six hours from our present predicament.

Dec. 3. No attack last night. The rebel pickets are still vigilant, but nothing further can be ascertained. We begin to wonder what he means and why he goes not. No news of our reenforcements. One rumor comes to us that Granger had an engagement with the enemy near Clinton, and captured three guns. A deserter reports a battle near Loudon, between our reenforcements and Longstreet. A party of citizens from Sevierville report no appearance of the enemy in that direction. It is rumored to-day that Lee is advancing with the bulk of his armyhaving abandoned Richmond and removed the Twenty-third, private W. J. Coyle, wounded capital to Montgomery. Amid all these rumors in left forearm. Twenty-fourth, Malcolm Sinclair, we are quietly awaiting orders. The desperate head. Twenty-fifth, Lieutenant Charles Watson. straits to which rebeldom is driven by the sumPrivates Henry Pikel, thigh; Pat. Carlin, thigh. mer and fall campaigns, give plausibility to any Sergeants Thomas Denham, killed; Robert Ath-story, however improbable. Should Lee be able erly, killed; privates, John Burgess, killed; Da- to aid Longstreet by any concatenation of militavid Schultz, killed. Sergeant Alfred Luce, wound- ry circumstances, we will, probably, be obliged ed in the head; privates, Robert Paterson, thigh; to make different arrangements. Till then, we Roderick McKenzie, shoulder; James Mitchell, feel quite comfortable in the hope of capturing breast; Wm. Smith, head. Longstreet.

KNOXVILLE, Dec. 2.

Seventeen days of siege. We have no butter, chickens, eggs, vegetables, or other luxuries of that kind, and have only one quarter rations of coffee, but so far we have had plenty of pork, beef, flour, and meal. Every one is confident,

To offset the rumor, we have another quite as likely, if not more plausible, that Willcox is marching from the Gap along the valley into Virginia, to destroy their salt-works and demolish any scattering rebs that may still infest those regions.

You may judge, from the number and nature of these rumors, what our situation must be, shut up from all outside information, as we are, here within the corporate limits of Knoxville.

In a former letter, speaking of the affair of Sunday, I stated the Twenty-seventh Kentucky "had abandoned the rifle-pits, etc." This was the information forwarded to division headquarters. I learn since that it was untrue. The regiment was ordered to fall back by the officer in command, and behaved gallantly in the subsequent charge to regain their position.

Saturday, Dec. 5. I add hastily by sudden courier. It is over. Our long, anxious suspense, the siege, the campaign, and, I devoutly trust and believe, the culminating crisis of the rebellion. The dead point of danger is past; the position of East-Tennessee is assured to the Union. The Smoky Mountains will hereafter become our military front. The advance of our reënforcements, under Sherman, arrived yesterday morning. Granger is on the way. Longstreet's hours in East-Tennessee are numbered. His chief care since that glorious Sunday before Sanders has been, as I suggested, to escape from the trap in which he was involved by that blundering humbug Bragg. Our faith in Grant has not been in vain or misplaced.

A cavalry brigade, in command of Colonel Long, Fourth Ohio volunteer cavalry, is marching across our pontoon while I write. From Major Smith and Dr. Owens, of the Fifth Ohio volunteer cavalry, I learn the particulars of the utter demoralization of Bragg. A reconnoissance of our front is now out. The result will probably be to bring in rebel pickets out of the wet, and ascertain that Longstreet is on his way to Dixie. I will send particulars as soon as obtained. I cannot obtain full lists of killed and wounded of Shackleford's division. Our entire loss in all the engagements, during twenty-two days, will not reach one thousand. The rebel loss, during the same time, is not short of five thousand.

News of reconnoissance just in-enemy gone since Tuesday. Our cavalry are in pursuit to pick up stragglers. Thus endeth the campaign in East-Tennessee. What we will do with the huge army sent here by Grant, is problematical. One does not require the foot of an elephant to kill a gnat, and Grant is not one to overdo.

December 6.-I made a thorough survey of the enemy's position yesterday. The extent and elaborateness of their defensive as well as offensive works is proof positive that they intended to stay in front of Knoxville until it was captured or surrendered. It would be safe to say that four hundred acres of timber were cleared off by Longstreet's army and converted into log breastworks, and protections for rifle-pits. Their line of permanent works extended from the front of Fort Sanders about two and a half miles round to the right, terminating at the line of the Clinton Railroad.

There are eight inclosed works, with embra

sures for one gun, situated checkerboard fashion; that is, one in front of a given line, the next, say fifty yards to the rear, and so on. These all, except two, which were evidently the last two built, and which were located two hundred yards to the left of the Clinton Railroad, bore upon the works of Fort Sanders and Temperance Hill forts. These last two works commanded the gorge of the railroad running north from the city.

To the right of this line, eastward, there was chiefly an open plain, three quarters of a mile wide, extending round to our extreme right, which was perfectly honeycombed by our own and the enemy's rifle-pits, in some parts within a few yards of each other. Their camp-fires were still burning in many places, and a considerable quantity of camp debris was scattered about. The enemy had begun to construct log huts, showing that he had intended to stay.

At the small-pox hospital, opposite the Clinton Railroad, a mile from town, a soldier having that loathsome disease had been left, with an attendant two days before the enemy came in. Upon the arrival of the rebel army the nurse ran away, and the poor soldier probably died for want of attention. Yesterday he was found dead in the house, his blankets and clothing having been stripped off and carried away by some greedy rebel in Longstreet's army.

Five miles from town, near the house of a Mr. Bell, one of our men was found hanging by the neck suspended to the limb of a tree, with a paper pinioned upon his breast. The paper contained in pencil the following: "Milon Ferguson, One Hundred and Eighteenth Ohio regiment, sent into our lines by Colonel Byrd in disguise. Hung as a spy, by order of General Carter sent and had the soldier brought to town and decently interred. The neighbors, who were accused of the hanging, say it was done by rebel General Martin's escort.

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The following is General Burnside's congratulatory order to the army:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,
IN THE FIELD, December 5, 1863.

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GENERAL FIELd Orders, No. 34. The Commanding General congratulates the troops on the raising of the siege.

With unsurpassed fortitude and patient watchfulness they have sustained the wearing duties of the defence, and with unyielding courage they have repulsed the most desperate assaults.

The army of the Ohio has nobly guarded the loyal region it redeemed from its oppressors, and rendered the heroic defence of Knoxville memorable in the annals of the war.

Strengthened by the experiences and the successes of the past, they now, with the powerful support of the gallant army which has come to their relief, and with undoubting faith in the Divine protection, enter with the brightest prospects upon the closing scenes of a most brilliant campaign.

By command of Major-General BURNSIDE. LEWIS RICHMOND, A. A. G.

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