ARTILLERY
Colonel Henry L. Abbott, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery
"Upon the Petersburg lines the firing has been so frequent as to render it difficult to select special instances for mention. At all hours of the day and night sudden artillery battles have occurred, often involving the entire line and demanding the expenditure of many tons of ammunition. This has usually arisen from the position of the right of our line, which is necessarily enfiladed from the Chesterfield Heights, an advantage that has given the rebel batteries there a strong temptation to open fire. It is beyond a doubt that our practice, especially in mortars, is superior to theirs, and these fights have thus uniformly terminated by our silencing them. Upon the occasion of their exploding a mine near Battery 12, on August 5, an unusually heavy fire occurred, as also at other times when they attempted to interfere with the use of our military railroad or we tried to interrupt their working parties or to stop picket-firing by shelling Petersburg. General Butler’s canal at Dutch Gap has also been the scene of much firing." OR XL Part I p665 "On June 20 the siege train was ordered to City Point and started on that day, arriving on June 23. On June 20 I sent Company I of my regiment, Captain Burton, with three 30-pounder Parrotts, belonging to Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to the lines of the Eighteenth Army Corps, near Petersburg. It was followed by other companies supplied with ordnance from the train proper, as follows, viz, Company D, Captain Brigham, on June 24, with four 30-pounder Parrotts and four 8-inch mortars (latter turned over to Company I). On June 25 Company D received six Coehorn mortars from ordnance officer of Eighteenth Corps." "On June 27 I sent Company F, Captain Dow, with three 30-pounder Parrotts and four 8 inch mortars to the lines of the same corps; also sending Major Trumbull, First Connecticut Artillery, to assume command of the companies serving the heavy guns on the lines of the Eighteenth Corps." "On June 30 I sent Company B, Captain Brooker, to the lines of the Ninth Corps with six 4£-inch guns. On July 6 I sent to the same lines four 8-inch mortars, which have been served by a platoon of Company A, Captain Gillett." OR XL Part I p672. |
Col. Edward Porter Alexander, Chief of Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1857.
|
