Saturday, August 1, 2015

Major-General John Sedgwick to Brigadier-General Lorenzo Thomas, August 19, 1863

Headquarters 6th Army Corps,
August 19, 1863.
Brigadier-General L. Thomas,
Adjutant-General U. S. A.

General:

I respectfully recommend Colonel C. H. Tompkins, 1st Rhode Island Artillery, for promotion as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, feeling assured that no better appointment could be made, nor one better deserved by active, faithful, and gallant service in the field. Colonel Tompkins served upon my staff as Chief of Artillery while I commanded a division in the 2nd Corps, and is now in command of the artillery brigade of this corps. He has distinguished himself in all the actions in which he has taken part for coolness, gallantry, and skill. At the storming of the heights of Fredericksburg and the subsequent battle at Salem Chapel, in the month of May last, his management and disposition of the artillery of the corps was worthy of the highest praise.

I have already had the honour of calling the attention of the department to his admirable conduct on those occasions in my official report of the engagements, and in another communication recommending his promotion. His entire record since the commencement of the war is such as to entitle him to the consideration of the Government.

I earnestly hope that he may be commissioned as Brigadier-General, for I feel that he has fully deserved the position and is eminently fit to hold it. I will add that he is the senior Colonel from the State of Rhode Island, and, I believe, one of the oldest Colonels in point of rank now in the service.

I am, General, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
John Sedgwick,
Major-General.


SOURCE: George William Curtis, Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 144-5

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