Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Major-General John A. Dix to Major General Henry W. Halleck, April 19, 1863

FORT MONROE, VA., April 19, 1863.

I deem it due to the forces at Suffolk to notice briefly their gallant conduct during the last six days. On Tuesday General Peck's right was attacked and the enemy's advance was gallantly met by Colonel Foster's light troops, driving him back to the line of his pickets; Anderson's division was engaged at the same time on the water front with our gunboats and batteries, and suffered materially. On Wednesday a rebel battery of 20-pounder rifled guns was effectually silenced, and an attack on the Smith Briggs, an armed quartermaster's boat, was repulsed. Repeated attempts have been made on our lines but have all been foiled. The storming of the enemy's battery near the West Branch of the Nansemond by General Getty and the gunboats under Lieutenant Lamson of the Navy, and the capture of six guns and 200 prisoners closes the operations of the six days against the enemy's large force very satisfactory.

 JOHN A. DIX,
Major-General.
Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

SOURCES: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 56; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 18 (Serial No. 26), p. 268

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