Brigadier-General William Harrow, September 13, 1864

HEADQUARTERs 4TH Division, 15TH A. C.

EASTPoINT, GA., September 13, 1864.

Officers and Soldiers: The commander-in-chief, the department commander, and corps officer have each expressed to you their approbation of your conduct during the campaign just closed. They have spoken in general terms to the army, the department and corps. It is my privilege to address your immediate organization. Your department commander announces the capture of four thousand (4,000) prisoners by the Army of the Tennessee. You have taken one-third of that number. This army has taken from the enemy twenty (20) battleflags; eight of these were wrested from him by your prowess. Your lists of killed and wounded in battle are larger by one-half than any other division in the Army of the Tennessee. You have destroyed as many of the enemy as any similar organization in the entire army. You have never been defeated in this or any other campaign. Your record is therefore spotless, and you should be and doubtless are proud of it. Your friends at home and the country at large will some day understand and appreciate your conduct. Had your lamented department commander been spared, his familiarity with your history, and identification with yourselves, would have commanded for you more complete justice. Your corps commander is not now, nor has he ever been, slow to acknowledge your merits, but he is powerless to do more.

Your organization will probably soon be changed, and the stranger to you will reap the reward of your devotion and self-sacrifice. The just reward, always so highly prized by the true soldier, may not be yours, but the consciousness of duty well performed will remain with you forever. You will sustain your high reputation by doing battle, as heretofore, for your country, and not for men. Do so cheerfully. My connection with you as your division commander may possibly soon be severed. Support any future officer as you have supported me, and success must attend your efforts. I ask from you the same kind of remembrance I shall ever give to each true soldier of this command.

WILLIAM HARROW,

Brigadier General U. S. Vols.

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See: Explanatory Note.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 303-4