No. 189.
Report of Maj. Lewis
D. Joy, Eighteenth U. S. Colored Troops,
of operations
December 15-16, 1864.
HEADQUARTERS EIGHTEENTH
U. S. COLORED INFANTRY,
Bridgeport, Ala.,
January 17, 1865.
SIR: I hereby have the honor to make report of the part
taken by the detachment of the Eighteenth U.S. Colored Infantry, under my
command, at the battles before Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864.
On the 15th we were ordered by Colonel Morgan, commanding colored
brigade, to the support of a section of the Twentieth Indiana Battery, which
position we occupied during the day, having one man wounded while changing
position from the brick house on the extreme lest of the line. That night 100
men, in charge of First Lieut. George J. Drew, Company B of our regiment, were
engaged in throwing; up earth-works at Camp Foster for the protection of the
battery. On the morning of the 16th crossed to the west of the Nashville and
Chattanooga Railroad with the battery, and marched out on the pike west of that
road until ordered to form connection with the Seventeenth U.S. Colored
Infantry. Afterward reported to Colonel Shafter, Seventeenth U.S. Colored
Infantry, and then to Lieutenant-Colonel Grosvenor, Eighteenth Ohio Veteran
Volunteer Infantry, by order of Colonel Morgan. When the final charge was
ordered on Overton Hill, at 4 p.m., we were ordered to take position on the
left of Colonel Thompson's brigade in the first line, but having to pass
through a thick mass of brush while the brigade was marching in open ground we
failed to make the connection, and as the brigade continued obliquing to the
left in our front, we did not regain our position during the charge. After the
repulse of the first charge we reformed and took position on the right of the
Seventeenth U.S. Colored Infantry, throwing up breast-works of rails for our
protection, and there remained until the enemy were driven from the field.
I inclose list of killed, wounded, and missing during the
two days' battle.*
Five men of my command who went through the fight in safety
have since died from the effects of the severe exposure to which we were
subjected, and two of my best officers were not expected to live, but I believe
are now recovering.
Very respectfully,
yours,
L. D. JOY,
Major Eighteenth
U.S. Colored Infantry, Comdg. Detachment.
Lieut. J. E. CLELAND,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General,
First Colored Brigade,
Major-general
Steedman's Division, Army of the Cumberland.
_______________
* Embodied in table, p. 103.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 45, Part 1
(Serial No. 93), p. 539-40
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