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