Thursday, 16th–Skirmishing commenced again early this morning. The rebel batteries off on the left would fire a round or two and just as soon as our guns would open on them they would stop firing. General Leggett’s Division on the left drove the rebels back about a mile, and there was some very heavy cannonading in the afternoon on the right, where it is reported that General Thomas made a charge on the rebels’ left, around the rear and got possession of Pine Hills. It was reported that at one point a rebel regiment, the Forty-third Mississippi, was ordered to make a charge on our lines and when they started their colonel ordered them to reverse arms, and they came marching right into our lines, surrendering themselves as prisoners of war. While our men were making demonstrations all along the line yesterday, about one thousand rebels were taken prisoners, some of them surrendering without firing a gun. They said that there was a great discontent in the ranks of their army around Atlanta: that they were tired of continually falling back, and that many had come to the conclusion that the war on their part could be nothing else than a failure. Company E is lying quiet today. The rough treatment we experienced yesterday was a hard blow to the company, for the loss of nine men from one company in a skirmish line, in less than four hours, does not often happen.[1]
[1] Our losses were as follows: William Alexander, killed; Lieutenant Alfred Carey, mortally wounded; John Zitler, a thumb shot off; Thomas R. McConnell, a minie ball passed through thigh; John Ford, LeRoy Douglas, George G. Main and John Albin, slightly wounded. James Martin, it was thought at the time, had been taken prisoner, but on the fifth day after the skirmish his body was found by an Ohio regiment, lying with the bodies of two Confederate soldiers. They had made Martin a prisoner, it seems, but before they could get to the rear with him, a shell from one of our batteries exploded over them, killing all three. Then, as they were considerably back from our lines, the body was not found until the enemy had fallen back and our army had advanced; besides, our brigade in the meantime had moved two miles to the left.
Martin had both legs cut off by the shell. A captain from the Ohio regiment which had found his body, brought his silver watch, Bible, some letters and other articles found on his person, and turned them over to our captain, informing him how Martin, in all probability, lost his life.—A. G. D.