ORs: (US) Report of Lt. S. H. Stokes - December 25, 1862

War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
Series 1, Volume 20, Part 1 Page 163-4

HEADQUARTERS FIRST BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION,
December 25, 1862.

LIEUTENANT:
I have the honor to report that, in obedience to orders from Brigadier-General Davis, commanding First Division, I started at daylight this morning, with the First Brigade, First Division, and the Fifteenth Regiment Wisconsin Infantry, from the Second Brigade, and the train, reported to me as consisting of more than 200 wagons. We proceeded to Brentwood, and from thence on the Wilson pike, near where we drove in the enemy’s pickets. Two miles farther we came to a cross-road leading to Nolensville, on which the enemy were encamped about a mile distant, and at another point about 2 miles distant. The small cavalry force occupying the nearest camp abandoned it, and I stationed the Fifty-ninth Regiment Illinois infantry and one section of the Fifth Wisconsin Battery in a position to command this road, and prevent the enemy from Nolensville, which was 5 miles distant, establishing themselves in our rear. I then proceeded 2 miles farther with the train, placing the Fifteenth Regiment Wisconsin Infantry and one section of the battery on the right, and commanding a road coming from Franklin, and the Twenty-second Regiment Indiana Infantry, the Seventy-fourth Regiment Illinois Infantry, and one seetion of the battery in front. Our advance was attended with considerable skirmishing. Two of the enemy were killed and some wounded were seen being carried off. A few shells from Captain Pinney’s battery cooled the Confederate ardor until all the wagons were completely loaded. The wagons of the enemy were hurried out of the field withont being loaded, thongh, I regret to say, their presence was not discerned in time to effect their capture. The captain of one of the skirmishing parties caused some neighborhood negroes to bury the enemy’s dead, and we returned to campwithout any mishap whatever.

I beg leave to observe in this report that foraging in such a country as this in our front, and so great a distance from camp, while the enemy are so near and from every hill-top estimate the number of the escort and the value of the train, is attended with considerable risk. Our train could not be made to move in a less space than 4 miles, and if it were not possible to throw a superior force in rear of foraging expeditions it would not be difficult to suddenly attack so long a train and destroy some portion of it, especially while threatening it in the rear, as they did much of the way in to-day, unless the escort were very large.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant

P. SIDNEY POST,
Colonel, Commanding Brigade.

Lieut. T. W. MORRISON,
Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., First Division, Right Wing.