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Regiment: 15th Michigan Infantry
Battles Mentioned:
Historical Figures: John M. Oliver, Oliver O. Howard
HEADQUARTERS DEP’T AND ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE
East Point, Ga., Sept. 9th 1864.
GENERAL FIELD ORDERS,
N0. 16.
It is with pride, gratification, and a sense of divine favor that I congratulate
this noble army upon the successful termination of the campaign.
Your officers claim for you a wonderful record—for example, a march of four
hundred (400) miles, thirteen (13) distinct engagements, four thousand (4,000)
prisoners, and twenty (20) stands of colors captured, and three thousand (3,000)
of the enemy’s dead buried in your front.
Your movements upon the enemy’s flank have been bold and successful;
first upon Resaca, second upon Dallas, third upon Kenesaw, fourth upon Nicka-
jack, fifth, via Roswell, upon the Augusta Railroad, sixth upon “Ezra Church” to
the southwest of Atlanta, and seventh upon Jonesboro and the Macon Railroad.
Atlanta was evacuated while you were fighting at Jonesboro. The country may
never know with what patience, labor and exposure, you have tugged away at
every natural and artificial obstacle that an enterprising and confident enemy
could interpose.
The terrific battles you have fought may never be realized or credited, still a
glad acclaim is already greeting you from the government and people, in view of
the results you have helped to gain, and I believe a sense of the magnitude of the
achievements of the last hundred days will not abate but increase with time and
history.
Our rejoicing is tempered, as it always must be, by the soldier’s sorrow at
the loss of his companions-in-arms. On every hillside, in every valley through-
out your long and circuitous route, from Dalton to Jonesboro, you have buried
them.
Your trusted and beloved Commander fell in your midst; his name, the name
of McPherson, carries with it a peculiar feeling of sorrow. I trust the impress
of his character is upon you all to incite you to generous actions and noble deeds.
To mourning friends, to all the disabled in battle, you extend a soldier’s
sympathy.
My first intimate acquaintance with you dates from the 28th of July. I
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never beheld fiercer assaults than the enemy then made, and I never saw troops
more steady and self-possessed in action than your Divisions which were then
engaged.
I have learned that for cheerfulness, obedience, rapidity of movement, and
confidence in battle, the Army of the Tennessee is not to bee surpassed, and it
shall be my study that your fair record shall continue, and my purpose to assist
you to move steadily forward and float the old Flag in every proud city of the
Rebellion.
(Signed) O. O. HOWARD,
Major General.
(Official)
Sam’l L. Taggart
Ass’t Adj’t Gen’l.
