The above statement was sent to General Sherman in a letter dated “Chicago, February 5,1876,” and signed “John H. Hammond.”  Hammond was General Sherman’s assistant adjutant-general at the Chickasaw Bayou.

J. E. TOURTELOTTE, Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

On 29th December, 1862, at Chickasaw Bayou, I was in command of the Thirty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry, First Brigade, First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps (Blair’s brigade).  Colonel Wyman, of the Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, having been killed, I was the senior colonel of the brigade.  General Blair rode up to where my regiment lay, and said to me: 

“We are to make a charge here; we will charge in two lines; your regiment will be in the first line, and the Twenty-ninth (Cavender’s) will support you.  Form here in the timber, and move out across the bayou on a double-quick, and go right on to the top of the heights in your front.”  He then told me to await a signal.  I then attempted to make a reconnaissance of the ground over which we would have to charge, and rode out to the open ground in my front, and saw that there was water and soft mud in the bayou, and was fired upon by the sharp-shooters of the enemy, and turned and went back into the woods where my command lay.  Soon after that General Blair came near me, and I told him there was water and mud in the bayou, and I doubted if we could get across.  He answered me that General Morgan told him there was no water nor mud to hinder us.  I remarked that I had seen it myself, and General Morgan, or any one else, could see it if he would risk being shot at pretty lively.  I then told General Blair that it was certain destruction to us if we passed over the abatis upon the open ground where there had once been a corn-field; that we could never reach the base of the hill.  He turned to me and said, “Can’t you take your regiment up there?” I told him, “Yes, I can take my regiment anywhere, because the men do not know any better than to go,” but remarked that old soldiers could not be got to go up there.  General Blair then said, “Tom, if we succeed, this will be a grand thing; you will have the glory of leading the assault.”  He then went on to say that General Morgan’s division would support us, and they were heroes of many battles, and pointed to the Fifty-eighth Ohio, then forming in the rear of the Thirteenth Illinois on my right, and said:  “See these men?  They are a part of Morgan’s division, and are heroes of many battles.”  I laughingly said that they might be heroes, but the regiment did not number as many as one of my companies.  He again assured me we would be supported by Morgan’s division, and all I had to do was to keep right on and “keep going till you get into Vicksburg.”  I took my position in advance of my regiment and awaited the signal.  When we heard it, we raised a shout, and started at a double-quick, the Thirteenth Illinois on my right.  I saw no troops on my