ker in that battery, had made the heroic defence, and I doubt not General Walker will certify to this effect.
I have never read the article in the Southern Historical Papers to which you refer, and make you this answer therefore without reference to it.
Very cordially yours,
P. S.—Since the above has been written, General Walker has been in to see me, and on showing him your letter and this reply he has furnished the enclosed paper, which he directs me to say is at your service.
FROM GENERAL R. L. WALKER.
On the morning of the 3d of April, 1865, I was at Rives's Salient until about sunrise, when it was reported to me that the lines in front of Fort Gregg had been taken by the enemy. Placing Col. McIntosh in command at Rives's Salient, I immediately repaired to Fort Gregg and found the lines broken from the dam as far west as I could see. Directly in front of Fort Gregg the lines had been occupied by Lane's brigade. I manned the fort with a section of the Washington artillery and two companies organized from the supernumerary artillerymen. I called on them to go with me to recover the line evacuated by our infantry, or at least so much thereof as had been occupied by two of my batteries, which had been left in the hands of the enemy. They made a gallant charge, recapturing these batteries and bringing them out. They were then formed as skirmishers in front of Fort Gregg, and led by Captains Chamberlayne and Young, drove back the enemy's skirmish line, which then had formed perpendicular to our original line. I then fell back to Fort Gregg, and just at this juncture the gallant Mississippians, under the intrepid Harris, came up to my relief. As well as I remember a part of Harris's brigade, with my men, then occupied Fort Gregg, while the main body went to Fort Alexander, a few hundred yards to the north and right of Fort Gregg. We held our respective positions until I was informed that General Longstreet had come to our relief on the right, when I dispatched my inspector-general, Captain Richard Walke, to General Harris, informing him of the fact, and suggesting the propriety of falling back to the inner lines, as we had done all we could do. At the same time I sent an officer, whose name I will not mention, to Fort Gregg, with orders to evacuate it. The message to General Harris was delivered and he accepted the suggestion—the order never reached Fort Gregg, hence the sacrifice of its gallant defenders.
I do not hesitate to say that the only assistance I received from any source whatsoever, was from the gallant Mississippi brigade under command of Brigadier-General N. H. Harris.
Brig.-Gen'l and Ch. Art'y, 3d Corps, A. N. V.
