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No. 246. – Reports of Col. Andrew L. Harris, Seventy-fifth Ohio Infantry, commanding regiment and Second Brigade.

Headquarters Seventy-fifth Ohio Volunteers, July 5, 1863.

Sir: In compliance with, orders received at these headquarters, I beg leave to submit the following condensed report of the part taken by the Seventy-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the battle of July 1, 2, and 3 :

Marched from Emmitsburg with about 160 officers and men on the morning of July 1, leaving 100 enlisted men and 3 commissioned officers to scout the country in the neighborhood of the Greencastle road.

Arrived at Gettysburg at about 1 p. m., and was sent immediately to the northwest part of the city and placed in line of battle ready to meet the enemy on the right center of Secpnd Brigade, First Division; was ordered forward in line of battle to receive the attack of the enemy. Advanced to the edge of the woods, when both flanks, being unsupported and exposed to an enfilading fire, were compelled to fall back with heavy loss in killed, wounded, and missing; rallied again the few men left, and fell back to the hill, which we now occupy. Here, by the return of a part of the scouting party before mentioned, the number increased to 91 officers and men.

July 2 was spent in skirmishing with the enemy’s sharpshooters until about 4 p. m., when we were again ordered to prepare for action, and the Seventy-fifth was placed at the stone wall south of the hill, with the Seventeenth Connecticut immediately on our left. Just before the attack was made, the Seventeenth was thrown to the extreme right of the line, and the space at the wall where they had been was left unoccupied, excepting by a few of the Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteers. About dusk the enemy attacked the regiment in front and on the flank and rear at nearly the same time, having come through the space which had been vacated by the removal of the Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers. From this attack but few escaped,* and those only in the darkness and smoke; the greater portion were no doubt made prisoners.
But little transpired on the 3d, excepting a heavy artillery fire, which we were exposed to during the day, and constant skirmishing with the enemy’s sharpshooters in the buildings on the outskirts of the town, from which they fired with much’effect, wounding quite a number of the regiment during the day.

Hoping this imperfect report will be sufficient for the present, I remain, colonel, your obedient servant,
A. L. HARRIS,

Colonel, Comdg. Seventy-fifth Ohio Volunteers.

from OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 27, Part 1 (Gettysburg Campaign) No. 33. pp. 715

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