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Capt.
George B. Cook
Co. G, 5th
USCT
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This report was filed by Capt. George B. Cock, commander
of Co. G, 5th USCT:
INTRENCHED CAMP
NEAR NORFOLK, VA.,
December 29, 1863.
SIR: I have the honor to make the following report of
action and casualties sustained by a detachment of the Fifth Regiment U.S.
Colored Troops, under my command, at Sandy Swamp, near Indiantown, N. C., on
the 18th instant:
The detachment consisted of four companies, numbering
near 200 men. Of these one company was detached as
rear guard. At about 11 a.m., while on the
march, Lieutenant Bennett, commanding the vanguard, reported to Captain
Jones, commanding a detachment in the advance, that
the enemy was near. The detachments were then halted while the vanguard went
forward to reconnoiter. Scarcely had we halted, however, when a volley was
fired upon us from a dense thicket of pines, distant 400 yards, by which 2
men were killed, 1 mortally and 1 severely wounded. I immediately commanded
the men to lie down and fire on the enemy from behind the fence, which was
obeyed in time [to] escape a second volley. For a few minutes the firing was
rapid and general on both sides. Two companies were then sent out to the right
and one to the left to flank them, while I was to attack them in front. I
immediately moved by the road in front of the thicket, commanded "fix
bayonets," and moved by the right flank into the pines, but the enemy
had fled. We then returned, picked up our dead and wounded, and continued the
march. The casualties sustained by my command were as follows: Privates,
Richard H. Fox and Jeremiah Franklin, killed; Jordon Dorton,
shot in the neck, mortally wounded, died the following morning; David Quan, shot through the right lung; all of Company G,
Fifth Regiment U.S. Colored Troops. The behavior of the men while under fire
was good.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
GEO. B. COCK,
Captain Company G, Fifth U. S. Colored
Troops.
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