TULLAHOMA, TENN., January 23, 1863.

SIR: My battery of six 12-pounder Napoleon guns was ordered to report
to Maj. [R. E.] Graves, chief of artillery of Gen. Breckinridge's
division, and I requested to be relieved of the temporary appointment of
chief of artillery of your staff in order that I might be with it.

On December 30, [1862,] we were put in position on an eminence just
in front of Gen. Hanson's brigade, but during the night I was ordered
to examine the ground in front of the left of our right wing, and to
attend at the construction of an earthwork with two faces in the field
near the river, and somewhat to the left and in rear of another
earthwork, in which Cobb's battery and a part of the whole of
Lumsden's rifle battery were then in position. We went to our position
about daylight, and early in the morning a section of my battery, under
Lieut. Pollard, was withdrawn and sent to another part of the field,
by order of Maj. Graves. Although we were frequently under fire of the
enemy's batteries, somewhat in front of Cobb's batteries, we covered
ourselves as well as we could under the earthwork, and made no reply
until a fierce engagement took place on the opposite of the river when
we had an opportunity of firing into the enemy with an enfilading fire
at good range. After about 30 rounds fired from each piece at this point,
we were ordered to limber up and advanced to the position occupied by
Cobb's and Lumsden's batteries, about 500 yards to the right and front.
This was about 12 or 1 o'clock, and as soon as we arrived we opened
upon a battery of eight or ten riffled guns at about 1,000 yards, which
was pouring its fire into our infantry, then advancing on the opposite
side of the river, and in a very short time directed their fire to us. Our
infantry continued to advance over this hotly contested field, and in
about twenty minutes drove the enemy in masses past us at very short
range, so that we fired into them several rounds of double-shotted
canister at about 550 yards from the eminence above them. The enemy
then endeavored to reform their lines under cover of the timber
intervening between them and our troops, when we fired into them with
spherical case, and caused them to move off farther to the right.

Such was the excellence of the earthwork constructed by Maj. Graves'
orders, and the commanding character of the position, that we did not
lose a single man, and had only two horses wounded here. The
casualties in Cobb's battery, next to us, were, however, quite serious.
We remained in this position until about 4 a.m. on the 1st, when I was
ordered to report to you, which I did, at your position on the opposite
side of the river, about sunrise. In the march to join you, I met
Lieut. Pollard, who, with one section of my battery, had acted with
a part of the Washington Artillery on the opposite side of the river,
without any casualty, except the loss of two horses and one man slightly
wounded.

Maj. Hotchkiss, acting chief of artillery in your division, having been
wounded on the 31st, I was ordered, on joining you, to act in that
capacity.

On the 1st, neither my battery nor any part of the artillery of the
division was engaged, except Swett's battery, which advanced on our
extreme left with Liddell's brigade, and fired a few rounds into the
enemy, who then appeared to be retreating toward and up the Nashville
pike.

On the morning of the 2d, I was ordered by Gen. Bragg to send
four pieces of my battery to report to him at the junction of the
Wilkinson and Nashville pikes, and accordingly I sent two section (the
right and left), under First Lieut. [E. J.] Fitzpark and Second
Lieut. [J.] Pollard. They were engaged in the extreme advance and
right of the artillery which supported the attack made on the afternoon
of the 2d by a part of Breckinridge's division on the enemy's left wing.
Capt. [F. H.] Robertson, Gen. Polk's chief of artillery, and Maj.
Graves, chief of artillery Gen. Breckinridge's division, expressed
themselves as well pleased with the conduct of the battery, but the
infantry fell back in such confusion, and the fire of the enemy was so
deadly, that when Mr. [Lieut.] Fitzpatrick attempted, under Maj.
Graves' orders, to draw off the pieces, one of them was left on the
field. Mr. [Lieut.] F[itzpatrick] reports to me that two of the drivers
and four of the horses of this piece were killed or wounded; all the
cannoneers except two were killed or wounded. Our infantry had passed
them in hurried flight, the last at least 150 yards, and the enemy were
advancing in front and on the flank not more than 100 yards distant.

In this short engagement (half an hour), of the 45 men and officers
taken on the field, 20 [were either] killed or wounded; 10 (including
Lieut. Pollard, whose right arm and leg were broken by musket
shots), were killed or severely wounded, and 10 with 14 horses) slightly
wounded.

I found upon the field, and appropriated to my use, about 130 rounds of
excellent 12-pounder fixed ammunition, and also the rear part of a
caisson, which I took in place of one of mine.

HENRY C. SEMPLE,
Capt. Company Light Artillery.

Maj.-Gen. [P. R.]CLEBURNE.

Source: Official Records
CHAP. XXXII.] THE STONE'S RIVER CAMPAIGN. PAGE 909-29
[Series I. Vol. 20. Part I, Reports. Serial No. 29.]

……….

Joseph Pollard, age 21, 2nd Lieutenant, Capatin Semple’s Company, Alabama Volunteers,* enlisted March 7, 1862 at Montgomery, Ala. by Maj. Calhoun for 3 years or the war, recorded on the December 31, 1862 muster roll as absent, wounded severely in leg & arm,** left in hospital at Murfreesboro, captured at Stone’s River, died January 5, 1863

* This organization subsequently became Capt. Goldthwaite’s Battery, Alabama Light Artillery

** Arm & leg broken by minnie ball & left in hospital at Murfreesboro dangerously

M311: Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Alabama