William T. Poague |
"at this place I wrote my first report on my knee, and a very meager lifeless thing it was. I supposed that after the brigade commander saw it and read it, the firewood receive it. But low and behold, I find several of my very imperfect reports published in the rebellion records, as the U.S. Government calls the volumes.[1]I ought to have embraced in them many things that were a part of the history of the battery and that would have reflected credit on the men. I find that many reports for so written, and if you make a comparative estimate of the services of our battery along with some others as based upon the reports of the commanding officer, ours would suffer by the comparison."[2]
Poague is quite critical of his reports. I will say that they are not as good as some but much better than many others. Nevertheless I could not have said it any better.