I need some clarification in order to accurately answer your question. Lieutenant Colonel William E. Ross was in command of the 39th Mississippi Infantry Regiment during the Atlanta Campaign. I am not sure the Colonel Shelby you are referring to. Subordinate organizations to a regiment would have been a battalion that consisted of three or more companies and they would not have been commanded by a Colonel (superior in rank to a Lieutanent Colonel) but may have been commanded by a Major but more than likely at this point in the war a senior company commander. The date you provide is June 8, 1864. On this date the Army of Tennessee was further north in the Lost Mountain defensive line northwest of Marietta. Can you tell me where you found the account?

I honestly don't know the extent of the use of mortars of any size in the Western Theater. I know they were extensively used in the Eastern Theater in siege operations. Although I commanded a mechanized 4.2 inch Mortar Platoon for a year when I was a First Lieutenant, I have not traced the tactical employment of mortars much in the war.

I believe the guns of the Eleventh Indiana Battery were the largest guns employed during the Atlanta Campaign and Captain Sutermeister's movements and mission were controlled at no lower of a level than a corps commander.

French's Division line ran from approximately the Western Atlantic Railroad southwestward in the Atlanta siege line. The batteries that were supporting French's Division at the time were Captain John J. Ward's Alabama Battery (wounded July 27 in fortifications of Atlanta), Captain James A. Hoskins' Mississippi Battery, and Captain Henry Guibor's Missouri Battery.

I would not discount the account but I would look for other evidence. Could they have confused 24 lbs howitzer and 24 lbs Coehorn fragments? I am not sure how the two compare. One of the task I had to do as the Battalion's Mortar Platoon Leader was to take a shell fragment and look at the curvature and tell what type of round it was (I made a template for this). Twenty-four pound howitzers were used for counterbattery fire. It would be prudent to look at what the Federal battery compositions were near the 39th Mississippi.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Respectfully,

Gerald D. Hodge, Jr.
M. A. Military History - Civil War Concentration
War Between the States Historian
Historian: 39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment