the road in line of battle. The disposition of his forces was immediately reported by me, and the 18th Massachusetts and 20th Maine regiments were sent out to my support, and moved up to the rear of my picket line, and formed in line of battle. The enemy had thrown out a very heavy line of skirmishers in my immediate front, and pushed them boldly forward into the edge of the wood against my lines, but without firing. Our lines having been formed, and everything in readiness, an attack was ordered, and I pushed my skirmish line forward at double-quick over an open field of a quarter of a mile, driving the enemy's picket line into the woods and on to their line of battle. I was followed up by my brigade in two lines of battle, and the fight became general. Part of my skirmish line fought that of the enemy in the woods hand-to-hand, using the bayonet. Captain Bradish, a most gallant officer was killed, and Captain Stanway and Lieutenant Raymond were wounded, the former severely in the arm, while almost at the very muzzle of a rebel gun."

During the following eight days it was almost continuously engaged in battle or in skirmishing, sustaining large losses, especially at the battle of Alsop's Farm, on the 8th, where the regiment came out of the engagement with only twenty-three men. Pressing forward with the army, it participated in the battles of Spottsylvania, thence moved to the North Anna, and on the 23d took part in the engagement at Jericho Mills. Crossing the Pamunkey river, it advanced to near Cold Harbor and participated in the engagements near that place.

Proceeding to James river with the army, it crossed that stream on the 16th of June, and on the 17th arrived in front of Petersburg and became engaged in the ordinary duties in the trenches. On the 30th of September following the regiment participated in the movement of that date on the right of the enemy's line, near Poplar Grove Church, and participated in the desperate fighting that ensued. Unaided it stormed and carried two strong fortifications and a portion of one line of works. During this action the officer commanding the regiment, Capt. James H. Wheaton, was killed. On the 6th of December, the regiment, in command of Major George Lockley, started on a raid along the Weldon railroad. After crossing the Nottaway river the regiment assisted in destroying several miles of that railroad. Proceeding as far as Hicksford it returned, arriving at its former encampment on the 12th. Remaining there until February 5th, 1865, it broke camp and moved to the left of the line and participated in the engagement on the 6th at Hatcher's Run, losing three killed and three taken by the enemy. It remained in camp near that place until the 29th of March. On the 25th of March the regiment was engaged in an attack on the enemy's right at Hatcher's Run, having several wounded. On the morning of the 29th it broke camp and engaged the enemy the same day on the White Oak road, and also on April 1st at Five Forks, at Amelia Court-house on the 5th, at High Bridge on the 6th, and at Appomattox Court-house on the 9th.

Captain Lewis C. Randell was killed in action at Laurel Hill, May 10th, 1864.

Lieut. Wm. S. Woodruff died June 28th, 1864, of wounds received in action on the 27th of that month.

Following is the report of Gen. Wilcox, dated at Detroit September 3d, 1862, and addressed to the Adjutant-General of the army at Washington: "My brigade, the 2d of Heintzelman's division, marching in rear of Franklin's brigade, arrived at the Sudley Ford at about half-past 12 P. M. July 21, 1862. The brigade now consisted of the 1st Michigan, 11th New

York, (Fire Zouaves,) 38th New York, and Arnold's battery. The 4th Michigan had been left at Fairfax Station and Fairfax Court-house by the order of Gen. McDowell. Halting for rest and water, I obeyed the general's orders to post Arnold's battery on a hill commanding the ford, with the 1st Michigan for support, and at 1 o'clock pushed forward with my two remaining regiments up the Sudley and Brentville road. We marched about two miles and came up on the right of what I suppose to have been Franklin's line, near the junction of the Warrenton and Sudley roads. The troops on our left were engaged in a desultory fire with the enemy, posted in the thicket and ravine across the Warrenton road, not far from the Henry House. The 28th New York was quickly formed in order of battle, and the Zouaves were hastening into line, when I received an order to detach a regiment for the support of Ricketts' battery, (of Franklin's brigade,) posted on a hill a quarter of a mile to our right and front, near Dogan House. I led up the Zouaves for this important service, leaving the 38th under its gallant and experienced Col. Hobart Ward. Ricketts was soon ordered to take a new position near the Henry House. The Zouaves followed in support, and finally formed line on the right flank of the battery, with two companies in reserve.

"Up to this time the enemy had fallen back, but now he formed the remains of his brigades engaged with Hunter in the morning, viz: Bee's, Bartow's, and Evans', in a new line, appuyed upon Jackson's brigade of fresh troops, making altogether 6,500 infantry, 13 pieces of artillery, and Stuart's cavalry, according to Gen. Beauregard's report. This force was posted in the belt of woods which skirted the plateau southwardly and lying in the angle formed in that direction between the Warrenton and Sudley roads, about a mile from the Warrenton road, and with its left resting on the Brentsville and Sudley roads. Ricketts' battery had crossed the Sudley road from its post near Dogan's House, and was within musket range of the woods which stretched from that road around from his right towards his front, and forming a pocket which almost enveloped the battery with its support. "The enemy were first discovered by Col. Heintzelman lining the woods in our front. He ordered up the Zouaves, commanded by Col. Farnham. The ground was slightly rising before us, and the enemy opened a heavy but not destructive fire as we reached the crest. The Zouaves returned the fire, but immediately fell back, bewildered and broken. Stuart's cavalry charged upon them from the woods on the right, but were scattered by a fire from the two reserve companies, with a loss (as ascertained from the Southern papers) of twenty-nine killed and wounded.

"Meantime Ricketts' cannoneers were being picked off. With Colonel Heintzelman's approval and a promise of reinforcements, I collected some one hundred Zouaves, and, with Capt. Douney and others of their officers, made a dash into the woods on our right and killed, wounded, and captured about thirty of the enemy. Returning in a few minutes, I found the field cleared of both friend and foe except the killed and wounded.

"The horses, men, and two officers of Ricketts' battery lay stretched upon the ground, but the enemy had not yet seized it.

"Recrossing the Sudley road, I met the 1st Michigan, Major Bidwell commanding, and marching back with this regiment we found the enemy now drawn up in a thin line across the field and in possession of the battery; advancing to the fence on the roadside the 1st Michigan opened fire, the right wing fell back to reload, owing to a blundering order, but the left stood firm, expelled the enemy and retook the battery. The troops here opposed to us I believe to have been the 7th Georgia.

"Colonel Heintzelman now came up and ordered us promptly forward, and with the promise of another regiment it was my design to turn the enemy's left. The left wing of the 1st Michigan recrossed the field, struck into the woods beyond the Zouaves, succeeded in destroying and capturing a small number of the enemy and pushing back his extreme left out of that part or point of the woods adjacent to the Sudley road.

"Meantime the right wing of the 1st Michigan reformed and advanced in good order. I met it and we pushed on toward the next point of woods. From this point I found the enemy's left discovered us by our fire and we became engaged with their rear rank, their front being occupied by the advancing troops of Franklin's or Sherman's brigade. The officers and men of the 1st Michigan stood up bravely at this critical moment, holding on anxiously for reinforcements. But from all I can learn, the 38th, which was ordered up to me, were directed to the left of the Henry House, (instead of to the right and along the Sudley road,) came in contact with the enemy's centre and never reached me.

"It was now nearly four o'clock. General Beauregard had been gathering new reinforcements; General Kirby Smith had joined him with a portion of Johnston's army. Our scattered troops were contending in fractions against the enemy's army in position and massed on the plateau, with his artillery sweeping every approach. Gen. Johnston was bringing fresh troops to turn our right. The 28th Virginia attacked my own handful from the rear in the woods, and I had the ill fortune to be wounded and a few moments afterward captured. But I was spared witnessing the disaster which further pursued our arms.

"In this report I have only endeavored to supply partly the information that was not known or found in any other report in consequence of my capture. Permit me to add further, that the 38th New York was distinguished for its steadiness in ranks, and for gallantly repelling a charge made upon it by the New Orleans Tigers.' The Zouaves, though broken as a regi ment, did good service under my own eyes in the woods, and detachments of them joined various other regiments in the fight. The 1st Michigan deserves the credit of advancing farther into the enemy's lines than any other of our troops, as their dead bodies proved after the battle. I only regret that from the fact of my separation from Arnold's battery, I cannot add any testimony of my own to the well known gallantry with which he and his command conducted themselves."

THE SECOND INFANTRY.

The 2d infantry, under command of Col. J. B. Richardson, by whom it had been organized, with much promptness followed the 1st regiment to the war in Virginia, and was in time to be present in the first engagement, being in the brigade of Richardson, which opened fire upon the rebels at Blackburn's Ford, on the 18th of July, 1861, and which covered the retreat of the army from Bull Run on the 21st following.

The regiment, under command of Col. O. M. Poe, participated in all of the engagements on the Peninsula, first meeting the enemy on that campaign at Williamsburg, on May 5, 1862, where it lost 17 killed, 38 wounded, and 4 missing; at Fair Oaks, on the 27th; at Charles City Cross-roads, on June 30th, and at Malvern Hill July 1st. At Fair Oaks it lost 10 killed and 47 wounded, while its bravery was so marked as to receive the following notice in the published history of the time:

66

'Meantime, Heintzelman had sent forward Kearney to recover Casey's

lost ground, and a desperate fight was going on at the extreme left. The enemy had been successfully held in front of Couch's old entrenched camp, until Kearney's division arrived, when he staid the torrent of battle. One after another his gallant regiments pushed forward, and pressed back the fiery rebels with more daring than their own. Here the 55th New York won new laurels, and Poe's 2d Michigan was bathed in blood. Five hundred of them charged across the open field against ten times their number, and stopped them in mid career, losing 17 brave fellows in that one desperate essay."

Immediately following the battles on the Peninsula it entered on the campaign of General Pope, and was engaged with the enemy at Bull Run August 28th, 29th, and 30th, and at Chantilly on the 1st of September.

On the 12th of December following, the regiment, then commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Dillman, participated in the engagement at Fredericksburg with slight loss.

The 2d was transferred early in 1863 to another field of operations with the 9th corps, and served with distinction on the Grant campaign in Mississippi, terminating with the fall of Vicksburg and the defeat and route of Johnston at Jackson. It was also in the campaign of Burnside in East Tennessee, and was actively engaged in the defence of Knoxville against the attacks of Longstreet, and in the various battles with his forces in that vicinity. Although the survivors of this noble regiment can look back upon their campaigns in Virginia and recount with much justifiable pride their numerous battles, yet, Jackson and Knoxville will ever hold prominent places in their memories, as engagements in which the regiment specially distinguished itself and sustained heavy loss.

Immediately following the surrender of Vicksburg, General Sherman with his army, a part of which was the 9th corps, moved in pursuit of General Johnston, who was then in the vicinity of Jackson, and reached there on the 10th of July. The 2d regiment belonged to the 2d brigade, 1st division, and on the 11th of July became engaged with the enemy, making one of the most daring and gallant charges of the war. Col. Humphrey, commanding the regiment, in his report thus details its movements on that occasion:

"At 5 A. M. I was ordered by Col. Leasure, commanding the brigade, to deploy my regiment as skirmishers on the left of the skirmish line of the 1st brigade to keep my connection with it perfect-to be guided in the movements of my line strictly by those of the regiment on my right, and to advance until I drew the fire of the enemy's artillery.

"I at once deployed my regiment as directed, and moved forward, meeting with only slight opposition from the enemy, until about 6 o'clock, when he opened a brisk fire along my whole line. We had come up to the enemy strongly posted in front of my right on a deep water course, and of my left in a heavy woods. For an hour a brisk skirmish was kept up. The enemy made a determined resistance, but was gradually forced back toward his support.

"At 7 A. M. the order came down the line from the right to 'forward! double-quick!' The men at once advanced with a cheer, drove in the enemy's skirmishers through their camps, and into their reserves, strongly posted in a deep ravine, charged and broke the reserve, and drove it up out of the ravine into its main support, drawn up in line of battle on the top of the south bank of the ravine, charged under a hot fire of musketry and artillery up the steep bank against the main body, broke this line, and drove the enemy within his works.

"We waited now for our support to come up, but on sending for it were surprised to find we had none. The regiment on my right, for some reason unknown to me, advanced but a short distance, then fell back to the line left by it a few moments before. By some mistake the three companies (C, F, and H) on the left did not advance with the rest of the regiment in this charge, which was made with about one hundred and seventy men. Fifty of these, almost one-third, had fallen. The enemy was being reinforced, and we were entirely without support, with no connection on the right and no troops on our left. Thus situated, to hold for any length of time the ground we had so dearly won would be impossible. I therefore put my men under cover of the bank of the ravine, through which we had advanced, within twenty yards of the enemy's works, and held the position until the wounded were carried to the rear, and then following the movement of the regiment on my right, fell back to the line from which we had advanced an hour before."

In this charge the regiment had 9 killed, 39 wounded, among whom were Lieutenants Sheldon, Stevenson, and Montague, and 8 taken as prisoners.

The 2d was also specially distinguished on several occasions during the siege of Knoxville by Longstreet in 1863, and particularly so on the 24th of November, when under command of Major Cornelius Byington (Colonel Humphrey being in command of the brigade) it so gallantly charged a strong force of rebels protected by entrenchments and a house which they occupied, driving them from their position and leveling the house and works to the ground. In the charge the regiment lost in killed and wounded, out of 161 officers and men engaged, 86. Among the killed were Lieutenants William Noble (adjutant) and Charles R. Galpin, and Major Byington and Lieutenant Frank Zoellener mortally wounded. This charge is handed down in the history of the day as among the most brilliant of the war.

Returning with its corps to the Army of the Potomac, on the 5th of May, 1864, it crossed the Rapidan, taking part with that army in the great campaign which had just commenced, sharing in its sufferings, its privations, and its glory. On May 6th, in command of Colonel W. Humphrey, it participated in the battle of the Wilderness, losing 6 killed and 32 wounded and missing. On the 10th, 11th, and 12th it was in the battle at Spottsylvania Court-house, where it lost 2 killed and 9 wounded; among the killed was Captain James Farrand; and on the 3d of June, at the battle of Bethesda Church, where its loss was 2 killed and 36 wounded. From Bethesda Church the regiment marched to Cold Harbor. June 12th it crossed the Chicahominy river, and on the morning of the 14th, and during the night of the 15th, crossed to the south side of the James river. It participated in the engagement before Petersburg on the 17th and 18th of June, losing on the 17th 8 killed, including Captain James Bradley, 74 wounded, and 4 missing; on the 18th, 14 killed, 69 wounded, and 2 missing. During the attack which followed the springing of the mine on the 30th of July, the regiment lost 6 killed, 14 wounded, and 37 missing, Captain John S. Young and Lieutenant John G. Busch being among the killed. Withdrawing from in front of Petersburg, it marched with its corps to the Weldon railroad, and in the action of the 19th of August on this road the regiment lost 1 killed, 2 wounded, and 2 missing. Participating in the movement on the right flank of the rebel army, on the 30th of September, in the engagement near Poplar Spring Church, it lost 7 in wounded and 12 missing. The regiment remained in camp from the 30th of September to October 27th, near "Peeble's House." On the latter date, in the advance on the "Boydton Plank Road," it lost 7 wounded and 7