Today in History:

133 Series I Volume XXXVII-I Serial 70 - Monocacy Part I

Page 133 Chapter XLIX. THE LYNCHBURG CAMPAIGN.

ketry fire of the day, and it was here that most of our comrades fell. Both officers and men behaved with their usual gallantry and bravery. No hesitating or faltering in the face of the enemy's fire; all discharged their duty faithfully and cheerfully. I took 420 men into the engagement. Previous battles, sickness, hard marching, and exposure had materially reduced the strength of the regiment. Captain John Cole, Company B, was the only officer severely wounded. The regiment lost 11 killed, 37 wounded, and 7 missing; total 55. This does not include about 30 slightly wounded who were not sent to the hospital, among them 3 officers.

The entire line having come to a halt, we held our position until we were ordered to reform on the ground from which we had made the last charge, and rested there unmolested, except by an occasional shot from the enemy's sharpshooters, until about 9 p.m., when we were ordered to withdraw, and by 10 o'clock took up the line of march with the entire column, and continued a long and fatiguing march for ten days, passing through Liberty, Salem, Rocky Gap, New Castle, Sweet Sulphur Springs, White Sulphur Springs, Meadow Bluff, Lewisburg, Hawk's Nest, Loup Creek, and Gauley Bridge, arriving here in the afternoon of the 28th, having marched a distance of 215 miles since leaving Lynchburg.

Depending entirely upon the country over which we marched for supplies, a great portion of our line of march being but sparsely settled and supplies scarce, and what little they had, shipped to the mountains on hearing of our approach; in consequence of which, to our suffering from hard, fatiguing marches, loss of sleep, and a burning sun, was added a fair prospect of starvation. During the last four or five days many of my best men dropped out of the ranks, completely exhausted by hunger and fatigue; but supplies having been sent out to meet them, the most of them have since come into camp. Notwithstanding the many hardships endured and the terrible suffering of the men, there is a general expression of satisfaction of the work that was performed during this important expedition.

Since going into camp much sickness prevails among both officers and men, the sanitary condition of the regiment being worse now than I ever knew it to be since entering the service, more than one-quarter of the regiment being unfit for duty.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. D. YUTZY,

Major, Commanding Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Vol. Infty.

Colonel J. M. CAMPBELL,

Commanding Third Brigade, Second Division.


Numbers 17. Report of Colonel Daniel Frost, Eleventh West Virginia Infantry.


HDQRS. ELEVENTH WEST VIRGINIA INFANTRY VOLS.,
Camp Piatt, W. Va., July 2, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to report the following as the part taken by six companies of my regiment in the recent expedition of the forces of this department to Lynchburg:

Left Bunger's Mills, near Lewisburg, June 1, at 6.30 a.m., and, passing through Lewisburg and across Greenbrier River, encamped near White Sulphur Springs.


Page 133 Chapter XLIX. THE LYNCHBURG CAMPAIGN.