this campaign. We crossed the Rapidan at Germanna Ford, and encamped for the night about 3 miles from its southwest bank. On the morning of the 5th we resumed our march, going in the direction of Chancellorsville, and following Wheaton's brigade, of the Sixth Corps. the Vermont brigade, of which this regiment has the honor to be a portion, met the enemy near the intersection of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania plank road and the Fredericksburg and orange Court-House turnpike. This was about 5 p. m. This regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John R. Lewis, and its position was on the right and a little to the rear of the Sixth Vermont Regiment, which was, I am informed, temporarily transferred to a brigade of the Second Corps. We were soon ordered to the front line. As we were preparing to obey this order, Lieutenant Colonel John R. Lewis was severely wounded and carried from the field, and the command devolved upon Major Charles P. Dudley. The engagement was carried on for the space of twenty o thirty minutes, at short range, in a thick growth of young trees and underbrush, and against superior numbers. It was through a portion of this dense, dark forest that the command to charge was executed. When the charge was being made, we suddenly found ourselves 40 or 50 yards in advance of the remainder of the line, wholly unsupported and exposed, not only to a front fire of unprecedented severity, but also to a raking fire on both flanks of the most galling description . The brigadier-general commanding, perceiving our situation, ordered an immediate withdrawal, which movement was, I am happy to say, performed without haste or confusion. We fell back to a line of breast-works which we had hastily thrown up before we were ordered to advance. It is proper to state in this connection that two companies from this regiment were deployed as skirmishers in front of the brigade, and, when the advance was made, the enemy being near and in great force, necessarily suffered severely. It would seem invidious to select from the record of this action any individual instances of courage and fortitude. All, both officers and men, did nobly. Seldom has a command suffered more severely in the loss of gallant officers and brave men. The Fifth Regiment Vermont Volunteers went into the engagement of the 5th of May with 2 field officers, 19 line officers, and about 450 men. The list of casualties is as follows: 1 field officer wounded, Lieutenant Colonel John R. Lewis; 3 line officers killed, Capts. George D. Davenport and Charles J. Ormsbee, and Lieutenant Watson O. Beach; 6 line officers wounded, Capts. A. R. Hurlbut (since died), William B. Robinson, and Leonard D. Tice, and Lieuts. Orris H. Sweet (since died), Williard G. Davenport, and Minor D. Fish, and 187 enlisted men killed, wounded, and missing; the aggregate loss being 197.

After strengthening our defenses we awaited a renewal of the conflict. At an early hour of the 6th an advance in three lines of battle was ordered, and we were assigned a position in the third line. This advance drove the enemy 1 1/2 miles to their entrenchments. The first line having been relieved by the second line, that was in turn relieved by the third, and we again found ourselves in the front line of battle, on the left of our own brigade, and at the immediate right of the Second Corps. In this position we had engaged the enemy for more than an hour, when they threw a heavy force against the right of the Second Corps and drove it back, and in this way exposed us to a flank movement, whereupon we slowly withdrew, keeping the enemy engaged, to the entrenchments which