Date of Organization: 1 May 1861 Muster Date: 19 Dec 1865
Officers Killed or Mortally Wounded: 15 Officers Died of Disease or Accident: 6
Enlisted Killed or Mortally Wounded: 163 Enlisted Died of Disease or Accident: 166
ABBOTT, Alexander L – enlisted 10 May 1861 at age 19 as a Private in Co. D, 2nd Infantry. He mustered in 1 June 1861. He received a Disability Discharge on 21 Sep 1862. He was born in Dover, moved to & credited to Newmarket. He later reenlisted in the Reserves mustering in on 29 Mar 1864 as a Private at age 22 in Company . E, 13th Infantry. He was Discharged 30 Nov 1865 in Boston.
BASSO, Charles – enlisted and mustered in 23 Nov 1863 at age 21 as a Private in Company B, 2nd Infantry. He was born in Italy, and resided in Italy; credited to Newmarket. Transferred to Company E, 2nd Infantry. Promoted to Corporal 1 Dec 1864, and Sergeant on 1 Sep 1865. He mustered out 10 Dec 1865 at City Point, VA. After the war he returned to Italy. He filed for a pension in Italy 27 Oct 1919 as an invalid; his widow Paolino filed for widow benefits 30 Mar 1927.
BATHOLOMEW, Rominane, enlisted 23 Nov 1863 at age 21 in Company E, 2nd Infantry. Deserted 26 Sep 1864 at Chickahominy, VA.
BEAN, William enlisted 27 May 1861 at age 23 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Discharged for wounds on 6 Jun 1863.
BROWN, George enlisted 20 Nov 1863 at age 30 as a Private in Company C, 2ndInfantry. Died of Disease 23 Sep 1864 at Wilson’s Landing, VA.
CADY, George enlisted as a substitute 2 Dec 1863 at age 29 as a Private in Company I, 2ndInfantry. H e was born in Washington, NY but credited to Newmarket. He Deserted 21 Feb 1864 at Point Lookout, MD.
CHAPMAN, Joseph –enlisted 9 May 1861 at age 28 as a Private in Company B, 2ndInfantry. Discharged for wounds on 6 Dec 1862 at Washington, D.C.
CLARK, Frank – enlisted 2 Dec 1863 at age 20 as a Private in Company I, 2ndInfantry. Wounded 30 June 1864 at Petersbury, VA. Mustered out 19 Dec 1865 at City Point, Va.
COLLINS, Thomas – enlisted and mustered in 2 Dec 1863 at age 23 as a Private in Company I, 2nd Infantry. He was born in Antwerp, Holland and cred. Newmarket. Wounded 3 Jun 1864 at Cold Harbor, Va.; he mustered out 10 Dec 1865.
CULLIVER, Andrew – enlisted and mustered in 30 Nov 1863 as a Private in Company I, 2nd Infantry. He transferred to the rank of Ordinary Seaman 30 Apr 1864 in the U.S. Navy. He served on U.S.S. “Mount Vernon” and “Tacony”; credited to Newmarket. He deserted 29 July 1865, from receiving ship, Boston, Mass.
DALEY, Charles. Unas’d; b. St. George, Me.; age 21; cred. Newmarket; enl. Dec. 2, ‘63; must. in Dec. 2, ‘63, as Priv.2nd Infantry; des. Dec. 11, ‘63, Long Isl., Boston Harbor, Mass.
DAVIS, David O. enlisted as a Private in Co. D, 2nd Infantry.30 Apr 1861 for 3 years at age 30. A Resident of Durham;. He mustered in with the 2nd Infantry on 1 Jun 1861 as Corporal in Company D. He mustered out 19 Sept 1862 near Fairfax Seminary, VA, due to disability [See Profile Page ]. However on 14 Aug 1863 still residing in Durham he was drafted into Company F, 5th Infantry as a private at the age of 33. He was later wounded in action on 25 Mar 1865 at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, where his arm was amputated on the field. He received a disability discharge 4 Jul 1865 at Chester, PA., and transferred to Webster General Hospital in Manchester.
DEMERITT, George – enlisted 10 May 1861 at age 27 as a Private in the 18thInfantry; re-enlisted 1 Jun 1861 and mustered in with Company B, 2ndInfantry. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
GATES, George – enlisted and mustered in 2 Dec 1863 at age 20 as a Private in Company I, 2nd Infantry. He was born in Philadelphia, Pa; and cred. Newmarket. Transferred to U.S. Navy 30 Apr1864, as a Seaman; served on U.S.S. “State of Georgia,” “A. D. Vance,” “Baltic,” “Potomac,” and “Cowslip”; deserted 16 Dec 1863, from “Cowslip
HANSON, Albert J. – enlisted 27 May 1861 at age 22 as a Private in Company H. 2nd Infantry. Mustered in 5 Jun 1861. Promoted to Full Sergeant on 1 Sep 1862. Promoted to First Full Sergeant 19 Dec 1863. Promoted to Full 1st Lieutenant on 24 Jun 1864. Promoted to Full Captain on 3 Nov 1864. Mustered Out 19 Dec 1865 at City Point, VA.
HANSON, JOHN H. 2nd –(AKA HANSCOM, John H.) – enlisted 9 May 1861 at age 20 as a Private in Company B, 2nd Infantry; mustered in 1 Jun 1861; wounded severly 2 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg, Pa.. He must. out June 21, ‘64 with a PO address of Dover. He was born Roxbury, Mass., and resided in and was credited to Newmarket upon his enlistment
HENAGHAN, Patrick – [KIA] enlisted 28 May 1861 at age 28 as a Private in Company B, 2nd Infantry. KIA 25 Jun 1862 at Oak Grove, VA.
JONES, John –[POW] enlisted 7 May 1861 at age 18 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2nd Infantry. Promoted to Full Corporal. Died as a POW 1 Nov 1864 at Andersonville, GA.
KUSE, Nathan – [DoW] enlisted 25 May 1861 at age 19 from South Newmarket as a Corporal in Company E, 2nd Infantry. Promoted to Full Sergeant 1 May 1863. Died of wounds on 21 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg, PA.
LEES, Thomas – enlisted 24 May 1861, Residence Durham, as a Private at age 22 in Company B, 2nd Infantry- mustered in 1 Jun 1861. Promoted to Full Corporal 15 Nov 1861; Full Sergeant 15 Jan 1862; Full 1st Sergreant 29 Apr 1863; Full 2nd Lieutenant on 10 Jul 1863. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864. Listed as MIA 2 Jul 1863. In the Clark House, Wolfeboro, NH is a framed Civil War record about 2nd Lt. Lees. A native of England, came to America at age 7. Enlisted Co. B, 2nd Reg. Infantry in 1861 and became a Sgt a yr later. He was captured on the 2nd day of the Battle of Gettysburg and was confined at Belel Island, and Liberty, VA. At 1863 he was promoted to Lt.and later mustered out in 1864.
LONG, Nicholas – enlisted 25 May 1861 at age 19 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Jul 1863. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
MASTERS, Charles – enlistred 3 May 1861 at age 21 fron South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Desterted 1 Nov 1862 at Near Fairfax Seminary, VA.
MITCHELL, Sewell – enlisted 9 May 1861 at age 19 as a Private in Company B, 2ndInfantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Jan 1863. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
MOORE, Samuel. Co. I, 2nd Infantry. b. Germany; age 22; cred. Newmarket; enl. Dec. 2, ‘63; must. in Dec. 2, ‘63, as Priv.; wd. June 3, 64, Cold Harbor, Va.; app. Corp.; disch. to date Sept. 30, ‘65. P.O. ad., Clinton, N.C.
MORGAN, Frederick. Co. I;2nd Infantry. b. Germany; age 28; cred. Newmarket; enl. Dec. 2, ‘63; must. in Dec. 2, ‘63, as Priv.; des. Nov. 19, ‘64, while on furlough from hosp.
QUINN, William – enlisted 25 May 1861 at age 18 as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Mar 1863. Promoted to Full Sergeant 1 Jul 1863. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
SANDERS, Charles – enlisted 10 May 1861 at age 20 as a Private in Company D, 2ndInfantry
SIMPSON, John – enlisted 19 Aug 1861 at age 44 as a Private in Company K, 2nd Infantry. Received a Disability Discharge on 11 Jul 1862 at Harrison’s Landing, VA.
SLUCEMAN, Flavius [DoW] (AKA SOESMAN,Flavius A.) –enlisted 9 May 1861, he also shows a second enlistment date of 1 Jun 1861 at age 21 as a Private in Company B, 2nd Infantry; he was wounded Jun 25 1862 at Oak Grove, VA; re-enlisted and mustered in from Dover 19 Feb 1864; again wounded June 3, 1864 at Cold Harbor, VA. and Died of Wounds on 30 Jun 1864 at Philadelphia. At the time of his enlistment he resided in Dover. He was born in Maine - the 1850 of Kennebunkport, ME census lists his father as Eleazer J. (age 35) a mariner, and his mother Elisabeth B (age 32). He is listed in the 1891 Newmarket Advertiser, as being from town.
SMITH, Charles – enlisted 25 May 1861 at age 19 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Received a Disability Discharge 16 Aug 1861 at Blandensburg, MD.
SMITH, Daniel – [DoW] enlisted 3 May 1861 at age 26 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2nd Infantry. Died from Wounds on 2 Mar 1863 at Concord, NH
SMITH, Horace – enlisted 3 May 1861 at age 18 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
SPEAD, Lenonard – enlisted 28 Sep 1864 at age 21 as a Private in Company F, 2nd Infantry. Mustered in 26 Nov 1864 appointed Wagoner. Transferred to Company F, 5th Infantry 30 Jan 1865; mustered out 28 Jun 1865. Born in Newmarket, resided in Concord, left service with West Concord PO address
STOVER, Alcot – enlisted 25 May 1861 at age 25 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Sep 1861. Received a Disability Discharge on 5 Jan 1863 at Washington, D.C.
TETHERLY, John – enlisted 3 May 1861 at age 25 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2ndInfantry. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
TRAVERS, John – enlisted and mustered in on 2 Dec 1863 at age 20 as a Private in Company I, 2nd Infantry. He was born in Wheeling, Va; and cred. to Newmarket. He was app. Sergt. 1 Jul 1864; reduced to ranks 26 June 1865; and must. out Dec. 19, ‘65.
TREFETHEN, Francis – [DoD] enlisted 3 May 1861 at age 21 from South Newmarket as a Private in Company E, 2nd Infantry. Died of Disease on 29 Jun 1862 at Yorktown, VA.
TUTTLE, Edward – enlisted 27 May 1861 at age 24 as a Musician in Company B, 2ndInfantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Dec 1861. Discharged for wounds on 16 Aug 1862 at Philadelphia, PA.
TUTTLE, Horace –enlisted 22 May 1861 at age 23 as a Private in Company B, 2ndInfantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Aug 1862, Promoted to Full Sergeant 15 Jul 1863. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
QUINN, William – enlisted 25 May 1861 at age 18 as a Private in Company E, 2nd Infantry. Promoted to Full Corporal 1 Mar 1863. Promoted to Full Sergeant 1 Jul 1863. Mustered out 21 Jun 1864.
VINCENT, Richard H.– (AKA Richard M. Varney) enlisted 25 Apr 1861 at age 31 as a Private in Company B, 1st Infantry. Mustered out 9 Aug 1861 Concord, NH. He re-enlisted 13 Feb 1862 as a Private in Company K, 2nd Infantry. Mustered in 28 Feb 1862. Re-enlisted 19 Feb 1864. He was born in Sandwich or Conway, resided in both Manchester and Newmarket; credited to Newmarket.
WALKER, Thomas H. enlisted 25 Apr 1861 for 3 months; not mustered in. Re-enlisted 10 May 1861 for 3 yrs. Mustered in 1 Jun 1861 in Company D, 2nd Infantry as a Sergeant; he received a Disability Discharge 1 Aug 1861 in Washington, D.C. He again re-enlisted 11 Sep 1861 at age 23 as a Sergeant in the 5th NH Regiment mustering in 12 Oct 1861. Appointed 2nd Lieutenant 15 Dec 1862; and resigned 11 Jun 1863. He was born in Boston; a resident of Durham with a Newmarket Address. Living in Newmarket by Jan 1883 as he appears as receiving a pension of $7.50 since 8 Apr 1881 due to mal.fever, eczema
WENTWORTH, Jacob O.- enlisted 27 Sep 1861 at age 22 as a Private in Company E, 2nd Infantry Regiment. Mustered in 27 Nov 1861. Re-enlisted and mustered in 20 Dec 1863 as a Private in Company C, 6th Infantry. Deserted from Company C on 13 Dec 1864 while on Furlough. Born in Rollinsford and resided in Newmarket
WILLAND, Andrew J – enlisted 21 May 1861 at age 27 in Company K, 2nd Infantry. He mustered in at Portsmouth on 8 jun 1861 as a Private. He was born in Newmarket, and he died of disease on 6 Jul 1862 at Bottom’s Bridge, Va.
WILLEY, Nathaniel – enlisted 10 May 1861 at age 45 as a Private in Company D, 2ndInfantry. Received a Disability Discharge 26 Mar 1863 at Newark, NJ
SECOND REGIMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY (THREE YEARS)
By Hon. MARTIN A. HAYNES, late Private Second Regiment , New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry and Historian of Regiment. Source: New Hampshire Soldiers & Sailors War of the Rebellion, Ayling
A large proportion of the original members of the Second Regiment were enlisted for three months, service under President Lincoln’s first call; many of them among the earliest recruits in April, 1861. But early in May, while the regiment was still in camp at Portsmouth, orders were received from the War Department to send no more three months’ troops. Most of the men thereupon enlisted for three years, this second muster by companies dating from June 1 to 8. The regiment left Portsmouth June 20, receiving at Boston on the same day, and at New York on the 21st, tremendous ovations from the Sons of New Hampshire and the local authorities.
The regiment arrived in Washington on the afternoon of the 23d, and was brigaded with the First and Second Rhode Island and the Seventy-first New York, the brigade commander being Col. Ambrose E. Burnside. This constituted the Second Brigade of Hunter’s division, and opened the fight at the first Bull Run battle, July 21. Colonel Marston was severely wounded here, and the regiment’s loss was reported as 7 killed, 56 wounded, 46 missing. Early in August the regiment went into camp at Bladensburg, Md., being brigaded with the First and Eleventh Massachusetts and Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, under command of Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker. During the winter of ‘61-2 the brigade camped at Budd’s Ferry, Md., constituting the First Brigade of Hooker’s division, which had been placed there as a corps of observation over the rebel blockading batteries extending several miles along the Virginia side of the Potomac.
(Photo: Seige of Yorktown)
The division embarked on steamers for Yorktown, April 5, 1862. The regiment performed the customary siege duty before Yorktown until the morning of May 4, when the rebel defenses were discovered to have been evacuated. Within an hour Hooker’s division was pushing in pursuit, and at daylight the following morning impetuously attacked the rebel rear guard at Williamsburg. After a most obstinate and sanguinary struggle the Excelsior and New Jersey brigades were beaten back, when the entire Second Regiment was deployed as skirmishers to cover the line of two brigades, and maintained a savage bush fight for two hours, until relieved by the arrival of Kearney’s division. The Second Regiment lost 18 men killed, 66 wounded, 23 missing.
On the last day of May, when Casey was overwhelmed at Fair Oaks, Hooker’s division was at Poplar Hill, a few miles distant. The Second and Third Brigades took part in the second day’s fight, and June 3 Grover’s brigade also advanced to Fair Oaks. June 23 five companies of the Second, with some Massachusetts troops constituting the picket line, advanced as skirmishers, driving the rebel pickets a considerable distance towards Richmond. One man of the Second was killed and several wounded in this little affair.
(Photo: John Smith’s plantation, Battle of Oak Grove)
Two days later the battle of Oak Grove was fought, when Hooker advanced over the same ground, crushed all opposition, and was only prevented from essaying the defenses of 
Richmond by McClellan’s timidity. The Second’s loss was about 70 men—the heaviest falling upon Company B, which had 22 men killed and wounded out of 42. In the “change of base,” Hooker’s division abandoned the works and camps at Fair Oaks, June 28. At Savage’s Station, the same day, the Second supported, with but slight loss, a battery posted to sweep the railroad towards Fair Oaks Station. It lost several men, wounded, at Glendale on the 29th, but its part of the line was not assailed at Malvern Hill on the 30th. In Hooker’s movement to re-capture Malvern Hill, August 4 and 5, the Second had one man killed and several wounded by shell.
On the evacuation of the peninsula, Hooker’s division marched to Yorktown, took boats to Alexandria, and from there by rail to reinforce Pope, arriving at Warrenton Junction on the night of August 25. On the morning of the 27th, Stonewall Jackson’s raid on our communications was developed, and the Division pushed for Manassas Junction, the Second throwing out skirmishers and leading the column. Ewell’s division of Jackson’s corps was encountered at Kettle Run, near Bristoe Station, and driven towards Manassas Junction on the jump. On the forenoon of the 29th, Grover’s brigade arrived upon 
the field near Groveton, where Jackson was at bay, and reported to General Sigel. Under peremptory orders to “carry the railroad embankment with the bayonet,” it went forward into the woods, entirely unsupported, and charged the rebel position. The Second crashed through two lines in a headlong, hand-to-hand dash, but could not hold its ground. Out of 332 men, the regiment reported 16 killed, 87 wounded, 29 missing. The death-roll was actually 35, as finally established.
(Photo: Manassas Junction, 25 miles outside Washington, D.C.)
At Chantilly, September 1, the Second covered the road, on Kearney’s left, but was not brought into action. During the Antietam campaign, the division, now commanded by Sickles, lay in the Washington defenses, and late in November joined the army at Falmouth. The Third Corps was now under Stoneman, Hooker commanding the centre grand division. The First Brigade, to which the Eleventh New Jersey had been added, was commanded by Gen. Joseph B. Carr. The Second’s participation in the battle of Fredericksburg was confined to skirmishing, its position being two miles below the city, and it lost but 5 men wounded.
February 26, 1863, the regiment started for New Hampshire. It was given a rapturous reception in Manchester and Concord, and the men were freely furloughed to their homes. The regiment was reinforced by 94 men recruited for the Seventeenth Regiment, and on the25th of May set out to rejoin the army. At Gettysburg, July 2, the Second was, early in the action, detached from the brigade and reported to General Graham, First Brigade, Second Division. The regiment’s desperate defense of the angle at Sherfy’s peach orchard made that a historic 
point of the field. It took in 24 commissioned officers and 330 enlisted men. Three officers were killed and 18 wounded—4 mortally. Seventeen enlisted men were killed, 119 wounded, and 36 missing. The killed and mortally wounded aggregated 56.
(Photo: Sherfy’s peach orchard, Gettysburg)
July 23, when the Third Corps forced a passage through Manassas Gap into the Shenandoah Valley, the Second supported the Excelsior Brigade, and the following day,deployed as skirmishers, it led the corps to Front Royal. July 26, at Warrenton, with the Twelfth New Hampshire, it was detached from the army and sent to Point Lookout, Md., to establish the great prison camp. The Fifth New Hampshire subsequently arrived, and the district (St. Mary’s) was placed under command of Gen. Gilman Marston. The regiment was on duty here until April 8,1864, when it went by boat to Yorktown to join Butler’s “Army of the James,” then assembling. Desertions by “bounty jumpers” becoming numerous, four were executed shortly after arrival at Yorktown.
The regiment was attached to the Second Brigade (Wistar’s) Second Division, Eighteenth Corps’ the brigade consisting of the Eleventh Connecticut, Second and Twelfth New Hampshire, and Forty-Eighth New York. In the advance from Bermuda Hundred towards Petersburg, on the 8th of May, the regiment lost 1 man killed and 6 wounded. In the “fog fight” of May 16, in front of Fort Darling, the regiment repulsed repeated assaults with frightful loss to the enemy, although its own loss was but 4 killed and 14 wounded. May 29 the Eighteenth Corps was dispatched by boat around to White House to reinforce the Army of the Potomac. It joined Grant at Cold Harbor, June 1, and the Second had several men wounded by shells on that day. The next day it took part in the bloody and unsuccessful assault of the rebel position, and the regiment lost 2 officers and 6 enlisted men killed, 3 officers and 66 men wounded, and 1 missing.
June 9 the original men, not re-enlisted, marched from the trenches on their way home, and were discharged at Concord, N. H., June 21. The original Second New Hampshire fitly crowned three years of glorious service at Cold Harbor. It was also the last great pitched battle in which the regiment actively participated. The regiment was at once detached from the brigade for temporary duty at Eighteenth Corps headquarters. From August 18 to September 1 it was in the trenches before Petersburg, losing more or less men almost every day. Then it reported to General Marston, commanding the defenses of the James from City Point to Fortress Monroe. It was efficiently employed in various minor raids until the 1st of October, when it rejoined the Eighteenth Corps, being assigned to the Third Brigade of its old division. October 27 it joined in a heavy reconnoissance near the Williamsburg road, and lost several men.
June 21 the Tenth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth New Hampshire were mustered out, and the recruits whose term of service did not expire before September 30, about 400, were transferred to the Second. The rebellion having collapsed, the Second was scattered throughout several Virginia counties on provost duty. Finally, on December 19, 1865, the regiment was assembled at City Point and there mustered out of the United States service. On the 21st it started for New Hampshire, where it received a greeting commensurate with its four years and six months of heroic service.
(Photo: Harriet Patience Dame)
Any sketch of the Second Regiment would be incomplete without mention of Miss Harriet Patience Dame, the faithful army nurse. Miss Dame was born in North Barnstead, N. H., January 5, 1815. In 1856 she became a resident of Concord, and at the time the Second Regiment was being organized, had already commenced her good work of caring for the sick. When the regiment left for the front, the physicians in Concord could not spare her to accompany it; but a few days later she joined the command at Washington, and served with it, except when on duty at some field hospital, until it was mustered out in 1865, tenderly ministering to the sick and wounded, full of courage and hope amidst the dead and dying, and always unwearied in caring for “her boys,” regardless of her own health or comfort. The sincere respect and affection, not only of the men of the Second but of all New Hampshire regiments, is surely hers. In 1867 Miss Dame was appointed to a clerkship in the Treasury Department, in Washington.
ENGAGEMENTS
Report of Col. Edward L. Bailey, Second New Hampshire Infantry.
Near Gettysburg, Pa., July 5, 1863.
To: Col. George C. Burling, Comdg. Third Brig., Second Div., Third Corps.
Col.: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my regiment on the 2d instant in the battle at this place, commencing at the time it was detached from your command, it then being in position with your brigade in front of the Emmitsburg road:
At 3 p. m. I had the honor to receive your order to report to Gen.Graham, and immediately moving by double-quick to the front, I had the honor to announce my presence to that general with 24 commissioned officers and 330 rifles. I was at once ordered to support Battery G, First New York Artillery, and one section of a battery unknown, all light 12-pounders, brass. In this position my left rested upon the right of the Sixty-third Pennsylvania, my right covered by a wood house situated upon the Emmitsburg road, line forming a right angle with that road. Two hundred yards in my front the Third Maine was skirmishing with the enemy.
At 4 o’clock, while experiencing a terrific fire of spherical case and canister from batteries in my front and on my right, 650 yards distant, I directed the rolls of my companies to be called, and found but 8 of the total number equipped absent. These had fallen out of the ranks from sunstroke and exhaustion while moving by double-quick to position.
At 4.30 p. m. the Third Maine was withdrawn from our front to our rear, and about this time a battery and a section of Rodman pieces were substituted for those we were supporting. These pieces were worked with great inefficiency, and at 5 o’clock it was observed that a brigade of the enemy was advancing on our right, in column of battalions massed, while two regiments were moving directly parallel with my front to the left, evidently with design to turn that flank.
I reported these facts to Gen. Graham, and asked permission to charge, the enemy being close upon us—so near that the officer commanding the section of battery spiked his pieces, fearful that he should lose them. The general gave me directions to go forward, when I gave the order. My regiment started immediately, and advanced 150 yards at a run with a yell and such impetuosity as to cause the enemy to retire to a ravine 250 yards in our front, where they were covered from our fire, when I directed the fire of my battalion of the left oblique by the flank at about the same distance. My fire was so galling, assisted by that from the Third Maine, which had come up and taken part upon my left, as to cause them to break and seek shelter, when my attention was again called to my right, strengthened by the Sixty-third Pennsylvania forming at right angles with my front and parallel with the Emmitsburg road, upon which was advancing the brigade of the enemy, moving by battalion in mass, in line of battle. I immediately directed the fire of my battalion to the right oblique full upon it. Yet their line of fire, assisted by a terrible discharge of spherical case from their batteries, caused the Sixty-eighth Pennsylvania to retire, and at the same moment the Third Maine moved 200 yards to the rear, though in good order.
Finding myself thus unsupported, and the enemy steadily advancing, I ordered my regiment to fall back slowly, firing, which was fully executed. I moved to the rear 140 yards, and halted my line under the brow of the hill, halting also on the brow to give a volley to the enemy, then distant but 20 yards. The positions of the three regiments was that of echelon at about 20 paces, my regiment being the apex. The enemy continued advancing until they reached the brow of the hill, when their left swept toward the Sixty-third Pennsylvania in such overwhelming numbers as to cause it to give way; and fearing those regiments which had been observed marching toward my left might appear upon that flank, and knowing our efforts must prove futile against such fearful odds, I gave the order to retire, which was done quite rapidly, yet coolly, and without excitement as they went. I rejoined the brigade at about 6.30 p. m., fearfully diminished in numbers, yet firm and fearless still. This battalion entered the fight with a firm determination to do or die, and the long list of fallen comrades, already submitted, will show how well it kept that resolution.
Where all did so well it would be invidious to make comparisons. Let it suffice to say that they did their part as becomes sons of the old Granite State. For our fallen braves, who have so gloriously perished fighting for their country, we drop a comrade’s tear, while we extend our heartfelt sympathy to those dear ones far away who find the ties of kindred and friends thus rudely severed, and for those who must suffer untold agony and pain through long weeks of convalescence our earnest sympathy, yet leaving them to the watchful care of Him who will not prove unmindful of their necessities.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
ED. L. BAILEY, Col. Second New Hampshire Volunteers.
Revised Register of Soldiers and Sailors of New Hampshire in the War of the Rebellion 1861 – 1866, as prepared and published by Authority of the Legislature, by Augustus D. Ayling (NH Adjutant General). Printer: Ira C. Evan, Public Printer, 1895.
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