and travelled sixty-five miles. The Twenty-eighth accompanied this expedition. Two days later the Twelfth Corps was relieved at Harper's Ferry and ordered to join the army of General Burnside, to participate in the battle of Fredericksburg. The corps was afterwards ordered to Fairfax Station, the Twenty-eighth Regiment, with its brigade, being left to garrison Dumfries. On the 17th of December, this brigade was attacked by Stuart's Cavalry, twelve thousand strong, and eight pieces of artillery. After a desperate struggle the rebels withdrew, intending to renew the attack, but General Geary, attracted by the firing upon this portion of his command, hastened at night to its relief with the rest of his division, and encountered them at Occoquan, while marching to attack his camp, routing them and inflicting serious loss. In January, 1863, the division moved to Acquia, and remained there until the latter part of April, principally engaged in fortifying the place, slashing the timber around it, and reconnoitering the surrounding country. Leaving there on the 27th of April, it made the famous forced march by way of Stafford Court House, to Kelly's Ferry, on the Rappahannock, and Germania Ford on the Rapidan, to Chancellorsville, during which the Twenty-eighth distinguished itself in skirmishing with and defeating the rebel cavalry upon the right flank, in the latter part of the movement. May 1, General Hooker gave battle to General Lee, at Chancellorsville, and the bloody three days' fight at that place ensued. In these terrific actions the Twenty-eighth Regiment took a prominent part and added new laurels to those already earned on other sanguinary fields. When the command was ordered to fall back it remained with its division and did not quit the field until two hours after the other troops had retired. Its loss during these three days was over one hundred killed and wounded, out of three hundred engaged, it being one-fifth of the entire loss of the brigade. Among the killed was Major L. F. Chapman, who was then in command of the regiment, and who was one of the most heroic and efficient officers in the army. After the promotion of Colonel Geary, Major Chapman took great interest in keeping up the character the regiment had acquired for its admirable drill and discipline, and to his untiring exertions in this regard is owing much of its subsequent fame. First Lieutenant William C. Shields fell in this engagement and several other officers were wounded. The division captured five battleflags. Its loss was one thousand two hundred and nine men killed, wounded and missing. At the battle of Chancellorsville the men of the Twenty-eighth Regiment performed a herculean task in the construction of their temporary breast-works. They were without spades, shovels or axes; but with an energy which signalized them during the war, they applied themselves to the arduous task with the only tools they could command, consisting of bayonets, tin cups and plates. With these alone their fortifications were constructed. Another incident occurred illustrative of their indomitable courage and heroic ardor. During the first day's fight they were designated to lead a charge against a colum of the advancing enemy who poured in upon them a perfect tornado of balls, dealing frightful destruction along their ranks. They were under a new commander who had never led them in the fight. As they faced the fearful volcano of death, they, for the first time, halted and wavered. General Geary, then commanding the division, witnessed their indecision, when he suddenly sprang from his horse, and brandishing his sword, leaped the breast-works, crying aloud, "Men of the Twenty-eighth, follow your old commander." His appearance and words operated like an electric shock. A tremendous shout ran along the line, and simultaneously the men dashed forward with such impetuosity as to instantly stop the progress of and soon repulse the enemy. At dawn on the morning of May 5, the army re-crossed the Rappahannock at United States Ford, below its junction with the Rapidan, and the regiment marched with its division to its former position and duties at Acquia. On June 3, Colonel De Korponay having resigned, Captain Thomas J. Ahl, of Company H, was commissioned Colonel of the regiment; and on the 5th the Enfield rifles with sword bayonets, with which it started from Philadelphia, were exchanged for Springfield muskets. The camp at Acquia was broken up on the 13th of June, and the Division marched through Stafford Court House, Dumfries, Drainesville, Leesburg, Poolesville, Point of Rocks, Petersville, Knoxville, Frederick and Littlestown, reaching Gettysburg in time to participate in and share the glorious achievements of July 1st, 2d and 3d. In these brilliant engagements the Twenty-eighth again distinguished itself for its bravery and intrepidity. In consequence of heavy breast-works thrown up by order of General Geary, its loss was only twenty-five in killed, wounded and missing. Two hundred prisoners and four thousand small arms were captured by the Second Division. The regiment, on the 4th, assisted to bury the enemy's dead (twelve hundred of whom lay in front of General Geary's lines), and gathered up five hundred of his muskets before its own works. The Twenty-eighth left the breast-works at Gettysburg on July 5, and marched to Littletown in pursuit of the retreating enemy; thence on the 8th marched thirty miles to Jefferson, on the 9th to Rohersville, 10th to Hagerstown, and 11th to Fair Play. Many of the men were barefooted and suffered considerably during this march of more than seventy-five miles. On the 13th the rebels crossed the Potomac, and on the 18th, the march being continued, the division encamped near Sandy Hook, where the regiment was provided with shoes and clothing. From this time the Twenty-eighth moved with its division southward across the Potomac, along the Blue Mountains, in pursuit of the retreating forces of General Lee, and marched thirty-five miles in one day to be present at an engagement with Lee's troops at Manassas Gap. Afterwards it proceeded, by way of Catlett's Station, to the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ferry, and was engaged in guarding the line of that river, near Ellis' Ford, during the month of August. In September there was a general forward movement of the army to the Rapidan, where the rebels were again met. The regiment remained at Raccoon Ford, daily skirmishing until the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps were detailed from the Army of the Potomac, and ordered, under command of General Hooker, to join the Army of the Cumberland, to aid in repairing the fearful disaster to our army at the battle of Chickamauga. The regiment took cars at Bealeton Station and proceeded via Washington and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the Ohio river at Bellaire, thence through Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville and Nashville, to Murfreesboro', where it was engaged in a fight with the rebel cavalry under General Wheeler, in which he was repulsed with heavy loss, and the railroad to Bridgeport was saved from destruction. It remained two weeks guarding the road from Murfreesboro' to Tullahoma. The Second Division of the Twelfth Corps, being selected by General Hooker for his advance movements towards Chattanooga, was relieved from guard duty by the First Division, and proceeded to the front at Bridgeport, Alabama. On the arrival of the Twenty-eighth, October 27 (it having been detained by obstructions thrown by rebels upon the track), General Geary, with the advance, had crossed the Tennessee river, and was one day's march ahead. On October 28th, the regiment made a forced march of twenty-eight miles and reached Wauhatchie on the morning of the 29th, after the battle at that place had been fought and won by a portion of the Second Division not numbering over fifteen hundred men, against a division of Longstreet's Corps, at least six thousand strong. After desperate fighting against such frightful odds for nearly four hours, the enemy was repulsed and fled in confusion, leaving his dead and many wounded on the field. One hundred and twenty-five prisoners were taken. This was a highly important victory, as upon it depended the subsistence of the Union army then at Chattanooga. Among the casualties none were more lamented or cast a deeper gloom over the triumphant forces, than the death of a brave young officer, a youth of eighteen years, of brightest promise and universally beloved, Captain E. R. Geary, of Knap's Battery, and son of the General, who fell, whilst sighting his gun, pierced by a rifle-ball through his forehead. After the battle Generals Grant, Hooker, Thomas, Howard, and other distinguished officers, rode upon the field to personally congratulate General Geary and his command for this unsurpassed achievement, and subsequently General Slocum wrote:-"I wish you and your command to know that I feel deeply grateful for their gallant conduct, and for the new laurels they have brought to our corps." To secure the advantages gained, it was necessary to fortify, cover and corduroy the road from Kelly's Ford to Brown's Ferry, on the Tennessee. The Twenty-eighth, in conjuction with detachments of other regiments, labored industriously at this work under a bombardment of the enemy's artillery on Lookout Mountain. On the 19th of November, Colonel Ahl, who had been on detached duty for some time at Division Headquarters, returned and took command of the regiment, which on the 24th, joined the division at Lookout Creek, |