Companies H, I, and K, of this Regiment, left Camp William Penn, Philadelphia, under orders, July 11th, 1864, in a Provisional Battalion commanded by Lieut. Col. Wagner, 88th Pa. Vols., and proceeded by railroad to Havre-de-grace, Md. At this point Company I, was detached, and sent to Gunpowder Bridge. The remainder of the Battalion passed on, by transport, to Fort McHenry, and marched through Baltimore, taking a position near Birney Barracks, in the defences of the city, which was threatened by a bold and extensive Rebel raid. These Companies again joined at Camp Casey, Va., and under command of Maj. Horace Bumstead, embarked on the steamer "Highland Light," for City Point. They arrived before Petersburg, Aug. 3rd, when Maj. Bumstead took command of the Regiment entire. After the fight of July 30th, and until the advance on the Weldon Railroad, this Regiment served industriously with the spade, working in the trenches and on almost every part of the extensive line before Petersburg; and the impregnability of the position afterward, was, to a great measure, the result of their toil. In the engagements of the Weldon Railroad, Aug. 19th and 20th, and Poplar Grove Church, Sept. 29th and 30th, its losses were comparatively few. In the battle of Hatchie's Run, Oct. 27th and 28th, it held the position of skirmishers on the advance of the 9th Corps line of battle, and most gallantly assisted in repulsing the repeated charges of Hill's Corps. In face of a severe fire it hastily constructed two lines of breast works. Its losses in this action were, one officer killed and four wounded, and seven men killed, eighteen wounded and one taken prisoner.
After portions of Longstreet's Corps had made a favorable attack on the Union position, on the Bermuda Front, and succeeded in capturing a part of the line, from the one year Regiments of white troops, lately stationed there to defend it, with a number also of these troops as prisoners, this Regiment with some others, were detached from the army of the Potomac on the left of the line, and sent by forced marching, across the Appomattox, to regain, if possible, the lost position. It moved on to the line Sunday, P.M., and was instantly welcomed by Longstreet's bravadoes, exulting yet in their recent victory, with a storm of balls and shells, and the significant appellation of "Smoked Yankees." But when these brave "Smoked Yankees" replied, as they did at once, by a most brilliant charge, that made them masters of the situation, driving Longstreet's bravadoes to their old kennels and recovering the lost ground, the Rebel hilarity ceased. Their stratagems afterward, massing of troops and charges, accompanied with terrific firing, and which was persevered in almost daily and nightly for a month; resulted only in their bitter loss, and was a conclusive proof to them that their so-called "Smoked Yankees" were of a species whom they could neither drive nor dismay. They continued to hold the line against all odds, and ministered to Longstreet's hordes the most severe castigation for their insolence it was ever their good fortune to obtain. In an almost incredible short time the "Smoked Yankee" became a very desirable companion, whose friendly acquaintance the Rebel Picket would seek to cultivate, at the same time entreating him that a mutual agreement for the better security of life and limb might be established. The "Smoked Yankee" soldier invariably answered him: "I obeys de orders ob de obicers. When de orders be to fire, I fires on you, and when de orders be to charge, I charges on you, you must den get out, Johnnie Reb."
The Regiment was now associated with the 3rd Brig. 1st Div. 25th Corps, and was commanded by Col., now Brevet Brig. Gen., S. B. Yeoman, who relieved Maj. Bumstead. On the night of December 10th, it was temporally detached, and hurriedly marched, as a reinforcement, to the North side of the James, at a point of the line near the New Market Road. The enemy had contemplated a combined attack on the right wing of our army, with the intention of turning it. They were, however, not successful in their purpose, and abandoned it; and this Regiment was remanded to its former place on the Bermuda Hundred. It remained there until Dec. 31st, when the whole Brigade again crossed the James, and took up a position near Fort Harrison, before Richmond.
Jan. 25th, 1865 when the Rebel Gun-boats proceeded down the River, and engaged the Union fleet from a point in the bend, just below the upper end of Dutch Gap Canal, intending to oblige the fleet to retire and then capture City Point, our base of supplies, this Regiment occupied the river bank from Cox's Landing to Dutch Gap, with a detachment also across the Canal, that skirmished through Farra's Island, to within a short distance of the Howlett House Battery. They also kept up such a continuous hail of their small arms upon the enemy's Gun-boats, as to prevent them from opening their port-holes, and consequently entirely silenced their guns. This must be recorded as an instance where, much to chagrin of the chivalry, our unshod infantry effectually silenced their iron-clads.
From this time the Regiment was intimately identified with all the movements occurring on the line, and in all the advances and charges on the Rebel strongholds, until April 3rd, 1865, with the whole of General Weitzel's forces, it entered triumphantly the great Babylon of treason. "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," written in the deserted public palaces and on the charred timbers of its smoking buildings, was now explicable, but the Belshazzar of the so-called Confederacy had left his throne, a hasty fugitive, and his hosts were in a precipitate retreat. The Union, with its Free Institutions, must and shall be preserved, rang out all over the land, many who had once been manacled slaves caught up these notes with a sacred joy, as they marched victorious Freedmen in the Capitol of their Oppressors. General Weitzel dispatched, April 3rd, A.M., "We took Richmond at 8.15, this morning."
"'Twas three o'clock of a Sabbath day,
And in St. Paul's Chapel, old and gray,
With his sad-robed wife, and others too,
The traitor sat in his cushioned pew,
List'ning the service halfway through,