April 27. After a day’s rest, the movement into Virginia was again commenced. The regiment started on the road at ten o’clock in the morning, and marched all day, passing through Fairfax, and halting at night three miles beyond the village.
April 28. Broke camp at five o’clock in the morning, waded Bull Run about noon, and camped at night near Manassas Junction.
April 29. Turned out early in the morning, and after getting breakfast, packed up, marched about thirty rods, halted, stacked arms, marched and countermarched all day, and finally went into camp at night within a quarter of a mile from the place of the previous night’s encampment.
April 30. Started out of camp early in the morning, marched up the Alexandria and Orange Railroad about four miles, to a point about three miles from Catlett’s Station, and relieved a battalion of the Seventeenth Regulars, there stationed. The whole of the corps was stationed at various points along this railroad.
May 1. The regiment was mustered for pay. The camp was termed about twenty rods from the railroad, half-way between Catlett’s and Bristoe’s stations.
May 4. Orders were issued for the men to strike tents early in the morning, and soon after the regiment started up the track, marched all day, and camped at night near Bealton Station.
May 5. Started at six in the morning, crossed the Rapidan on a pontoon bridge, and went into camp a mile beyond the river, in the woods.
May 6. The regiment was ordered out at an early hour, and started toward the Wilderness battle-field, joining the corps which was stationed near the Wilderness Tavern, and becoming hotly engaged in that terrible battle. Three times during the day the regiment with its division charged the enemy’s lines, manifesting the greatest bravery, but suffering serious loss. Major Draper and Captain Marshall were wounded; eleven of the men were killed, and fifty-one wounded. The regiment was also engaged May 7, but escaped without loss.
On the 8th and 9th, it marched a distance of about ten miles, to Chancellorsville, and on the following day marched from Chancellorsville to near Spottsylvania Court-house, where it went into the rifle-pits. Early in the morning of the 12th, General Hancock’s corps made a gallant assault upon a salient of the enemy’s works, carrying them, capturing General Johnston and his entire division and twenty pieces of artillery. The Thirty-sixth regiment, with the rest of the Ninth Corps, early engaged in the battle, which lasted for nearly three hours. The assault on the enemy’s works was followed by a counter assault upon our lines, which was many times repeated, but without success. The Thirty-sixth was stationed in thick pine woods, and the share which it took in the battle is well shown by its dreadful loss. Captain Bailey and Lieutenant Daniels were killed, and Captain Morse severely wounded; twenty of the men were killed, and fifty-six wounded, and among the killed, the following members of the Twenty-ninth Regiment: Sergeant William H. Mosher, Company B, who had but two more days to serve in which to complete his three years’ term; First Sergeant William T. Hamer, Company A; Edward P. Mansfield, Company C; James Ward, Company D; John K. Alexander and Lemuel B. Morton, Company E; and John E. Fisher, Company K. The term of service of the six last-named soldiers would have expired on the 22d, and in the cases of all, it seems to have been a most cruel fate, that spared them through so many months of hardship and danger, and just as the end of their faithful service was near at hand, and the bright prospect of a happy return to their homes was rising up before them, cut them down upon the battle-field, and sent them to unknown graves. Probably there is no official record of their deaths, owing to the unfortunate circumstances attending their transfer; and but for the fact, that some of their comrades who fought with them escaped the battle and brought back to their friends these sad tidings, the author would not have been able to present this account of them, however meagre, nor to pay this deserved tribute, however poor, to their memory.
The diary of a soldier of the Twenty-ninth Regiment,[46] who was engaged in these battles, states that twenty-eight members of the latter regiment were wounded in this campaign; but it does not give their names, and the author has been unable to learn the names of only those of his own company, as the records of neither the Twenty-ninth nor Thirty-sixth regiments contain any information upon this point. For several days after the battle of May 12, the Thirty-sixth Regiment remained at the front, in the rifle-pits, almost constantly under fire. The term of service of the members of companies I and B (Twenty-ninth Regiment) expired on the 14th, and that of the others on the 22d. On the afternoon of the 17th, Sergeant-Major George H. Morse of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, who was serving with the transferred men, proceeded to the headquarters of General Burnside, upon a pass signed by the commanding officer of the Thirty-sixth Regiment, for the purpose of laying before the General the facts in regard to the transferred men, and obtaining from him an order for their discharge. Morse, who was somewhat noted for his persistency as well as his personal bravery, encountered great difficulty in obtaining an audience with General Burnside. The Adjutant-General informed the Sergeant-Major that he could not be permitted to see the General, and that his extraordinary request could not then be granted; but Morse was not to be put off even by a positive denial: he insisted upon seeing the General, painted in strong colors and with eloquent words the wrongs of his comrades, and finally so far excited the interest of the Adjutant-General in his case, that he was admitted into the presence of the Commander. This point gained, Morse was certain of success; the good-hearted General listened with his customary patience to all the Sergeant-Major had to say, and then taking his pen, wrote an order directing that these men be immediately relieved from duty, and coupled the order with a pass to Washington. Proud of his triumph, Morse proceeded to the lines, took charge of the men, and immediately started with them for Belle Plain Landing.