Comrades: You conferred upon me at our reunion, held at New Cumberland, in 1889, the honor of selecting me to compile a history of the Twelfth. The matter was taken into consideration afterward by me, and owing in part to the magnitude, burden and difficulty of the proposed task, my inexperience in this kind of undertaking, and because I believed that there were other survivors of the regiment much better qualified to write the history, it was concluded to forego the undertaking. But at our next

(1) The great War of the Rebellion had gone on for more than a year, and had assumed proportions of a grand scale, dwarfing any other ever fought on this continent, so far as there is any history; in fact, making all other wars on this side of the ocean appear, by comparison, to be Lilliputian in character; and so far as the magnitude of its theater or geographical extent was concerned, the greatest war in the history of the world. (2) Previous to our great war it had been supposed that modern t

(18) The Regiment did not remain long in Camp Willey. On the day after its completed organization it was ordered to Clarksburg, W. Va., which place was then threatened by a force under the Rebel General, Jenkins, who was then on a raid through West Virginia. Clarksburg is an old town, the county seat of Harrison County, situated on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and distant by rail 122 miles from Wheeling. Clarksburg will be remembered by the great abundance, in its vicinity, of blackber

(59) At Moorefield the Twelfth was assigned to Gen. Cluseret's brigade of Milroy's division, and on the 17th Gen. Cluseret started on an expedition to Strasburg, Va., the Twelfth being part of his command. We marched 26 miles the first day, camping on Lost River, four miles from Wordensville. That night was cold and stormy. The wind blew so that it made the soldiers' blankets flap as they lay under them trying to get a little sleep, and it was so cold that in some cases they had to get up in the

(127) The time for the taking place of important events was approaching. The near future was pregnant with events for the Twelfth; the time for the battle of Winchester under Gen. Milroy was not far off. And an important crisis for the entire nation in the progress of the war was almost at hand, involving the welfare of the country and the better interests of mankind generally; for the battle of Gettysburg, the greatest battle of the war, and the greatest battle ever fought on American soil—a ba

(178) Col. Klunk during the time the regiment was straggling about in the Cumberland Valley, sent in his resignation, upon the plea of sickness in his family, and while stationed at Martinsburg he received notice that it had been accepted. This left the regiment with Major Curtis as the only field officer with it, Lieut. Col. Northcott being still a prisoner. (179) Our regiment remained on the Faulkner lawn until the 25th, when we moved our camp to the northwest side of the town, where the other

(271) During our stay at Martinsburg up to October 18th, there was little, if anything, of importance in a military way took place. We spent our time in doing picket duty, drilling and etc. On that day however, Imboden attacked the Ninth Maryland Infantry at Charleston, killing the Adjutant and capturing a considerable part of the command. (272) An attack was somewhat looked for at this point in this same day and Col. Pierce in command here, made every preparation to meet it, but none was made.

(317) March 12th, Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel arrived here and took command of the department. During this month the arrangement was made for the raid against Lynchburg, Gen. Sigel to command the force in person, to be moved it was first intended from Webster, near Grafton on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad but as finally decided from Martinsburg up the Valley. He carefully inspected the troops here intended to go on the expedition. In his inspection which was minute and almost individual in character

(405) On the 18th of May, our regiment and the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts with two pieces of artillery moved from Cedar Creek, five or six miles up the Valley to Fisher's Hill, and occupied it as a picket. Gen. Sigel came out to our camp there. The next day the two regiments fell back two or three miles to Strasburg and occupied an old fort there built by Gen. Banks. We received today mail—always a welcome receipt to the boys, the first since leaving Winchester, ten days before. In the evening

(465) The next day, the 11th, after our arrival at Hedgesville our brigade which was now united, marched to Martinsburg having had to march from near Back Creek, a distance of 15 miles, on account of the Rebels having torn up the railroad east of that creek. We had now got back to the town from which we had started on April 29th, under Sigel up the Valley. Just before we reached the town our cavalry had driven out of it a small force of Rebel cavalry. According to Col. Curtis when we moved from

(498) It had been Grant's intention to make Gen. Sheridan field commander in the campaign now about to begin. But, for reasons not necessary to name, Hunter wishing to be relieved of command, was accordingly relieved, and Sheridan put in command of the Army of the Shenandoah. He arrived at Monocacy on the 6th, and Grant returned to Washington the same day. The next day by an order from the War Department, a Military Division was made of the Departments of Pennsylvania, Washington, Maryland, and

(540) While the Twelfth remained at Newtown, there was nothing of special interest occurred other than has been mentioned. As winter and bad weather were approaching, in order that we might be closer to our base of supplies, the infantry moved back from Cedar Creek on the 9th of November to Kearnstown; the next day the cavalry followed and late in the evening of this same day, and last of all, the two remaining regiments of our brigade moved down and joined our corps with the army. The next day

(569) On the afternoon of the 17th, as preparatory to Grant's grand movement against the forces of Lee in front of Richmond and Petersburg, two divisions of the Twenty-fourth Corps, ours and the First, and one division of the Twenty-fifth Corps (colored), crossed the James and the Appomattox, and marched toward the left of our lines, southwest of Petersburg. Our division marched all night, passing in the rear of the lines of the Army of the Potomac, and as we marched along, pretty heavy firing o

A few words in conclusion are ventured. From a military point of view it would appear that one of the lessons of the war, if not the most important one, teaches that we should not over-estimate our own valor, strength and resources, or under-estimate those of the enemy. Accordingly, when it becomes necessary to go to war, making full allowance for any possible inadequacy of estimate in these regards, we should strike with ample and overwhelming force. The force should be double or triple that wh