History of the Eighty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. by Amos M. Judson
Author:Amos M. Judson [Judson, Amos M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-02-21T22:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER XXI.
The Campaign of 1861 Return of Spring. Gen. Grant in command. The army again in motion. Crossing the Rapidan. Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of Laurel.
I suppose by this time my readers (if I have any) are anxious for another bloody battle on the Rappahannock, or in some other part of Virginia, and I must proceed to dish it up to them with all possible haste. Before commenting, however, I must speak of the important changes that had been made in the Army of the Potomac. In January, 1864, Capt. Woodward had received the commission of Colonel, and Capt. McCoy the commission of Lieut. Colonel, of the regiment. During the winter one hundred and sixty-nine men of the Eighty-Third had re-enlisted as veteran volunteers, the names of whom will be found under their proper heads at the end of this history. The First and Third Army Corps had been broken up and consolidated with the Fifth and Sixth, and the whole army reduced to three corps: the Second commanded by Gen. Hancock, the Fifth by Gen. Warren, and the Sixth by Gen. Sedgwick. General Meade still remained in command of the army. Gen. Burnside's (Ninth) Corps was in camp at Annapolis, ready to join us as soon as the spring campaign opened. Lieut. General Grant, in the meantime, as Commander-in-Chief, had arrived and taken up his headquarters at Culpepper Court. House. The Second Division (Regulars) belonging to our corps were consolidated into one brigade, to be called the First Brigade of our division. The old First Brigade, consisting of the Eighteenth, Twenty-Second and Thirty-First Mass. and the Hundred-and-Eighteenth Penna. was broken up and consolidated with the Second and Third Brigades: the Eighteenth Mass., Col. Hays, and the Hundred-and-Eighteenth Penna., Col. Gwyn, joining our brigade. Gen. Griffin again took command of the division and Gen. Bartlett of the brigade. Our corps was now composed of four divisions and numbered about thirty thousand men. The Eighty-Third had also received a number of recruits during the winter, and when the spring campaign opened we started with the regiment nearly full. The long rest of the winter, with its abundance of good living, had recruited the strength and spirits of the soldiers, and they again became impatient for another season of active service. As the end of April approached, the shores of the Rappahannock began to resound with the busy note and preparation of war; and when May came in, with its dry roads and smiling suns, the mighty host began to move towards the Rapidan, soon to electrify the world by a succession of the most sanguinary battles that history, perhaps, has ever recorded.
On the 1st of May we broke up our winter quarters at Rappahannock Station and marched across the river to a point about a mile and a half east of Ingall's Station, pitched a temporary camp and remained there till the third. The only thing worthy of mention that took place there was a terrific sand storm, the
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