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concerned, such as: "James Island, S. C., June, '62;" "Bermuda Hundred, Va., May and June, '64;" "before Petersburgh, August and September, '64;' "before Richmond, from October, '64, to April, '65," and "struck in action at Proctor's Creek, Va., May 15, '65." There are more than twenty of these inscriptions, representing a full three years of service in the war. It should be said also that their young captain who led them to the war, returned a brevet brigadier general.

The First Connecticut Cavalry was also recruited and equipped at the same time. Previous to this a squadron was enlisted, but when the War Department declined to receive any more troops from the State, it entered the "Ira Harris" Cavalry Regiment of New York. But this cavalry battalion of 346 men, recruited from almost every town in the State, and said to have been made up as a rule of men of superior intelligence and character, was raised without difficulty, and sent to West Virginia, where it began at once that hard and desperate work, which belongs to this branch of military service, and which was never intermitted until it had helped to finish the war around Richmond and Petersburg, and witnessed the surrender of Lee. When it left the State it was only a battalion of about 350, but the hardships of the service, both upon men and horses, were so severe that it required a constant recruiting of both to keep them up to even this standard. And their services were so valuable that after a time they were recruited up to a full cavalry regiment of 675 mounted men. Their recruits came both from the North and from the South, for on one occasion they enlisted 120 veterans, who were Confederate prisoners and deserters from the Confederate army-men who had been impressed into that service from North Carolina and Tennessee. They were also supplied at one time with 500 horses, and so many of them being raw recruits and of a miscellaneous character, they were sent

to Annapolis, Md., and put in charge of their old commander, Major Blakeslee, who subjected them to hard drill and rigid discipline, and brought them to an admirable condition, when they were ordered to join the Army of the Potomac, and share heavily in the hardships and losses of the battles of the Wilderness. The following is a description of them as they left for the front:

The old camp was broken up and abandoned, rations cooked and distributed, horses fed and groomed, small packs made up, and 675 mounted men were drawn up, mounted in close column of squadrons, every man in place, sabres shining, flags flying, and guidons flashing in the wind;—a magnificent array. Major Blakeslee, young and almost beardless, might well bo proud of his command, and the bugler sounded the officers' call. The line officers rode to the front, and received directions to permit no straggling nor foraging, and to keep the ranks well filled up. The bugler sounded the "Forward!" and away they rode to the year of deadly conflict, to toil and vigilance, heat, cold and hunger, death, wounds, and glory.-[" Connecticut in the War," p. 496.

The history of this single regiment has enough of hardship, heroism and romance in it to fascinate and impress a nation with the noblest qualities of manhood and patriotism, even if we had not so much more of the same in the whole army and in every branch of the service. Tako some of the work of this regiment in Western Virginia. Harry Gilmore, the "Rebel Raider," had been making some of his audacious and successful forays across the borders of the Northern States, and had swept into Maryland, cutting the railroad between Baltimore and Washington, and capturing a major general and a number of officers on the train. Major Whitaker of this cavalry was ordered by Sheridan's chief of staff to take 300 picked men and pursue this bold rider any distance and at any risk, until he was captured and handed over to the Federal authorities. These troopers pushed up all day and all night over the Alleghenies for seventy miles, thirty of which were within the enemy's lines, making a march of 140 miles in a little over forty

eight hours, secured Gilmore and handed him over to the authorities to be imprisoned as a spy in Fort McHenry. A still more daring and successful personal adventure is told of Major Blakeslee, their "young and almost beardless" commander. It occurred in that desperate fighting between Grant and Lee for the capture and defenso of Richmond. The men had been dismounted and put upon the skirmish line, where they had remained for eighteen hours without relief or food, when word came from their brigade commander: "I must have a regiment that I can trust, and the First Connecticut must stay all night." They were to advance at dawn the next morning, but being out of ammunition and delayed in securing it, they fell behind, when suddenly the enemy charged upon their rear with such fury, that there was a perfect stampede of pack animals and drivers, frightened horses and mules, mounted servants and soldiers, with all military order lost, and even brave men swept away in the panic-stricken crowd. Major Blakeslee on a powerful horse forced his passage to the rear, and opening his command to the right and left, let the fugitives go through, when he found himself and his command face to face with a full brigade of rebel cavalry. Major Blakeslee tells, in a private letter, of this encounter in the charge with a rebel horseman :

I was somewhat in advance of my men, when the sudden dash of our horses had somehow-I have no distinct idea how-brought this horseman and myself side by side. He was a little in advance of his men, and we met about midway between the opposing troops. He was so near that I could have laid my hand upon his shoulder, when he thrust the muzzle of his pistol within three or four inches of my right side and snapped the cap. It missed. As quick as thought I raised my pistol to his left side and fired. He fell from his horse and died instantly. I saw his pistol drop from his grasp to the ground, and I did, what in a cooler moment I should not have done; in tho midst of bullets I leaped from my horse, snatched the pistol, sprang on again, and led his horse to my men, and gave it to Sergeant Hinman, who fighting near me had had his horse shot under him, and he kept the revolver as a trophy. The whole occupied but a few seconds.

This record, which is in itself such a tribute of praise to the State and its governor, is none the less so because many other States showed similar patriotism, and other governors wrought with similar zeal and fidelity in the work of saving the nation.

In this first year of the war and time of hesitancy as to what should be done, and what the North was ready to do, when there were such divided counsels as to the management of the war, and who should be put at the head of our armies, and when our armies were to be raised and the whole art of war was to be learned by us; such a bare record of what had to be done, and was done, by one of these loyal States, is illuminating. It shows, too, what its governor meant when he was urging the government to prosecute the war with more vigor, and gave the Secretary of War this pledge in behalf of himself and State: "With this statement I only beg to confirm the views herein expressed to your Excellency, with the assurance that no State, large or small, shall send you better troops, or stand by you in all your embarrassments and perplexities more firmly, than this Commonwealth."

CHAPTER XII.

THE YEAR 1862.

Review of the Situation up to 1862-Progress of the War in the West and on the Coast-Governor Buckingham's Re-election-A Patriotic Legislature-The Peace Party in Connecticut-Demands that the Army of the Potomac Move.

The second year of the war, 1862, opened with some important gains to the Federal government, though the preceding year had been one of fearful perils, and not a few heavy losses. Several of the Southern States had been kept from joining the Confederacy, and Missouri, the most hostile and dangerous of the border States, had been pretty well subdued, thanks to the prompt action and vigorous campaigns of General Lyon. Our military line of occupation from the Cumberland Mountains across Kentucky to the mouth of tho Ohio, had been pushed down into Tennessee, and the upper Mississippi had been opened as far down as Memphis. The blockade of the Southern ports had been made so effectual that no foreign nation ventured to treat it as a 66 paper blockade," except at the risk of forfeiting every ship and cargo engaged in blockade running, and though the coast-line to be guarded was more than 3,000 miles, and required 600 vessels, most of them steamers, to do it effectually, more than half this number had been provided and were engaged in this business within nine months after the war broke out. Our navy, too, which was comparatively nothing at first, soon became formidable enough to fear no rebel cruiser, and to recover the more important of our government fortifications, or to seal up the ports where they were situated. This navy was collected and created out of every craft that could be strengthened to carry a rifled cannon, or sustain a mortar, until we had a fleet of war and transport steamers, of ironclads and rams and monitors, which soon took possession of Hatteras Inlet and Newbern, the refuge of blockade runners, recaptured Fort Pulaski, the defense of Savannah, and sweeping away the defenses of New Orleans, brought that important city, and more important river, under Federal control. There was another peculiar part of our navy called into existence at that time; the stout, swift, side-wheel steamboats of our Western rivers, with no armor, only altered for the better protection of their machinery, and carrying

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