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water, and, when moulded together, should be able to stand alone anywhere. Divide the aggregate into cakes one inch thick, and about the size of the palm of the hand. Lay these in rows on the top of the stove; and, if there is any fire at all inside, you will have superior fish-balls in from one to three hours."

Within two weeks, most of the officers and men were exchanged at City Point, and hailed the old flag with shouts of welcome.

The greatest promotion at a single step, recorded among Connecticut troops, is that of George W. Baird of Milford. He was a student at Yale, and enlisted as a private soldier, during his Junior year, in the First Light Battery. He was an efficient soldier; but, during 1862, he was seized with typhoid pneumonia, and confined for months in hospital. When the colored troops were being raised, he applied for an examination for a commission; and the application was granted. He appeared before the cosey board of army officers, where no candidate was passed for the lowest commission without showing a fair degree of military knowledge. Baird exhibited such high scholarship, and such prompt and excellent soldierly qualities, that he was passed and commissioned to be colonel; the only instance of the kind in the experience of the board. He was assigned to the 32d United States colored infantry, and led his regiment gallantly in the fight at Grahamsville, S.C.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

Race of the Hostile Armies Northward. - Battle of Gettysburg. — The Fifth, Fourteenth, Seventeenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-seventh Connecticut Regiments engaged. — Second Light Battery.— The Affair of July 1.—The Assault of July 2.—Attack on the Left Flank. - Terrible Fighting of July 3.-Connecticut Correspondents. -The Losses in our Regiments. -Scenes on the Battle-Field. - The "Fourth of July."― Tardy Pursuit of Lee. - Our Troops again in Virginia.

JOOKER had been out-generaled, - defeated by superior skill rather than by superior numbers or courage. His army was diminished, but not disheartened; for the men attributed their repulse to the proper cause, and felt, that, efficiently led, they were a match for any soldiers in the world.

The Army of the Potomac had fallen into the habit of indulging in a long rest after every battle; taking ample time for recuperation, improved by the rebels with equal zeal and profit. But Lee seemed inclined to act on the Napoleonic maxim, afterwards adopted by Grant and Sheridan, "When we are weak, the enemy is weak: that is the time to strike." So now he did not wait for Hooker

to re-organize. He believed the Union army dispirited, and in that fatal delusion projected an invasion of the North through Maryland.

Hooker's army was hastily refitted for a severe campaign. The regiments from Connecticut held about the same relative position as before Chancellorsville, except that the Fifth and Twentieth were now brigaded together in the 12th Corps. Col. Packer and other officers of the Fifth, Lieut.Col. Wooster and his companions of the Twentieth, and Col. Bostwick, Lieut.-Col. Merwin, Major Coburn, and other offi

THE POTOMAC ARMY AGAIN ON THE MARCH.

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cers of the Twenty-seventh, had been exchanged as prisoners of war, and now returned to their commands. Col. Bostwick was unable to accompany the army on account of a painful and protracted illness. Most of the enlisted men captured at Chancellorsville were still absent on parole.

Hooker watched the crafty rebel general, and, even before his purpose became apparent, moved his army towards Warrenton; covering Washington on one hand, while pressing the rebel flanks on the other. The 12th Corps was the first to move; leaving its camp at Stafford Court House on the 13th of June, and pushing northward all night, arriving at Dumfries early in the morning. Other corps followed closely; the 2d being the last to leave the line of the Rappahannock. Lee maneuvered his forces with consummate ability, and kept his flank so covered with cavalry, that it was almost impossible to ascertain his location or his movements from day to day.

The Fifth and Twentieth Connecticut remained at Dumfries a day and night, and at three o'clock next morning were again in motion. The day was oppressively hot and dusty (the thermometer standing at ninety-five degrees in the shade), and many fell out by the way with sunstroke; but the column pressed on to Fairfax Court House, which place was reached at nine o'clock at night, after a march of thirty-three miles. Serious inroads were made in the ranks of all the regiments, as appeared at roll-call when tattoo was beaten that night; and the corps rested here another day and night. Many of the men had blistered their feet during the severe march. Réveille sounded at two, A.M., of the 17th; and the regiments advanced to Drainesville, and again bivouacked. Sunrise of the next day found them in line, marching towards the Potomac. They encountered a violent hail-storm; and, in crossing Goose Creek, the men waded up to their waists in the stream; but, before taking their evening rations, they went into camp near Leesburg. From this point, the Union army lay stretched south-westward beyond Manassas. The 2d Corps, in which were the Fourteenth Regiment and the remnant of the Twenty-seventh, was picketing Thoroughfare

won the respect and esteem of the entire command, without distinction as to rank or position. Ever prompt to answer the call of duty, falling at his post upon the field of battle, none of our men has left a more honorable record as a legacy to his friends and native State than has George S. Benton."

Of the Fourteenth Regiment, thirty-eight were wounded and nineteen taken prisoners. Of the wounded, Capt. Isaac R. Bronson died in hospital on June 2, of a severe wound in the upper right arm. He was a native of Middlebury, and a son of Leonard Bronson, but was residing at New Haven when the war broke out. He abandoned a prosperous business, and gave his heart and hand earnestly to the cause. After the repulse at Fredericksburg, he wrote, "I do hope the government will not patch up a peace on account of this affair. I would rather a thousand times leave my bones here than have my children inherit a government exposed to what ours must be, if we now surrender to our foes what we refused to our friends." Lieut. Samuel Fiske wrote of him,

"He was one of the most earnest, honest, and fearless patriots whose life has been sacrificed in this great cause. In a camp-life, which is too often made an excuse for relaxing the principles of morality and religion that are a restraint at home, he led a pure and Christian life. Where profanity and obscenity are (I am forced to say) almost the rule, and decent language the exception, no impure or irreverent words came from his lips, nor, unrebuked, from those of his men. Of a courage that never left him satisfied to be away from his post when action and danger were before us; of an earnest patriotism that left none of us in doubt what were his motives in coming to the field; of an enduring fortitude that shrank from no extremities of hardship and privation that came upon us; of a generous and cheerful spirit that was an example to us all; he was a soldier worthy of our cause, a patriot without a blemish, a Christian that does not dishonor the name, a comrade of whose loss I can scarcely trust myself to speak. Since the death of the lamented Willard of my own town and home, slain at Antietam, no stroke has come home so deeply to me personally. The first captain of our regiment to fall on the field; and now, as yet, the last. Noble, Christian soldiers both! — a tear to their memory and a lesson to each of us from their lives."

Of the Seventeenth, two were killed on the field, thirtyfour wounded, and eighty taken prisoners. Nine soon died of their wounds; but most of the wounded, with careful treatment, recovered. The regiment was fortunate in pos

HEAVY LOSS IN THE TWENTIETH.

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sessing a surgeon so accomplished, and so devoted to his duty, as Dr. Robert Hubbard of Bridgeport. He was one of the most skillful surgeons in the entire corps.

Lieut-Col. Charles Walter was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1832, and came to America when young. He was a private in Capt. Speidal's company, in the First Regiment; was promoted to be first lieutenant; and was aide on Gen. Tyler's staff at the battle of Bull Run. On account of his daring, he fell into the hands of the enemy, and spent a year in rebel prisons. On returning, he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Seventeenth. He was a man of education, of untiring energy, and great bravery. He showed singular coolness and resoluteness in battle; and his brother-officers said, "With deep sorrow and regret we have left him behind, in ground which needs no holier consecration than to entomb the remains of such a noble patriot." He was an admirable companion, possessing high social qualities, fine literary taste and culture, and excellent musical attainments. He was also something of a genius as an amateur artist, and made a striking sketch of the rebel prison, afterwards lithographed by his friends.

Corporal Thomas D. Brown of Norwalk, whose wedding the company had attended on the morning of leaving home, died in hospital. His spirit took its flight just as he finished singing a patriotic song. Sergeant Martin V. B. Glover of Newtown also died at this time. He was an earnest and brave young man, and had, two months before, written to his neighbors and friends a stirring patriotic letter, beseeching them to carry on the war.

The Twentieth Regiment had lost fully one-third of its number; twenty-seven officers and men being killed outright, sixty-two wounded, and one hundred and eight Laken prisoners. Of the wounded, sixteen died. Col. Ross, commanding the brigade, was wounded in the leg in the early part of the action on Sunday, and compelled to leave the field. Lieut. David N. Griffiths of Derby was an officer of much promise. He was struck in the forehead by a bullet, and instantly killed, while encouraging the men to stand firm. He fell with feet to the foe, and his sword grasped in his