single case of execution in the 8th Connecticut, at which some of our Woodbury boys assisted, will suffice:

“CAMP NEAR PORTSMOUTH, December, 1863.

"DEAR FRIEND AND EDITOR:-Having a few leisure moments, I propose to give you an outline of an incident which occurred in our regiment yesterday. You are aware that there has been an addition made to our regiment in the shape of conscripts. Quite a number of them have deserted, and it was found necessary to have an example made of some of them, to put a stop to it. Therefore, two of them who had deserted twice and were caught again, were sentenced to be shot, and the sentence was carried out yesterday. At 9 A, M., the regiments of this brigade were formed on their respective parade grounds, and marched to an open field near Fort Reno.

"A hollow square was then formed, and the men rested on their guns, to await the arrival of the prisoners, with their escort. At half-past nine the funeral escort started from the brigade headquarters, the band playing a dirge. The band was followed by a detail of eight men, carrying the coffins on stretchers, followed by a section of the Provost Guard.

"Next came two carriages containing the prisoners and their spiritual advisers. The procession was closed by a section of the Provost Guard. As the escort entered the square, a solemn silence prevailed. After the escort had marched around the square, the prisoners were taken out of the carriages and led up in front of the detail that were to execute them. After the priests (for they were Ctholics) had shrived them, they were made to kneel in front of their coffins, and bandages put over their eyes. Soon the fatal order was given to fire, and their souls passed into eternity. It was an impressive scene, and it is to be hoped that it will be a solemn warning to those that would desert their country's cause."

Everywhere

The year of 1863 was a year of substantial victories for the cause of the Union. Every where the men of the North answered the full demands of duty, and our little town was represented on the greater, glorious battle-fields. Wherever deeds of valor, or courage were to be done, they were to be found. Space permits a reference to only one, the sternest of battles, which saved the nation's life, and in which they participated, It was the glorious battle of Gettysburg, where Gen. Lee, for once,

ventured to invade our free soil, and tried to bring us to all the horrors of invasion, which the "sacred soil" had so long suffered, in the effort of the government to restore its rightful authority over the the entire territory of the nation.

"On the morning of the 3d-the last and great day of the battle,-Gen Geary, who had marched from the center to the right during the previous night, was attacked by the enemy at early dawn. However, he soon succeeded in driving him back, and in ousting him from that part of the field, which he had won the day before. The battle then surged along this part of the line, with great fury, The enemy being uniformly repulsed, till 11 A. M., when it ceased, and over the whole field everything was ominously silent for two hours. The soldiers ate their dinners and rested, pondering what the issue might be. At 1 P. M. two sig. nal guns, from the Rebel line, broke the silence, and were at once followed by the roar of one hundred and twenty-five cannon, massed in position against our left center. Our own batteres responded, and for over two hours there was the grandest artillery prelude ever heard on this continent. Shot and shell rushed, whistled, shrieked and moaned, and the very air seemed alive with the flying projectiles. At length our guns ceased to reply, and the artillery roar slackened. Then followed the grand assault of the rebels. In it was one half of their whole army. On they came, with a heavy line of skirmishers in front, and two complete lines of battle. They were received principally by the second. corps, which behaved with magnificent courage. Reënforcements were rapidly sent to its support, and all our available artillery was converged upon the advancing enemy. Their first line seemed to sink in the earth, but with the madness of desperation on they rushed.

"Now they had reached our guns, and were in the act of turning them against us, when a determined charge recovered them. For several hours, division after division was hurled against the firm and solid lines of our army, only to be dashed back with slaughter and confusion. Finally, the sullen roar of battle rolled off to the southwest, and the enemy withdrew, repulsed and defeated.

"Thus closed the terrible battle of Gettysburgh. The pride and power of the Rebel invasion were thoroughly broken by the invincible valor and obstinate bravery of the hard-marched veterans of the army of the Potomac."

1864. The year opened with increased preparation and hope. The idea that this was to be a short war, had long since been abandoned, and the certainty that it would be a long, costly, and bloody one, had become a moral certainty. But the intention of the government to defend itself, and bring the war to a successful close, had never been more determined.

The 19th Connecticut was, by an order from the War Department, issued on the 23d of November, 1863, changed into the 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery, to the general joy of the men, and they thenceforth added artillery tactics to their course of instruction. But they were destined never to fight as artillery. The only benefit to them was, the increase of their number up to eighteen hundred men, the full complement of an artillery regi

ment.

In the early spring of 1864, General Grant, who had been signally successful in the campaigns of the west, was appointed Lieut. General, and made commander in chief of all the armies of the United States. He established his head-quarters with the Army of the Potomac-the army of so many sad disasters. From the beginning of the war, till now, it had been deemed necessary, by the successive commanders, to keep a large number of troops in the defenses of Washington. Grant reversed all this. When he wanted soldiers for his campaigns, he did not hesitate to take them from the defenses of the capital, or anywhere else where he could find them, nor was he particular from which arm of the service he took them.

On the 17th of May, 1864, an order arrived for the regiment to march at once for the head-quarters of the Army of the Potomac, with five days rations. They reached their destination on the 20th, and were assigned to the 2d Brigade, 1st Divis ion, Sixth Corps. Late in the evening of the 21st, "began that long and terrible series of marches, which were continued almost without a breathing spell, until the 1st of June, when the battle. of Cold Harbor began.

On the 27th, Col. Upton called on Col. Kellogg, and said :

Colonel, let your men know that we are to have a march tonight, so that they may get as much rest as possible. We shall probably be within fifteen miles of Richmond to-morrow morning.' At eight o'clock the column was again in motion, on the road following the left bank of the Pamunkey; and oh! what language will convey to those who were not there, the least idea of the

murderous cruelty in that march? We had already suffered all that flesh and blood seemed able to bear, on the road from Spottsylvania to the North Anna, and the future had in store for us many other marches that were grievous beyond expression; but I am persuaded that if all the regiment were to be summoned-the living and the dead—and notified that all their marches except one must be performed over again, and that they might choose which one should be omitted, the almost unanimous cry would be, 'Deliver us from the accursed night march along the Pamunkey!' In darkness and silence, hour after hour, without a rest of more than five minutes at a time, the corps was hurled along that sandy road. There was no danger that the head of the column would lose its way, for a large body of cavalry had preceded us a day or two before, and dead horses lined the road throughout, at intervals averaging not more than a quarter of a mile, sickening all the motionless air. Ten o'clock,-eleven o'clock,-midnight,-two o'clock,-four o'clock, the darkness began to fade before the inflowing tides of the morning light, but still the jaded men moved on. Captain Burnham, with stockings and rags bound upon his blistered feet like sandals, (his boots having been used up and thrown away,) hobbled painfully along beside his men, whose feet, like those of all the rest, were in the same condition."

This regiment had been in service about twenty-two months, and were now about to receive their first baptism of fire and blood -an event that was to carry death and decimation into its ranks with scarcely a parallel during the whole war. The battle receiv ed the name of Cold Harbor. And what was this place?-three or four unpainted houses east of a sparce pine-wood, common in Virginia. Lieut. Vaill, who was the Adjutant of the regiment, and present at the battle, has so eloquently described it, that nearly his whole description is inserted here.1

Just at the left of the spot where we had stacked our muskets, was a hollow, basin-like spot, containing about an acre of land' and a few pine and chestnut trees, and well protected on the front by a curved line of breast works, which were thrown up during McClellan's campaign, two years before, or else had been erected by Sheridan's Cavalry. In this hollow the three battalions of our regiment were massed, about two or three o'clock, preparatory to

t This battle was fought about ten miles North of Richmond.

a charge, which had been ordered by General Meade to take place at five. By this time the field picces of the 1st Division had taken position directly in our rear, while the rebels had batteries directly in our front; and for a long time the solid shot flew back and forth between them, right above our heads, lopping off twigs, limbs, and even large branches, which came crashing down among the ranks. Said Colonel Kellogg to the 1st Battalion, Now, men, when you have the order to move, go in steady, keep cool, keep still until I give the order to charge, and then go arms a-port, with a yell. Don't a man of you fire a shot until we are within the enemy's breast works. I shall be with you.' Even all this, added to a constantly increasing picket fire, and ominous signs on every hand, could not excite the men to any great degree of interest in what was going on. Their stupor was of a kind that none can describe, and none but soldiers can understand. In proof of this, only one incident need be mentioned. Corporal William A. Hosford, then of Company E, heard the foregoing instructions given by Colonel Kellogg, and yet was waked out of a sound sleep when the moment came to move forward.

"Colonel Upton, the Brigade Commander, was in almost constant conference with Colonel Kellogg, giving him instructions how and when to proceed, surveying the ground, and anxiously, but quietly watching this new regiment, which, although it now constituted more than half his command, he had never seen in action. The arrangement of companies and battalions was the same that had been established in the defenses, upon the change from Infantry to Artillery. The following diagram will show the formation at Cold Hardor: