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| “ [155] time, having completed my writing, I returned to bed and fell asleep, saying to myself, ‘I like this better than most things that I have written.’ ” In 1861 the Fifth Vermont lay near Camp Griffin. It was on the outskirts of the encampments in Virginia, near Washington, and consequently subject to attacks by the Confederates. Its career throughout the war is proof that the spirit of the Battle-hymn animated these boys in blue. Its Lieutenant-Colonel, L. A. Grant, who sits on his charger to the right, became famous later as the general commanding the ‘Vermont Brigade.’ To the left is Major Redfield Proctor. Leaving Camp Griffin on March 10, 1862, the regiment moved to the Peninsula. Its name became known at Yorktown and Savage's Station, at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. In the Wilderness campaign, in the battle of May 5th, it assisted in checking the advance of the Confederates along the plank road in time for the Second Corps to take a strong position. It was in the heavy fighting of the succeeding day, and at the ‘Bloody Angle’ at Spotsylvania was engaged for eight hours in the desperate and determined contest. The brigade commander reported: ‘It was empathically a hand-to-hand fight. Scores were shot down within a few feet of the death-dealing muskets.’ After battling all the way down to Petersburg, the Fifth Vermont was suddenly rushed to Washington to repel Early's attack. It then engaged in the thrilling victories of Sheridan in the Valley. In December, it returned to Petersburg and ended its active service only with the surrender at Appomattox. During these four years of service, the regiment lost eleven officers and 202 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded, and one officer and 124 enlisted men by disease. Its total loss was therefore 338, worthy of the famous ‘Vermont Brigade.’ |
