The regiment arrived at Stevensburg, Va., March 24th, and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac (Sheridan’s Cavalry), with which it served until the end of the war. During the summer General Wilson commanded the division and General McIntosh the brigade. March 29th, Sergeant Fish, Company H, was wounded on picket at Grove Church. As he lay helpless on the ground the rebels brutally shot him repeatedly with his own revolver. He received twenty-one wounds and was left for dead, but lived long enough to tell the tale. May 4th the army crossed the Rapidan.
Next morning the First Connecticut, as advance guard, met Longstreet’s advance at Craig’s Church and opened the Wilderness battles on our left. Major Marcy, with about 200 men, reconnoitering, was cut off. As the only chance of escape, he ordered sabers drawn and a charge through the enemy. This feat was most gallantly accomplished, with the loss of about forty men. The division fell slowly back, the First Connecticut covering the rear, to Todd’s Tavern, where it made a stand and checked the enemy.
The terrific infantry fighting of the next two days being ended, the First Connecticut led the advance in Grant’s movement toward Spottsylvania Court House, and early in the morning charged into the town, driving out the enemy there and capturing thirty-five prisoners, mostly infantry; but supports failing to come up, the division presently withdrew. That night the regiment received Spencer’s and Sharp’s carbines in place of the much inferior Smith’s, General Wilson saying it “had earned the right to carry them.”
At daylight on the 9th, stripped of all incumbrances, with one feed of oats in their nose-bags and two days’ hard tack and five days’ salt in their haversacks, the cavalry started on Sheridan’s raid to Richmond. Stuart followed, and engaged us at Beaver Dam Station on the 10th, and on the 11th at Yellow Tavern, where he was killed. On the 12th the corps, with the First Connecticut in the extreme advance nearest the city, fought nearly all day within the defenses of Richmond, withdrawing across Meadow Bridge at night with much difficulty. On the 15th it met supply steamers at Haxall’s Landing on the James, and rejoined the army at Hanover Court House on the 25th. The First Connecticut lost about 150 horses used up on this raid; their riders, except as they took the places of the killed and wounded, being sent to Dismount Camp.
May 31st, at dusk, the brigade charged on foot up a steep slope, driving the enemy at all points. The First Connecticut, which had been on the skirmish-line away from horses and haversacks nearly all day, remained there all night, General McIntosh saying he “must have a regiment there that he could trust.”
The next day, at Ashland; while en route in the woods, the brigade was surprised by an attack in its rear. The First Connecticut had orders to support Fitz Hugh’s U. S. A. mounted battery, and was the only force between it and W. H. F. Lee’s cavalry division. It was a splendid prize, and Lee determined to have it. He charged furiously on the brigade pack-train in the rear of the First Connecticut, stampeding several hundred led horses and mules through the regiment, causing great confusion. But the regiment quickly rallied, and by a gallant counter-charge checked the enemy.
It was a hard fight, a regiment against a division, but with seven distinct rallies in about a mile, now in line and now by counter charge, and at a loss of about one-fifth of its men engaged, the regiment won; time was gained and the battery was saved. Among the killed was the heroic Captain Warner, shot twice before he fell and fighting to the last, and the gallant Color-Sergeant Whipple, shot dead proudly facing the foe. Lieutenant-Colonel Blakeslee being wounded in this fight, Major Marcy assumed command.
The division was now on the extreme right of the army, where it remained on severe duty as rear guard during Grant’s hazardous movement across the James. On June 10th, in one of its many skirmishes, the much-lamented Captain Backus was instantly killed while gallantly leading his men. His body left a short time in possession of the enemy, was stripped by them of everything but his shirt. The division, almost worn out with fatigue, crossed the James on the 17th at 1 o’clock a.m..
From “Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the War of Rebellion, 1861 to 1865″ published by the Connecticut National Guard in 1889.
