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244 Series I Volume XXVII-II Serial 44 - Gettysburg Campaign Part II

Page 244 N. C., VA., W. VA., MD., PA., ETC. Chapter XXXIX.

hundreds of their members had joined the United States volunteer service, and their uniforms were worn out in the service . Those regiments have done hard and faithful service, and are now reforming, with the prospect of much efficiency. All of which is respectfully submitted .

PHILIP S. CROOKE,

Brigadier-General, Fifth Brigade .

ADJUTANT-GENERAL, STATE OF NEW YORK. -


No. 413. Report of Brig. General Jesse C. Smith, commanding, Eleventh Brigade, New York State National Guard, of operations June 16-July 19.

HDQRS. 11th Brig., NEW YORK STATE NATIONAL GUARD, Brooklyn, December 28, 1863. COLONEL: On the morning of the 16th of June last, at about 9 o'clock, I received a telegraphic order from Governor Seymour, dates June 15, ordering all the regiments in my command to be ready to go to Philadelphia at once on short service . On the 18th, the Twenty-thirds Regiment, Colonel William Everdell, jr., 518 strong ; on the 19th the Fifty-sixth Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel J. Q. Adams, 409 strong, and on the 22d, the Fifty-second regiment, Colonel M. W. Cole, with 325 men, left for Harrisburg, Pa. The promptness, with which regiments responded to the call of the Commander-in-Chief was highly commendable . On the 22nd of June, I received an order from Major-General [Harmanus B.] Duryea, commanding that division, that the Twenty-third, Forty-seventh, Fifty-second and Fifty-sixth regiments, and such other regiments of the Second Division as should thereafter be designed for that purpose, were constituted a brigade under my command during the term of duty, in obedience to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief. On the afternoon, of the 24th of June, I departed for Harrisburg, Pa., with Major Benjamin Haskell, assistant adjutant-general (chief of staff); Captain John Berry, aide-de-camp; Captain Lebbeus Chapman, jr., brigade quartermaster ; Captain Zachariah Voorhies, assistant commissary of subsistence, on my staff . On the morning of the 25th of June, I reported to Major-General Couch, at harrisburg, and afterward, on the same morning crossed the Susquehanna River, and reported to Brigadier-General Hall, then in command of Fort Washington, a newly erected fort of earthworks on the high ground directly opposite Harrisburg . Three of my regiments, the Twenty-third, Fifty-second, and the Fifty-sixth, were then located in and around the fort, having arrived there at different times from the 19th to the 23rd of June . The Forty-seventh Regiment was ordered to Washington, D. C., and did duty in Virginia . On my arrival to take charge of the three regiments of my command, a great state of excitement existed at harrisburg and through the Cumberland Valley, in consequence of the near approach of General Lee's army, and of the daily reports that he was marching on Harrisburg, by way of Carlisle, with a large force .


Page 244 N. C., VA., W. VA., MD., PA., ETC. Chapter XXXIX.