History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

1865 APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE. 143
Upon the muster out of service of the Third and Fourth Reserve Regiments, in May, 1864, the veterans and recruits were at first organized into an
independent battalion, which was subsequently united to the Fifty-fourth. On
the 7th of February, 1865, the term of original enlistments having expired, an
order from the War Department directed that the two organizations should
be consolidated under the name of the Fifty-fourth Regiment. This was effected, and the following field officers were commissioned, the original officers
of the Fifty-fourth having been mustered out at the expiration of their terms of
service: Albert P. Moulton, Colonel, William A. M'Dermit, Lieutenant Colonel,
and Nathan Davis, Major. It was assigned to the Second Brigade, Independent
Division of the Army of the James, commanded by General Ord.
On the morning of the 2d of April the regiment was ordered to join in the
general forward movement of the army, and proceeding with the brigade,
crossed the rebel works, near the Boydton Plank Road, now abandoned, and
approached Fort Gregg. Here a spirited resistance was offered, and it was not
until a hot fire of infantry and artillery had been brought to bear upon the
enemy, that he yielded. In this brief engagement the regiment lost twenty
killed and wounded. Major Davis and Lieutenant Cyrus Patton, of company
G, were among the killed. Captain John L. Decker, of company A, succeeded
Davis as major of the regiment.
The rebel army, having been routed from its works about Petersburg, was
retreating rapidly towards the North Carolina border. On the 5th of April,
two regiments, the Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania, and the One Hundred and
Twenty-third Ohio, Colonel Kellogg, with two companies of the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry, Colonel Washburn, were ordered to make a forced march to
High Bridge, and effect its destruction, for the purpose of cutting the enemy's
way of retreat, and delaying his columns. Arrived at Rice's Station, General
Read, of Ord's staff, took command, and when within sight of the bridge made
his dispositions for the attack. Before the column could be formed, word was
brought that the videttes, at Rice's, had been driven; nothing daunted, the
little force promptly attacked. But the enemy had taken ample precautions
for the safety of this, their main avenue of escape, and after a desperate struggle,
in which General Read was killed, Colonels Kellogg and Washburn wounded
and taken prisoners, and a large proportion of the command killed or prisoners, surrounded on all sides by the main columns of the enemy's infantry and
cavalry, it was forced to surrender. The loss of the Fifty-fourth was twentyone killed and wounded. The captives were taken back to Rice's, where, to
their astonishment, they beheld Longstreet's Corps intrenched, having come
up but a few moments after Read's column had passed in the morning.
The attack, though failing in its immediate purpose, subserved the main
end; for Lee's columns were thereby delayed several hours, enabling Sheridan
to sweep around the enemy's rear, and complete the destruction and capture
of that once proud and defiant army. For four days, without rations, the captives marched with the retreating rebel army, when, to their great joy, they
were released from their captivity, and their starving condition, by Grant's
victorious columns. From Appomattox Court House the regiment was sent
to Camp Parole, at Annapolis, Maryland, and, on the 15th of July, was mustered out of service at Harrisburg.