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

252 FIFTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT. 1864
but did not again become engaged. On the night of the 3d it was placed on
picket, in front of the Second Corps, on the ground where the eneimy had made
his desperate charges, and the dead and wounded commingled, were thickly
strewn on all the field. The loss was twelve killed, forty-five wounded, and
forty-seven missing. General Graham was taken prisoner. Lieutenants Henry
Mitchell and John F. Cox, were killed, Colonel Sides was among the wounded,
and Major Neeper, and Lieutenants Burns, Crossley, and Hines, were among the
captured.
In the march of the army in pursuit of Lee to Williamsport, and in the
subsequent campaigns of the army in the Valley of Virginia, wherein Meade
advanced to Culpepper, and to checkmate his adversary retired to Centreville,
and again advanced to Mine Run, the regiment participated, engaging the enemy'at Auburn Creek, on the 13th of October, at Kelly's Ford, on the 7th of November, and at Locust Grove, on the 26th, and losing in each some men. On
the 2d of December it returned to the neighborhood of Culpepper, where it
went into winter-quarters. Here the question of re-enlistment was much discussed, and on the 24th the regiment was drawn up in hollow square, when
it was briefly addressed by Chaplain M'Adam. Upon the conclusion of his
spirited and patriotic remarks, Colonel Sides reduced square, and ordered all
who desired to re-enlist to step three paces to the front. More than two-thirds
advanced, and after giving three hearty cheers were dismissed. On the 8th
of January, 1864, the regiment departed on veteran furlough, and after an
absence of forty-nine days returned to camp, bringing with it a large number
of recruits.
During the month of March, the First and Third corps were broken up, and
the troops distributed among other corps, the Fifty-seventh being assigned to
the Second Brigade, General Alexander Hays, Third Division, General Birney,
Second Corps, General Hancock. The brigade was composed of the Fiftyseventh, Sixty-third, One Hundred and Fifth, and One Hundred and Forty-first
Pennsylvania, the Ninety-third New York, the Seventeenth Maine, and an independent regiment of Berdan's sharp-shooters.
At midnight of the 3d of May, the regiment broke camp, and with the corps
marched to Chancellorsville, bivouacking for the night on the same ground
over which it fought a year before. On the following morning it moved out,
and after marching and counter-marching, finally struck the Brock Road, and
at four P. M., was hurriedly marched to the crossing of the Brock and Plank
roads, formed in line of battle, and advanced into the woods, the left of the
regiment resting on the right of the Plank Road. Advancing about half a
mile, the enemy was met, and a furious battle opened, which lasted until dark.
The fighting was at short range, and the slaughter, as was evinced by a view
of the field the next morning, was terrible. The loss in this brief engagement
was twenty-two killed, one hundred and twenty-eight wounded and three missing.
Colonel Sides being among the latter, the command of the regiment devolved on
Captain A. H. Nelson, of company K. In the evening the regiment was relieved at the front and rested for the night near the Brock Road. On the following morning it moved out on the Plank Road, nearly a mile beyond the point
where it fought on the previous day, and formed line in the woods to the left
of the road. "The density of the woods,' says Captain Strouse, who was himself severely wounded during the day, "rendered it impossible to maintain a
regular line of battle, so we commenced bushwhacking with the enemy on a