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

408 SIXTY-FIRST REGIMENT. 1862
march, through deep mud and a drenching rain, it arrived, on the evening of
the 5th of May, upon the battle-field, but too late to have much part in the action. The advance up the Peninsula was soon after resumed, the only relief
to its monotony being an occasional reconnoissance. One was made to Bottom's
Bridge, over the Chickahominy, in which companies A, Captain Jacob Creps,
and H, Captain Robert L. Orr, crossed to the right bank, the first troops over,
and another in the direction of White Oak Swamp; but in each failed to meet
the enemy. Finally, on the evening of the 30th. the regiment reached Seven
Pines, and was immediately ordered to the right two miles, to Fair Oaks
Station, where skirmishers were thrown out, who soon found the enemy, and
companies G, Captain Crosby, and H, Captain Orr, were established upon the
picket line. On the morning of the 31st the rain poured down in torrents until
about half past nine, when it ceased, and the enemy attacked. The battle raged
fiercely for nearly two hours on the left of the advance line, when, out-flanked
and over-powered by the weight of numbers, it gave way, and the enemy struck
Couch's Division holding the second line. "No field officer," says General
Abercrombie, then in command of the brigade, "of the Sixty-first Pennsylvania is left to make out the report of that regiment. At twelve o'clock M, I
received notice to warn the men to fall in at a moment's notice. * *
The position of the Thirty-first (Eighty-second) Pennsylvania, Colonel Williams,
was near the railroad, upon the road leading from the station to Richmond;
that of the Sixty-first, Colonel Rippey, near the railroad leading from the depot
to the Chickahominy. The duty assigned to these two regiments was to guard
the crossing at the depot. I received orders at one o'clock to take position
with the First Chasseurs, the Thirty-first, (Eighty-second,) and the Sixty-first
Pennsylvania, and Brady's Battery of the First Pennsylvania Artillery, near
the camp of the Thirty-first, to prevent the enemy from turning our right flank.
Shortly afterwards the Sixty-first was placed in position near the Twenty-third,
then already engaged. * * * The dead of the enemy on the portion of the battle-field occupied by the First Long Island, the Twenty-third and
Sixty-first Pennsylvania, are the proofs I have of the gallantry displayed by
these regiments. The Sixty-first Pennsylvania mourn the loss of all their field
officers, the Colonel killed, the Lieutenant Colonel and Major wounded and
missing." At a little past two o'clock," says General Keyes in his official report, "I ordered Neill's Twenty-third, and Rippey's Sixty-first Pennsylvania
regiments to move to the support of Casey's right. Neill attacked the enemy
twice with great gallantry. In the first attack the enemy were driven back.
In the second attack, and under the immediate command of General Couch,
these two regiments assailed a vastly superior force of the enemy, and fought
with extraordinary bravery; though compelled at last to retire, they brought
in thirty-five prisoners. Both regiments were badly cut up, Colonel Rippey of
the Sixty-first and his Adjutant were killed; the Lieutenant Colonel and Major
were wounded and are missing. The casualities in the Sixty-first amount to two
hundred and sixty-three, and are heavier than in any other regiment in Couch's
Division. * * * The Sixty-first withdrew in detachments, some of
which came again into action near my headquarters."@ The loss fell heavily
upon the Sixty-first. Eleven officers and two hundred and sixty-nine enlisted
menwere either killed, wounded, or missing. Colonel Rippey, Captain Gerard,
*Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. V, Docs. page, 77.