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

412 SIXTY-FIRST REGIMENT. 1864
siderably increased by the return of the men from hospitals, and the assignment of new recruits. On the 16th of April, 1864, Lieutenant Colonel Dawson
was honorably discharged, and Major Crosby was promoted to succeed him,
Captain Robert L. Orr, of company H, being subsequently commissioned Major.
On the night of the 4th of May, the regiment, five hundred strong, crossed
the Rapidan, and at noon of the 5th met and engaged the enemy in the dense
thickets and underwood of the Wilderness. In the face of a hot fire of musketry, it advanced, driving him back for half a mile. At dusk the enemy
attacked in heavy force with the design of turning the right of the line, and
struggled hard to push the regiment from its position, but failed of his pur
pose, and was successfully repulsed. The loss in this first day in the Wilderness, was twelve killed and thirty wounded. Lieutenant Colonel Crosby was
of the latter.
At daybreak on the morning of the 6th, the battle was renewed and the regiment was hotly engaged, suffering severely, Captain Robinson, Lieutenant Brown
and fifteen enlisted men being killed, and Lieutenants Dawson, Hager, Stewart
and Koerner, and forty men wounded. Late at night the enemy again attacked
with considerable show of strength, but was easily repulsed with slight loss to
the regiment. During the following day the men were engaged in digging
rifle pits and at night marched by the left towards Spottsylvania. On the night
of the 8th, whilst advancing through a wood to gain its position in the new
line, company A, Lieutenant Price, and company I, Captain Greene, holding
the right of the regiment, encountered a body of the enemy, who were attempting, under cover of darkness, to gain its rear by a gap which had been left
between it, and the troops upon its right, and a hand to hand engagement ensued, in which the enemy was repulsed, losing two officers and six men captured
with several killed and wounded. The loss in the regiment was one killed,
several wounded, and Lieutenant Caldwell captured. The latter was re-captured at Beaver Dam Station, by the cavalry under Sheridan, arid soon after
returned to his command. During the following day the men hugged closely
their rifle-pits under a heavy artillery fire. Five enlisted men of company D
were killed, and one wounded, by the explosion of a single shell. On the 10th
the regiment moved to the front, and from eleven A. M. until six P. M. was
engaged in skirmishing, when, with the First and Second Brigades, it charged
upon the enemy's works, capturing a battery and a line of rifle-pits; but supports failing to come up in time, it was obliged to retire, losing the advantage
gained. The loss in the Sixty-first was eight killed, wounded and missing.
Lieutenant Lippincott was among the wounded. Remaining in rifle-pits until
the morning of the 12th, the regiment, with the exception of three companies,
which had been sent out upon the picket line, moved to the left, near Spottsylvania, to the position captured from the enemy at early dawn, by the Second
Corps. During the day he made repeated assaults to recover his lost works,
pressing with desperate valor to possess the part known as "the angle," but
was handsomely repulsed in all his efforts. In repelling a single one of these
assaults, the Sixty-first lost ninety in killed and wounded, and during the entire
day one hundred and forty. Colonel Smith, Captains Taylor and Donnelly,
and Lieutenants Clausen, Dean, Parsons and Ryan were numbered among the
wounded. Until the night of the 17th, the regiment was constantly employed
in digging rifle-pits and moving gradually to the left, when it was ordered to
march back to the position fought over on the 12th, and at daylight of the fol