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

490 SIXTY-THIRD REGIMENT. 1862
special duties. In the drill of the regiment, which was practiced daily when
the weather would permit, especial attention was given to promptness and
certainty in all the movements. There were probably few regiments in the
service more thoroughly and accurately instructed than this, and to the knowledge thus acquired is due the good reputation which it subsequently had for
drill and discipline.
A detachment of the regiment consisting of one hundred men, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Morgan, while out upon the picket line beyond the
Occoquan, near Pohick Church, on the night of the 5th of March, 1862, was
attacked by a party of the enemy. A skirmish ensued in the midst of the darkness, in which Captain Charles W. Chapman, of company K, and Quartermaster
James M. Lysle, were killed.
After the transfer of the Army of the Potomac to the Peninsula, the Sixtythird, in the movement upon Yorktown, was posted some two miles from the
town in a low swampy wood. Heavy picket and fatigue duty followed. A
worse camping-ground could hardly have been selected. Much sickness prevailed and many died. Encounters were frequent upon the picket line attended
with some loss, but small compared with that from disease. On the night of
the 4th of May the enemy evacuated his works, and the Union army moved
forward in pursuit, coming up with him securely posted near Williamsburg.
The Third Brigade reached the battle-field late on the afternoon of May 5th,
and after toilsome marching from point to point along the line, was at length
brought into position, but too late to be engaged. On the following morning,
the enemy having retired, the Sixty-third, and One Hundred and Fifth were
ordered to take the advance, the latter deployed as skirmishers, the former
following in column, and were the first troops to enter the town.
A part of the army having crossed the Chickahominy and taken position
at, and a little in advance of Fair Oaks, was attacked by the enemy in large
force on the 31st of May. It was long after the battle commenced, before the
First Division, commanded by General Kearny, received orders to move to
the front. The troops had become impatient at the delay, and when the word
was given to advance, the brigade moved along the railroad, the greater part
of the way at double-quick, arriving at the edge of the woods, through which
the enemy was advancing, greatly fatigued and exhausted by the march. Moving to the left of the Williamsburg Road, and hastily deploying as it reached
the edge of the cleared ground, the regiment hastened forward through thick
underwood and abattis. The One Hundred and Fifth followed closely, the two
regiments crossing and covering the Williamsburg Road, down which the enemy
was moving in column, reaching the position and securing possession of this
important thoroughfare, only by rapid marching and the most signal enterprise.
A moment later and this key point of the line would have been lost. The wood
into which the regiment had advanced was filled with masses of the enemy, and
every tree along his line covered a sharp-shooter. A heavy fire was at once
opened, and until long after nightfall the crash of musketry was unbroken.
Many of the bravest fell and the ranks were soon sadly thinned; but with an obstinacy rarely paralleled, these two regiments held their position, so vital to the
Union left, until darkness intervened. In the meantime the forces on the right
had been less fortunate, the enemy having broken through their lines and driven
them back. By this disaster the enemy was brought upon the rear of the two
regiments, which still held their advanced ground. With ammunition ex