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

574 SIXTY-FIFTH REGIIENT-FIFTH CAVALRY. 1864
tring one brass gaun and fifty-four prisoners. Over one hundred of the enemy,
killed or wounded, were left upon the field. The loss in the Fifth was slight.
Pursuit was continued to within half a mile of Petersburg; but upon being met
by General Beauregard's force, retired in good order. The infantry failing to
come up, the advantage gained was lost.
On the 15th, the cavalry division was ordered to make a second demonstration upon the defences of the city. A fort, which commanded the road leading
to the town, was first flanked and captured. Arriving within sight of the defences, the enemy was met and driven into his works, which were found to be
of too great strength to be carried by assault. The loss was considerable,
Colonel Mix, of the Third New York being killed. Soon after this movement,
Colonel West was assigned to the command of a brigade, Lieutenant Colonel
Kleinz resuming command of the Fifth, and retaining it until its consolidation in May, 1865.
On the 21st of June, the cavalry divisions under Generals Kantz and Wilson
were united, and started upon what is familiarly known as Wilson's raid. On
the 23d, the command reached the junction of the South Side and Richmond
and Danville roads, where two or three hundred of the enemy's wounded were
discovered. The buildings and commissary stores here were destroyed. The
track was torn up from the Junction to Roanoke Station, a distance of fortyfive miles, and the buildings and bridges by the way were effectually destroyed.
During the progress of the work, considerable skirmishing occurred, attended
with some loss; but no determined resistance was met until the command
reached the Station, where the enemy was found entrenched on the south side
of the stream. As soon as the advance, under command of Sergeant Allen of
the Fifth, arrived within range, the enemy opened on him with artillery. General Kautz immediately brought forward his division and the ground was
sharply contested until night-fall. A little before day-break of the following
morning, the 26th, General Wilson ordered the command to withdraw, which
was effected in good order. The enemy followed up and pressed the rear with
great pertinacity. At five o'clock, P. M. of the 28th, the head of the column
reached Stony Creek Station, on the Weldon Railroad, and was at once attacked by the enemy's cavalry. Unable to force the position, General Kautz
was ordered to flank it and march on towards camp. This movement was executed, but not without serious opposition. Upon the arrival of Colonel Spear's
Brigade at Rleam's Station, on the morning of the 29th, General Longstreet,
with a force of ten thousand men with artillery, was found in position ready
to dispute its farther progress, and immediately commenced an attack upon
the column. At the moment that the battle opened in front, the left flank and
rear was assaulted by the enemy's cavalry, under Lee and Hampton. T-he
unequal contest was continued for some time, the brigade losing heavily in
killed and wounded, and in horses and material. Finding it impossible to force
his way through, Kautz ordered Colonel West to take the advance, and make
his way through a swamp with his command. This was successfully accomplished, reaching the lines of the army at dusk of the same day. The regiment
lost in this expedition, about three hundred men, and as many horses, half of
its effective strength. For seventy-two hours previous to the final struggle,
the men had had no sleep nor any thing to eat, and were in no condition for a
conflict even with equal numbers; yet they stood manfully tip to their duty,