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

1865 PETERSBURG CAMPAIGN. 677
The regiment went into winter quarters at Brandy Station, and early in
January, 1864, a sufficient number of the regiment re-enlisted to entitle it to
continuance as an organization, and the veterans to the usual furlough. Not
long afterwards the Third Corps was broken up, and the Sixty-eighth, with a
considerable portion of it, was consolidated with the Second Corps, General
Hancock. With the return of the veterans and the addition of a number of
recruits, the reginent assumed proportion something like the original. On
the 18th of April, 1864, the regiment under command of Lieutenant Colonel
Winslow, Colonel Tippin being still in confinement, was ordered to the headquarters of General Meade, where it was placed under the immediate command of Brigadier General Patrick, Provost Marshal General of the Army,
and employed in guard duty. In this position it remained until the close of
the war. The duty was onerous and severe. With other regiments in the
same service it was subject to active duty when emergencies required, and in
several instances, at the critical moment of the battle, when the scale was so
evenly poised as to be doubtful which way it would turn, the reserve was sent
to the support of the wavering line and made victory secure. When infantry
was required for duty with the cavalry, in toilsome and fatiguing raids, the reserve was ordered, or when regiments were taken from the intrenchments,
these regiments were obliged to take their places in the works. While in front
of Petersburg, half of the Sixty-eighth was on duty at General Meade's Headquarters, and the balance at City Point. On the 25th of June Colonel Tippin
was exchanged and resumed command of his regiment.
In the last charge made upon the enemy's lines at Petersburg, before the
final move, the regiment, though employed in provost duty, was of the storming party. In the sharp conflict which ensued Major John C. Gallagher was
mortally wounded, and a number of officers and men were lost.
After the capture of Lieutenant General Ewell and his forces at Sailor's
Creek, this regiment, in conjunction with others then constituting the headquarters' brigade, was detailed to guard the prisoners, and proceed with them
to City Point.* The brigade was under the command of Colonel Tippin, and
the order was faithfully executed without the loss of a man.
This duty done, the regiment returned to the headquarters of the army,
having in charge about six thousand recruits that had accumulated at City
Point. It had been but a short time with the moving column, when General
Meade ordered it to proceed, in company with the One Hundred and Fortythird Pennsylvania, to Hart's Island near the City of New York, to have charge
of rebel prisoners confined there. Here it remained until the 9th of June
when it was mustered out of service.
-'~The brigade," says Colonel Tippin, "was under my command. Among the prisoners
wer3 Lieutenant General Ewell, Major Generals Custis Lee, Kershaw, and other prominent
gmnerals of the rebel army, together with about six hundred officers of lesser grade. At a
point on the route where we all rested for a short time, I received a dispatch that General Lee
had surrendered. I communicated the intelligence to Generals Ewell and Custis Lee, but both
doubted its truthfulness. They could not think it possible. In a very short time, and before
leaving our resting place, General Benham came up with his engineer brigade, and gave the
terms of the surrender. Young General Lee dropped his head on his breast, and General Ewell
threw up his arms exclaiming,' The jig is up.'