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

700 SIXTY-NINTH REGIMENT. 1862
holds them as in a vice, yet he must give way soon unless assisted. I am
strong enough to the left of this road. If you will hold this open ground I
don't care how soon they come." I have brought you," said Sumner, " the
Sixty-ninth. Put it where you please; for this is your fight, Hooker." The
regiment was immediately brought up and posted across the field in a slight
depression of the ground, with a battery a little in the rear. Turning to Colonel Owen, General Hooker said, with an expression of utmost determination,
" Hold this position and keep the enemy in check at all hazards." As was predicted the left of M'Call was forced to yield, and the wounded and stragglers
began to pour back to the rear. On pressed the enemy in pursuit. To give
his men assurance Colonel Owen had ordered them to kneel. Soon the rebel
line emerged from the woods within fifty yards, when it was brought to a halt
by a volley from the well poised muskets of the Sixty-ninth. But now the
enemy swarmed out from the woods in masses, and began to extend his line on
either flank of the regiment. It was a critical moment. The order to fix
bayonets and charge was given, and springing to their feet the men rushed on
in the most daring and impetuous manner, driving the enemy in utter rout,
pursuing him beyond his original ground, and holding it undisturbed until midnight, and until withdrawn. General Hooker complimented Colonel Owen on
the field for having made this " the first successful bayonet charge of the war."
The loss was seven killed, twenty-two wounded, and five taken prisoners.*
At midnight the regiment withdrew, and retired to Malvern Hill. Early
on the morning of the 1st of July, it was moved about six hundred yards
from the crest down the slope of the hill, and was posted in rear and in support of a battery. At nine A. M. the rebel batteries opened a hot and well directed fire. At eleven the regiment was moved to the left of the line, where
the division was massed by brigades. At three in the afternoon the brigade
was moved rapidly to the centre, but was there met by General Sumner, and
ordered back to its position on the left, where it remained until eleven when it
commenced the march to Harrison's Landing. On the 2d of August the division was ordered out on a reconnoissance, and moving up by a circuitous route,
approached Malvern Hill by the Quaker Road, with a design of cutting off
and capturing a body of the enemy encamped there. But before it arrived
he had made his escape.
Upon the evacuation of the Peninsula by the army, the regiment moved to
Alexandria by transport, and thence to Centreville, occupying during the
30th the works in front of the town. Here General Howard was assigned
to the command of the brigade. In the engagement at Chantilly the regiment
was disposed in support of batteries which had been posted in a thick underwood commanding the road and the open fields on which the enemy was ad* EXTRACT FROM GENEIRAL HOOKER'S OFFICIAL REPORT.-"About three o'clock the enemy
commenced a vigorous attack on M'Call, and in such force that General Sumner voluntarily tendered me the services of a regiment which was posted in an open field on my extreme right,
and under shelter from the enemy's artillery. This was the Sixty-ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, under Colonel Owen. * * * After great loss the enemy gave way and
were instantly followed with great gallantry by Grover at the head of the First Massachusetts
Regiment, while the Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania, heroically led by Owen, advanced in the open
field on their flank, with almost reckless daring. * * As Colonel Owen has rendered me
no report of the operations of his regiment I can only express my high appreciation of his services, and my acknowledgment to his Chief for having tendered me so gallant a regiment. "Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. V, page 260, Does.