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

1862 ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 947
deeds of heroism, fell General Strong, and Colonel Shaw. The loss of the
Seventy-sixth was seventeen killed and wounded. Among the killed was Lieutenant Seth Thompson, of company'B.
The regiment was now much redgced by battle and by sickness, occasioned
by a life in the trenches. On the 1st of August Colonel Strawbridge was ordered to the command of the post at Hilton Head, and Lieutenant Colonel
Campbell assumed command of the regiment. It remained here for six months
repulsing numerous night attacks from the main land, and engaged in guard,
picket, and scout duty. On the 20th of December Colonel Strawbridge resigned, and Lieutenant Colonel Campbell was promoted to Colonel, Major
John W. Hicks to Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain William S. Diller, of company D, to Major.
In May, 1864, the Tenth Corps was ordered to Virginia, and upon its arrival
was attached t6 the Army of the James. The Seventy-sixth went into camp
opposite Yorktown. On the 5th of May the brigade, now under command of
Colonel Barton, embarked upon transports, and headed as if for an expedition
to West Point and White House; but suddenly changing direction proceeded
down the York, and up the James, landing at Bermuda Hundred. It moved
towards the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad, destroying several miles of the
track, under heavy fire. The rebels were forced back to Drury's Bluff, where
they were reinforced, and the object of the reconnoissance being accomplished,
the brigade was withdrawn. The Seventy-sixth lost sixty-five in killed, wounded
and missing.
Before daylight on the 16th, a dense fog prevailing, the enemy attacked
near Drury's Bluff. The fighting was determined. The assault in front was
repulsed; but the effort to turn our right partially succeeded, and compelled
the troops to retire. Captain Jacob J. Young, of company I, was killed. For
the next four days there was fighting at intervals, but no decisive action.
On the 27th the Eighteenth Corps, and the Second Division of the Tenth
Corps, to which the Seventy-sixth was attached, were detached from the Army
of the James, and moving, by transports, to White House, took position on
the right of Grant's lines, at Cold Harbor. The division attacked at four P.
M. of the 1st of June, and the battle raged furiously, at intervals, until the
3d, with varying success. Four companies of the Seventy-sixth, under Captain
Littell, were ordered to the support of a battery which was posted in advance
of the charging column. The loss in this three days' encounter was heavy.
Captain Littell was wounded through both thighs. On the 14th the division
re-joined the Army of the James, and on the 16th moved on a reconnoissance
on the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, destroying the road and the enemy's works. It proceeded on the 23d to Petersburg, performing picket duty
on the front line of works. During the siege, casualties occurred almost daily.
On the 26th of July Lieutenant William F. Bloss was wounded, from the effects
of which he died.
In the operations which followed the springing of the mine on the 30th,
Corporal Rainey, of company B, was killed by the bursting of a shell, and
Lieutenant Daniel M'Vay, of company A, a gallant young officer, received a
wound in the thigh, of which he died on the 4th of September. At Deep Bottom, from the 14th to the 17th of August, it was engaged in numerous attacks
upon the enemy's works, and on the 20th returned to Bermuda Hundred. The
pickets were driven in on the morning of the 25th, when a detachment of the