TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
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For example Chapter I has “{drop-cap T} HE Thirty Eighth ...”On some handheld devices the first letter is not suppressed and this example will display as“{drop-cap T} THE Thirty Eighth ...”
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THE STORY
OF THE
Thirty Eighth Regiment
OF
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS.
BY
GEORGE W. POWERS.
Cambridge Press:
DAKIN AND METCALF.
1866.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
GEORGE W. POWERS.
In the Clerk’s office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
In the following pages, an attempt has been made to presenta connected and reliable account of the movements of theThirty Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers duringits term of service in the army of the United States. It hasnot been the purpose of the writer to describe the movementsof armies, or chronicle the results of campaigns, exceptto illustrate more fully the doings of the regiment. Evenin the record of battles, he has rather endeavored to confinehimself to the particular part taken by the regiment, thanto any more extended view; and has preferred to give moreprominence to those smaller matters peculiar to its experience.Nothing has been drawn from imagination, and no attemptmade at word-painting. Neither has it been attempted todescribe the scenery of the country, or the manners of thepeople, in the region where the regiment performed its service.The scope of the work would not allow of this.
Where all, or nearly all, did their duty to the best of theirability, it would be invidious to single out a few, and bringthem into prominent notice. Consequently, individual namesseldom occur in the text; and where they do, it is only to[iv]illustrate some movement, or give a clearer idea of the occurrencesalluded to. During thirty-two of the thirty-five months’service here recorded, the writer was constantly with his regiment,and noted down the daily events, for the benefit offriends at home. For the remaining time, including a largepart of the campaign in the Shenandoah, when he was sick inhospital, he is indebted to the letters, diaries, and conversationsof his messmates, Messrs. Joseph G. Bartlett, Richard A.Fitzgerald, and Nathaniel Monroe. He would also return histhanks to Adjutant Wellington, for valuable official papers, andfor assistance, and to Lieut.-Col. Richardson, and CaptainsRundlet, Bennett, Jewell, Howland, and Davis, for the muster-outrolls of