Wm. Hewitt, 1860
Wm. Hewitt, First Lieut., 1868
Wm. B. Curtis, Colonel
To the Surviving Comrades and the
Families of the Fallen of the
Old Twelfth this work
is Respectfully
Dedicated
PREFACE
Comrades:
You conferred upon me at our reunion, held at New Cumberland, in 1889,the honor of selecting me to compile a history of the Twelfth. Thematter was taken into consideration afterward by me, and owing in partto the magnitude, burden and difficulty of the proposed task, myinexperience in this kind of undertaking, and because I believed thatthere were other survivors of the regiment much better qualified towrite the history, it was concluded to forego the undertaking. But atour next reunion, because Col. Curtis was disappointed that nothinghad been done in the matter of the history, and was anxious that it bewritten, and for the reason that the comrades present again expresseda desire that I should undertake the work, I promised to attempt itand do the best I could. Laboring under the unavoidable difficultiesthat it has been thirty years since the old Twelfth was making itshistory in the field, the almost total lack of official recordspertaining exclusively to the regiment, and the uncertainty of memoryat this late day, I have tried with reasonable fidelity to fulfill mypromise. In reason more should not be expected.
If you, the survivors of the Twelfth, be pleased with the history,this fact will be a sufficient reward for my labors; but, on the otherhand, if it shall not come up to your expectations, you should becharitable to its faults and short comings, remembering that howevergreat its imperfections you, yourselves, are largely responsible, forthe task was not one of my own seeking, but was rather thrust upon me.
The plan aimed at in writing the history is to not go outside of ourown organization in what is related, except to give a brief account ofthe operations of the various armies to which we belonged, and tointersperse the work with incidents, anecdotes, and matters mainlypersonal to the members of the regiment.
Whatever possible merit may be found in the history is largely due tothe assistance of comrades in furnishing valuable data. Some of themwere quite liberal in their contributions. And where there is failureto make mention of incidents worthy of record, or of daring deeds ofindividuals or detachments, it is because they were not known, or arenot remembered by the compiler. Reasonable effort was made to get allsuch details. A card was inserted in various newspapers, and letterswere written to different comrades asking that they be furnished. Ifcomrades shall fail to find, as no doubt they shall, a record hereinof certain incidents worthy of mention, they will be forbearing towardthe historian when they consider that there is a number of suchmatters herein given that they did not know of or have forgotten.
The comrades will all feel like thanking Mrs. McCaffrey, formerly Mrs.Bengough, wife of the late Lieut. Ben