luggage as well,
were ordered to be left. When, two hours later, on our return we reached
this ground, we found our knapsacks were at the bottom of an earth-work
which had been hurriedly thrown up during our absence, over which a line
of batteries thrust the frowning muzzles of their guns. With one or two
exceptions (where the officer commanding the company happened to have it
in his pocket), the company rolls were lost in the knapsacks of the
first sergeant, whose duty it was to carry it. Thereupon new rolls had
to be made up, and of course mostly from memory. Under all these
circumstances, the wonder is that there are not more errors in them.
Almost at the last moment did I learn that I could include these rolls
in my book, without exceeding its limits under the contract price.
During this time I have endeavored at considerable expense and labor to
get them correct, but even so, I cannot hope that they are more than
approximately complete. Nothing can be more sacred or valuable to the
veteran and his descendants than his war record. The difficulty with
these rolls will be found I fear not so much in what is so briefly
stated, but in what has been inadvertently omitted, and which was
necessary to a complete record. There are a number of desertions. I have
given them as they are on the rolls. It is possible that some of these
men may have dropped out of the column from exhaustion on the march,
fallen sick and had been taken to some hospital and died without
identification. Failing to report at roll-call and being unaccounted
for, they would be carried on the company rolls as "absent without
leave," until prolonged absence without information would compel the
adding of the fearful word "deserted." There were instances where men
taken sick made their way home without leave and were marked deserters.
After recovering from a severe case of "army fever" they returned again
to duty. This was in violation of discipline, and under the strict
letter of the law they were deserters, but they saved the government the
cost of their nursing, and, what is more, probably saved their lives and
subsequent service by their going. I mention these things so that where
the record appears harsh, the reader may know that possibly, if all the
facts had been known, it might have been far different.

FIELD AND STAFF.

RICHARD A. OAKFORD, colonel, mustered in Aug. 22, 1862; killed at
Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862.

VINCENT M. WILCOX, colonel, mus